"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:43 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules


I'm curious if this already started. I've noticed for months now that
commercials are not as loud as before. I do hear a slight difference
in volume from one channel to another, but not significant enough to
bother me.

Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

"HeyBub" wrote:
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

I wonder if the FCC requirement applies to Internet commercials/advertising
also?

Per HeyBub:
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks.

I'm still amazed to hear that people still listen to commercials
- especially political ones, but commercials in general.

It's been so many years since I've listened to more than 10
seconds of *any* commercial I can't even recall.

The Mute button has been available longer than a lot of viewers
have been alive, not to mention Tivo and the various PC-based
functional equivalents.

I must be out of touch because I would think that the whole
TV/advertising paradigm should have been in big trouble by now.

--
Pete Cresswell

On Dec 13, 9:37*am, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Per HeyBub:

But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks.

I'm still amazed to hear that people still listen to commercials
- especially political ones, but commercials in general.

It's been so many years since I've listened to more than 10
seconds of *any* commercial I can't even recall.

The Mute button has been available longer than a lot of viewers
have been alive, not to mention Tivo and the various PC-based
functional equivalents.

I must be out of touch because I would think that the whole
TV/advertising paradigm should have been in big trouble by now.

--
Pete Cresswell


It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact
DVR's is having on advertisers. I have TIVO and for a'
decade now I've watched probably 95% of my TV time
delayed, skipping commercials. I agree with you that
you would think it must be having a significant impact
by now.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:43 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

Well meaning laws often end up causing other issues. I've noticed
quite a few commercials lately that have a period of silence. When
that is unexpected, it actually makes people look at the TV to see
what's wrong. Even after getting used to it, will that let the
advertisers play the rest of the commercial at a louder volume,
becasue the average will still be below the limit?

Per :
It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact
DVR's is having on advertisers.

My prediction would be that commercials will become less
intrusive and more entertaining.

When we used to visit the in-laws in Germany years and years ago,
for some reason commercials were not played during shows.

Instead, all the commercials were lumped back-to-back during a
certain time of day.

Sounds crazy, but those commercials were entertaining in and of
themselves and people actually used to watch them.

--
Pete Cresswell

On 12/13/2012 6:44 AM, HeyBub wrote:
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules



It became law in Germany years ago and Magnavox had an automatic volume
limit as a feature in their TV sets but I haven't noticed it lately. ^_^

TDD

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:44:39 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per :
It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact
DVR's is having on advertisers.

My prediction would be that commercials will become less
intrusive and more entertaining.

Do you like burgers?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AdViveJYD0

My kind of commercial, I say.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:

I'm curious if this already started. I've noticed for months now that
commercials are not as loud as before.

I always wondered why automatic gain control (AGC) didn't lower
the loud commercial volumes automagically.

Isn't that what ACG is supposed to do?

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:22 -0800, wrote:

It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact DVR's is
having on advertisers.

This might be an example of the more entertaining of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_0afWepgRI

On 12/13/2012 1:23 PM, Danny D. wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:

I'm curious if this already started. I've noticed for months now that
commercials are not as loud as before.

I always wondered why automatic gain control (AGC) didn't lower
the loud commercial volumes automagically.

Isn't that what ACG is supposed to do?


Magnavox had an automatic volume level control feature on their sets at
one time. ^_^

TDD

On Thursday, December 13, 2012 9:44:22 AM UTC-5, wrote:
It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact
DVR's is having on advertisers. I have TIVO and for a'
decade now I've watched probably 95% of my TV time
delayed, skipping commercials. I agree with you that
you would think it must be having a significant impact
by now.

Just seeing the products and logos as they whizz by in fast forward has just as much of an effect on the average consumer as a 15-second commercial.

Bet if you speed through a commercial break on the DVR, you can name at least three products that were advertised during that break even though you didn't hear a word.

Per :
Just seeing the products and logos as they whizz by in fast forward has just as much of an effect on the average consumer as a 15-second commercial.

Bet if you speed through a commercial break on the DVR, you can name at least three products that were advertised during that break even though you didn't hear a word.

With disc-based DVRs the viewer does not see anything because it
jumps a set amount of time rather than fast-forwarding. Fast
Forward is typically also available, but is not something one
would use to skip commercials. _Personally I don't think I've
ever used it except accidentally.

