FUCK! Why are commercials so goddamn LOUD?? Every time a commercial starts I have an anxiety attack trying to turn the volume down in time. Our flicker has a sticky mute button and if I fail to turn it down in time my parents start yelling “MUTE!!!! MUTE!!!! MUTE BUTTON! MUTE!!!” Which is just as, if not more stressful than the loudness of the commercials themselves. And they wonder why I never want to watch Jeopardy with them.
–I miss you Alex
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2010.
they are by a degree 30+ percent louder to annoy you,on purpose. that way they make sure you see their info/product/whatever. and maybe the next time it comes on, you just might pay attention to it. it is an old ploy, the same as marked down cars and other shit. unless you know the origional price, it was marked up, then crossed out, to make you think you got a deal./never fucking happens, ever.
Actually, the CRTC has some regs coming down the tube to regulate that bullshit. In the meantime, most modern TVs have a setting that “equalizes” the volume, that is to say, it’ll make those commercials nice and normal. Failing that, you have to deal with, I guess, or get a new remote.
My TV doesn’t do that. I have the volume-normalizer set to avoid that. Buy a new TV. or better yet, download your shows to avoid all commercials.
I hate that. I have the volume equalizer on my television as well, but it doesn’t work nearly well enough.
Switching between HD and Standard channels can be kind of jarring, too. Those HDs are loud.
hmmmm PVR box – then you can record your show and skip the bullshit commercials . Can’t wait for the commercial when the slapchop guy shows how slapping hookers works well too !!!
The reason ad volume is higher is so that people who get up to do other things in other rooms while the ads are on can still hear them. Those of us who do not go to other parts of the house during ads must suffer, mute, tape/download, or complain to the CRTC, the first three options being the most successful.
I *heart* my PVR, WH!
I always thought there was a law, and it was that the frequency of the sound was different in commercials. This thread made me think about that, so I thought I’d look it up…
The following in quotes is paraphrased from suite101.com (article in its entirety at): http://primetimetv.suite101.com/article.cf…
“The loudest commercial can never exceed the volume of the loudest part of the program. …this is not so much a legal issue as a matter of physics – a transmitter only has so much power.”
“…(advertisers) are often not interested in nuance or dramatic tension. … The sound is going to be keyed to the maximum allowable volume … the maximum level of such an ad may be no higher than the maximum level of the show, the average level will be higher.”
It gives you a list of things top do to stop advertisers from doing this, but personally, I like hearing my basement level TV loudly proclaiming the virtues of the SLAP-CHOP while I’m in my third floor bathroom…
Me too PK !!!!!! Haven’t really seen a commercial in a long time !!!
YOU’RE GONNA LOVE MY NUTS
HAHA Fizz I seen that bakes the other night and laughed my ass off !!!
AFLAC!
Fizz…that’s the only good part about Vince-the-slapchop-guy’s spiel…too funny…I laugh every time!
The comedy channel is notorious for that! Luckily every south park episode is online soon after it premieres so I don’t have to watch that awful station. They also have a bad habit of saying “up next, the so and so show”. Then the show just doesn’t come on. Not once that entire night.
frig that. I watched nearly the entire season 4 of 24 yesterday… simply because 18 episodes didn’t take 18 hours like they would had I had to watch them with all the fucking commercials. took 12 hours and I’ve got 4 more to go to finish.
Think of that… 24 hour long episodes in 16 hours.
that means 1/3 of the time you are watching tv, they are pushing crap at you you don’t even want to watch.
Even if you’re not privvy to torrenting at least the nbc/ctv/whichever station you like shows their shows as well with only a SINGLE commercial between sections.
watch smart… not hard.
Actually, I just had a conversation two days ago about the volume increase of commercials. It is significantly louder than usual. I actually, on two channels, could not hear the dialogue of the show after turning the volume down on the commercial to a less painful level. Now I remember one of the reasons I stopped watching TV.
maybe i’m getting old…oh wait i am, but i find everything too loud especially the theatre…i am not getting hard of hearing i am getting better of hearing hey hkm…i meant to tell you that i am not fc but french has played a huge part in my life my son speaks french and so does me pa…i usually only speak french to unsuspecting anglos ^^ my apologies for the confusion
My dad, although FC, didn’t speak french either, and he was only Catholic at births, marriage and funerals. = ) In fact, if my last name was not so obviously French, and his side of the family not so stereotypically screwed up, I wouldn’t even consider it = ).
You have a point about age…a few years ago, I could totally shut out noise…now voices raised in excitement (drama) agitates me the hell out of me.
hahaha i love this bitch
When the audio for TV commercials is mastered, they use a compressor/limiter to ensure that although no one single “peak” is above the maximum allowable, all of the “valleys’ at across the frequency spectrum are brought up as well. The result is that the commercial will still pass the CRTC regs for maximum level, but it will sound much more intense.
A normal voice, when speaking, has peaks and valleys of loudness at various frequencies…an annoying ‘ad voice” is all peaks…
A similar technique is used to give “punch” to electric basses, fullness and intensity to vocals etc etc. An extreme example of compression is a distorted guitar.
So think of those noisy car commercials as the Hendrix of marketing…
what if your parents had an “accident ” then you could watch tv and not be all stressed out:)
Huh makes sense BMF – now i get it !
martym, accidents can happen, if you plan them right.
yep nothing like good old fashioned premeditated “accidents” to get the job down; oops now how did that anvil get on top of the door silly me:)