In article ,
Ross Herbert wrote:
I've been a sound engineer for over 30 years. I know what loud is, and
I know what compression sounds like.

I have both free-to-air channels and cable TV. When watching cable and
the ads come on my wife looks up from her crocheting and says "you
don't have to turn the volume up"......

Not to dismiss your extensive experience in sound engineering, it
seems that it doesn't matter how the broadcast gets to you, the ads
still appear to be "louder". Maybe your cable TV company does try to
reduce the apparent level of ads.

It's quite enlightening that near everyone talks about ads being 'too
loud' rather than the progs being too quiet. Shows really where they're
coming from. And that, as I said, it's very much down to the individual
how much they annoy. Which makes it near impossible to satisfy everyone.
Except the advertisers who are the paymasters.

Here in the UK we have the BBC which is licence fee funded. So doesn't
carry commercials. But it does carry adverts for its own programmes etc
and these are equally as guilty of often sounding louder than the progs
either side. Only real advantage is they don't interrupt the programme.

--
*Who is this General Failure chap anyway - and why is he reading my HD? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.