Typically there are two programmable buttons: "Long Jump" and
"Short Jump".

I've got mine set to 1 minute and 10 seconds respectively.

Commercial comes, I typically hit 1-minute 5 times and then skip
back a few 10-second jumps. You get a feel for the commercial
lengths on various shows.

OTOH, some products (MythTV is one) have add-ons that somehow
spot commercials and never even record them. I used to use
MythTV and can testify that the auto-skip-commercials thing
works.
--
Pete Cresswell

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

Don't bet on it. I see (on an O scope) and hear that the programming is
getting the odd bit of audio added that raises the technical level of the
program audio. when the commercial come along those element are not present
so the 'message' audio is at a higher level.

I'm glad to see that they're finally getting rid of those loud commercials. It was annoying to have to continuously adjust the volume to account for the commercials being louder than the rest of the programming.

Does anyone know how many minutes of commercials TV networks are allowed to run during the day. Sometimes you sit down to watch TV and there's nothing but commercials on.

"HeyBub" wrote:
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

Without looking, the article specifies average volume, which means nothing
to me.
You can keep peak level equal, within 3 db, etc. Average is another thing,
which also depends on compression levels. I would have to read the FCC
data.

I originally started using automatic volume controllers because the cheap
comcast cable had wide rage of volumes between channels. It's ok today. I
used to make and buy various controllers, including feeding through VCR's
automatic volume circuitry. I also used them to feed widely varying mp3's
volume.

It's been annoying the commercial volume often went up close to 10 db, or
twice the loudness. About time.

Greg

On Dec 13, 7:01*pm, nestork wrote:
I'm glad to see that they're finally getting rid of those loud
commercials. *It was annoying to have to continuously adjust the volume
to account for the commercials being louder than the rest of the
programming.

Does anyone know how many minutes of commercials TV networks are allowed
to run during the day. *Sometimes you sit down to watch TV and there's
nothing but commercials on.

--
nestork

the problem is that the the "solution" the stations are using is
instead of lowering the commercial average loudness to match the
shows, they are compressing the shows to make them louder to match the
commercials so now EVERYTHING IS COMPRESSED AND LOUD ALL THE TIME and
sounds terrible even if you turn down the volume. Its not about the
peak levels, those are well controlled, its more about the density of
the sound.

Google "loudness wars" the same thing has happened to CDs in the
recording industry.

Mark

nestork wrote:
I'm glad to see that they're finally getting rid of those loud
commercials. It was annoying to have to continuously adjust the
volume to account for the commercials being louder than the rest of
the programming.

Does anyone know how many minutes of commercials TV networks are
allowed to run during the day. Sometimes you sit down to watch TV
and there's nothing but commercials on.

I find generally that most hour programs are about 40 minutes long. I love the
commercial skip feature on the program BeyondTV that I use, although I wouldn't
necessarily recommend it to someone new because the company that sells it is no
longer making improvements.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

On Dec 13, 6:44*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely..
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...ials-outlawed-...

The FCC has granted extensions of time for smaller cable networks and
distributors to comply with the new rules.

Also, it is the "density" of the sound that is to be partially
controlled, not just the peak amplitude. If you are of an engineering
bent, read the actual FCC ruling to understand what it is that is
supposed to be happening.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:06:56 -0800 (PST), Mark
wrote:

On Dec 13, 7:01*pm, nestork wrote:
I'm glad to see that they're finally getting rid of those loud
commercials. *It was annoying to have to continuously adjust the volume
to account for the commercials being louder than the rest of the
programming.

Does anyone know how many minutes of commercials TV networks are allowed
to run during the day. *Sometimes you sit down to watch TV and there's
nothing but commercials on.

--
nestork

the problem is that the the "solution" the stations are using is
instead of lowering the commercial average loudness to match the
shows, they are compressing the shows to make them louder to match the
commercials so now EVERYTHING IS COMPRESSED AND LOUD ALL THE TIME and
sounds terrible even if you turn down the volume. Its not about the
peak levels, those are well controlled, its more about the density of
the sound.

Google "loudness wars" the same thing has happened to CDs in the
recording industry.


