David Nebenzahl wrote:
Keep in mind this is just me musing about what would be a nice feature
in digital TVs (and converter boxes), not something that actually
exists, so far as I know. The thread on how commercials are inevitably
louder reminded me of another common problem I've noticed: TV stations
have grossly different volume levels. I crank it up for channel 65,
then switch to 7 and the damn speaker nearly burns out.
So what would be nice would be a "volume normalization" function.
Could work lots of ways: easiest to implement, but most difficult for
users, would be a setup option that let you adjust the *relative*
volume level for each channel individually (probably just a simple
+/- slider control). When you tuned to that channel, it would
retrieve this factor and apply it to the current volume setting.
Better for the user, but harder to implement would be an
auto-normalization function that would run when you do a scan (or
rescan) of channels; it would take a short sample (say 5-10 seconds)
of each channel's audio and automatically calculate the normalization
factor, then store it. Of course, this would take a lot longer, and
it's not guaranteed that the sample time would be representative of
that channel's sound level.
This does nothing to alleviate the annoyance of loud commercials; it
would simply be a way of "leveling out" the sound level of TV stations
without requiring legislation, FCC regulation, etc.
You could do all of the above now if you wish and if you are willing to put
up with the inconvenience of running the sound from your TV (or any other
audio appliance) through your computer as long as that appliance has sound
out jacks. Here's how...
1. Get a Winamp 2.x version and install on computer. Winamp bcause it has
myriad plug-ins available.
http://www.winampheaven.net/old.php?major=2
2. Get a DSP (digital signal processor) plug-in that will
compress...dsp_compwide is a good one
http://mpesch3.de1.cc/misc.html
but many others are available at Winamp.
http://www.winamp.com/plugins
Comp/wide is configurable via Winamp preferences.
3. In Winamp's preferences, select line input for "input"; select your DSP
plug-in under "DSP/effect".
4. Sound out from TV to computer line in, computer line out to your
speakers.
You now have even sound.
--
dadiOH
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