Is that compression the thing that makes some TV shows have such loud
background music you can't hear the conversations the actors are
having?

I can't believe how much background conversation completely
disappears. I notice it on all the CSI's- some ABC show, and an
HBO & Show time series. [Boardwalk Empire has *a bunch* of stuff going
on that I'd never know about without closed captioning]

Jim

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

I watch GMA every morning. It is on from 7-9 here. I turn it on
at 8 and often have to watch it live by 9. I ff through
commercials, weather, and the 'we're going to tell you what we're
going to tell you' segments. . . and Nancy Grace.

Jim

"Jim Elbrecht" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:06:56 -0800 (PST), Mark
wrote:


Google "loudness wars" the same thing has happened to CDs in the
recording industry.


Is that compression the thing that makes some TV shows have such loud
background music you can't hear the conversations the actors are
having?

I can't believe how much background conversation completely
disappears. I notice it on all the CSI's- some ABC show, and an
HBO & Show time series. [Boardwalk Empire has *a bunch* of stuff going
on that I'd never know about without closed captioning]


Oh good.
I'm not the only one who has a problem with that.
I actually stopped watching most current TV programming specifically because
the annoying "background music" is in fact foreground noise that completely
mask just about ALL conversation between the actors.
It's really bad when they run the bass for dramatic effect.
Too bad that all that dramatic effect eliminates the ability to follow
the story,

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

I have a DVR. If I recorded all the shows I like or want to check out
to see if I like, I would always be in front of the TV.

Some movies I like to watch more than a few times I keep on the DVR.

Usually, I'm flipping through the news, and not long after that I'm
fast asleep.

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

I have a DVR. If I recorded all the shows I like or want to check out
to see if I like, I would always be in front of the TV.

Some movies I like to watch more than a few times I keep on the DVR.

Usually, I'm flipping through the news, and not long after that I'm
fast asleep.

1) I don't have cable or satellite simply because I'm not willing to pay
money for all the garbage that would come into my house
2) I get enough with an antenna to satisfy my limited needs
3) Even so, most of what comes in is pretty close to garbage anyway.

But for the few shows that I like, such as :
NCIS (the original)
I can't hear half of what is said because it's masked by the "mood music"
(ptui).
So I stopped watching it.

I'm actually thinking of running the audio signal through an equalizer to
filter out some of the bothersome frequencies

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:27:40 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:22 -0800, wrote:

It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact DVR's is
having on advertisers.

This might be an example of the more entertaining of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_0afWepgRI

....not safe for work

Per Bob F:
I find generally that most hour programs are about 40 minutes long. I love the
commercial skip feature on the program BeyondTV that I use, although I wouldn't
necessarily recommend it to someone new because the company that sells it is no
longer making improvements.

Likewise SageTV got bought out by Google and isn't selling any
more licenses or hardware.

I know a few people who swear by MythTV. Tried it myself for
awhile, but ran afoul of Linux and SQL Anywhere's security
settings. But others say they can't imagine what I'm talking
about... so go figure.

I also have heard from a few who use Microsoft Media Center and
are reasonably satisfied with it. I think Microsoft Media
Center is pre-packaged with at least one of the versions of
Windows 7.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 12/14/2012 2:05 PM, Attila Iskander wrote:

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

I have a DVR. If I recorded all the shows I like or want to check out
to see if I like, I would always be in front of the TV.

Some movies I like to watch more than a few times I keep on the DVR.

Usually, I'm flipping through the news, and not long after that I'm
fast asleep.

1) I don't have cable or satellite simply because I'm not willing to
pay money for all the garbage that would come into my house
2) I get enough with an antenna to satisfy my limited needs
3) Even so, most of what comes in is pretty close to garbage anyway.

But for the few shows that I like, such as :
NCIS (the original)
I can't hear half of what is said because it's masked by the "mood
music" (ptui).
So I stopped watching it.

I'm actually thinking of running the audio signal through an equalizer
to filter out some of the bothersome frequencies


I don't watch TV anymore, I watch shows on The Internet on my schedule,
not that of the television networks. I remember having to organize my
life around the schedule of someone else if I wanted to watch a
particular TV program. I love The Internet for the freedom it gives me
to live in my own time. ^_^

TDD

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:43 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

Yes, the law was passed about two years ago, became effective a year
ago, and gave them a year to do it. I've been eagerly looking
forward to this. I'm tired of adjusting the volume, even in the
bedroom where I put in a wired volume control with a knob (a lot
easier to use than the remote. I use an add-on speaker with better
sound than the built-in speaker.)

For years I haven't been able to fall asleep to the tv because the
commercials were so loud, and sometimes the radio has nothing on it.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:23:41 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:

I'm curious if this already started. I've noticed for months now that
commercials are not as loud as before.

I always wondered why automatic gain control (AGC) didn't lower
the loud commercial volumes automagically.

Isn't that what ACG is supposed to do?

Yes, but I have heard that the commercials are louder in one's ear
because of style of speech they use, so they seem louder, but they're
not electronically louder. OTOH, that's not what I heard when this
law was passed. I think they were already supposed to limit the
volume of commercials and the news said that they made it the same as
the last minute, or 45 seconds of the tv show that was playing, and
now they were going to have to make the commercials the same volume as
the last 10, 15, ???, maybe minutes of the show. I guess the shows
cooperated by increasing their volume for the last minute. All of
this implies the volume is louder electronically and what I started
this paragraph with isn't true.

I hope someone in this thread explains it.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

Yes I do that. And I often watch the recording while I'm recording
it. I tune in 5 or 10 minutes after the timer starts the recording,
but play the recording from the beginning. Then I can FF forward
through the commercials. I usually replay a couple minutes of each
show so that puts me further behind, so more room to FF.

On Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:05:34 -0600, " Attila Iskander"
wrote:


"Oren" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:01:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:01:51 -0800, Oren wrote:




Seems now, you can't channel-surf to get past commercials. When a
commercial comes on I flip to the previous channel and it also has
commercials at the same time. Fix one thing and they change another...

groan

Easy to fix. Get a DVR and record the shows you want to watch. Just
FF through them and watch a one hour show in about 40 minutes with NO
commercials. About the only thing we watch in real time is the news.,
even that is delayed if we are eating dinner.

I have a DVR. If I recorded all the shows I like or want to check out
to see if I like, I would always be in front of the TV.

Some movies I like to watch more than a few times I keep on the DVR.

Usually, I'm flipping through the news, and not long after that I'm
fast asleep.

1) I don't have cable or satellite simply because I'm not willing to pay
money for all the garbage that would come into my house
2) I get enough with an antenna to satisfy my limited needs

About 2 months ago, ME-TV started in Baltimuore, as a broadcast
station, 11.2. In the 60'st there were about 3 hours a night of tv I
liked, 8 to 11PM. But now maybe 20 of the 24 hours on this station
are good, shows from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Some violence, but all
of them "clean".

I hope the network spreads to every city.

There are also THIS tv and the Bounce channel playing old movies on
Broadcast Except for Law & Order and People's Court, I've given up
watching anything that's not a rerun from years ago. I think THIS TV
has Law & Order eplisodes from 20 years ago.

3) Even so, most of what comes in is pretty close to garbage anyway.

But for the few shows that I like, such as :
NCIS (the original)
I can't hear half of what is said because it's masked by the "mood music"
(ptui).
So I stopped watching it.

I'm actually thinking of running the audio signal through an equalizer to
filter out some of the bothersome frequencies

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:02:44 -0600, Fred wrote:

"HeyBub" wrote:
"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

I wonder if the FCC requirement applies to Internet commercials/advertising
also?

I sort of doubt it.

My friend says there even louder than TV commercials, but it's only
been a day and she hasn't said if they've changed.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 09:37:03 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per HeyBub:
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks.

I'm still amazed to hear that people still listen to commercials
- especially political ones, but commercials in general.

It's been so many years since I've listened to more than 10
seconds of *any* commercial I can't even recall.

The Mute button has been available longer than a lot of viewers
have been alive, not to mention Tivo and the various PC-based
functional equivalents.

If I used Mute, I'd forget to turn the sound on when the show started
again. I usually read the newspaper or work on the computer while
I'm watching tv, so I won't know when the show restrarts.

But I pretty much timer-record everything I watch, so I can watch it
when I want to.

I must be out of touch because I would think that the whole
TV/advertising paradigm should have been in big trouble by now.

Sometimes I wonder if FFing through the commercials, digitally, has
any effect on me. I don't buy most of the things they advertise.

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:44:39 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per :
It's an interesting question what the extent of the impact
DVR's is having on advertisers.

My prediction would be that commercials will become less
intrusive and more entertaining.

I've read that alt hough people like funny commercials, they're not
good at seling the product.

When we used to visit the in-laws in Germany years and years ago,
for some reason commercials were not played during shows.

Instead, all the commercials were lumped back-to-back during a
certain time of day.

Sounds crazy, but those commercials were entertaining in and of
themselves and people actually used to watch them.

On Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:33:57 -0600, " Attila Iskander"
wrote:


"Jim Elbrecht" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:06:56 -0800 (PST), Mark
wrote:


Google "loudness wars" the same thing has happened to CDs in the
recording industry.


Is that compression the thing that makes some TV shows have such loud
background music you can't hear the conversations the actors are
having?

I can't believe how much background conversation completely
disappears. I notice it on all the CSI's- some ABC show, and an
HBO & Show time series. [Boardwalk Empire has *a bunch* of stuff going
on that I'd never know about without closed captioning]

I don't know if it relates to compression, but I have the same
problem. I especially notice it on Law & Order, which is NBC,. and
there have been other shows too on occasion.

It also doesn't help that I record 90% of what I watch on a DVDR with
hard drive, and I use the most space-saving method, SLP I think, so
replay is surely worse than live. Sometimes whole syllables are
missing.

Oh good.
I'm not the only one who has a problem with that.

That's exactly my reaction to what Jim said. I went to an ear doctor
this year, at age 65, for the first time in my life (unless they
tested us in grammar school), and a pretty girl played tones in my
ears, and they said I have some hearing loss, but the biggest problem
is with the background music, and you two make me think that's the
tv-show's fault and not mine.

I lalso find I can understand men better than women on the radio,
especailly the BBC, where the hosts have British accents and t he
guests are sometimes from India, Kenya, South Africa etc. and are even
harder to understand. .

I actually stopped watching most current TV programming specifically because
the annoying "background music" is in fact foreground noise that completely
mask just about ALL conversation between the actors.
It's really bad when they run the bass for dramatic effect.
Too bad that all that dramatic effect eliminates the ability to follow
the story,

I think Lqw & Order didnt' do this when it started 20 years ago, and
may have stopped. I noticed it most 4 to 2 years ago. I'll pay more
attention.

On Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:15:55 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:


I also have heard from a few who use Microsoft Media Center and
are reasonably satisfied with it. I think Microsoft Media
Center is pre-packaged with at least one of the versions of
Windows 7.

What was amazing to me is that if you didn't buy it with XP, if you'd
never even heard of it (as was the case with me), you couldn't get it
as an add-on later, even for money.

Is it still t hat way with Win 7?

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:31:29 -0500, Pat wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:44:43 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely.
But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission
rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those
excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your
sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not,
however, get those damn kids off your lawn.) Adopted a year ago Thursday,
the rules "will require commercials to have the same average volume as the
programs they accompany," the FCC says. "

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012...awed-fcc-rules

Well meaning laws often end up causing other issues. I've noticed
quite a few commercials lately that have a period of silence. When

It's not just very lately. I'm sure that was going on more than 2
years ago. We all watch different shows in different cities and are
exposed to different commercials. But I haven't seen one with the
slience for at least a year.

that is unexpected, it actually makes people look at the TV to see
what's wrong. Even after getting used to it, will that let the
advertisers play the rest of the commercial at a louder volume,
becasue the average will still be below the limit?

I didnt think the new law was based on averages within the commercial,
only the average volvume of the tv show it self before the commerical.
But I could be wrong.

On Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:38:26 -0500, micky
wrote:


that is unexpected, it actually makes people look at the TV to see
what's wrong. Even after getting used to it, will that let the
advertisers play the rest of the commercial at a louder volume,
becasue the average will still be below the limit?

I didnt think the new law was based on averages within the commercial,
only the average volvume of the tv show it self before the commerical.
But I could be wrong.

I also havent' read the mother jones article yet. I plan to.