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Don’t we all just live for those moments? Your favorite show or movie has a tender, emotional scene, the screen fades to black, and then you get blasted out of your chair by “HEADON!! Apply directly to the forehead!“. The jarring differences between the volume levels of the programming content and advertisements has been a problem for almost as long as there has been broadcast commercial television. We drew a step — albeit a baby step – closer to a solution this week. The U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1084, the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act“, which is also known by its acronym, the “CALM Act”. (Washington sure does love a good acronym. And apparently they also love some terrible ones, too.) I already covered the details of the act back in October, but it basically requires that commercials be no louder than the average volume of the programming content with which they appear. The bill had 90 co-sponsors signed up, and passed by a voice vote. It’s a step in the right direction, but we’ve still got a long way to go. A companion bill — S 2847 — has been introduced in the Senate, and has been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. At present, it appears that the committee has not yet scheduled any action on the bill. It is possible that the bill will not even get to the Senate for a vote this year; this is just one of more than 100 bills before the committee.
Posted by Alfred Poor, December 18, 2009 5:00 AM
Reader Commentary alfredpoor .. Mr. Poor - - - It IS a genuine travesty {i.m.o.} the manner in which our elected officials in D.C. have managed to relinquish essentially 100% of their Integrity in exchange for their "kick-backs" / graft / free gifts / artificial lifestyles .. etc.. This .. excessive volume .. issue has been on-going ever since color began the initial explosion of In-home Large Display TVs & Could have been dealt with in a single session of Congress that long ago! Instead, it continually gets ... "buried-in-committee" .. dies / comes back yet again, to reappear as someone's Brand New Thought / Idea / Concept as that member prepares to become re-elected to his / her Country Club called laughingly the U.S. " Congress" of the people ....! Such is Life in the USA anymore! eli... I can't believe no one is old enough to remember the days when radio had the same issue. In fact, during the fifties, when I was just getting involved with commercial radio, I can remember the station manager reminding all the DJ's to "crank the level" for certain advertisers, since we were responsible for inserting the carts that contained the commercial in the first place. There were limits, of course, but almost all commercials were broadcast at a higher level than any of the regular content. Admittedly, TV has taken the issue and run with it, but it's been around as long as we've had commercial broadcasting of any kind. And, and don't think the real problem with the legislation has to do with kick-backs, bribes or other "under the table" inducements. I believe until recently when the levels just got blatantly severe, no one was really that concerned. Now that some of the "cable/satellite" channels are just blowing you out of your chair, it's an issue. The House bill got ... It's futile to expect Congress to deliver a solution that isn't full of loopholes. Remember the no-call telephone list? Exceptions were made for political calls and police benevolent associations. I solved the problem with commercial volume on the TV by installing one of the little limiter boxes in the audio line from the TV feeding the receiver and sound system. It does a wonderful job of keeping commercial volume where it should be. When watching movies, there's a little switch on the front panel that disables the device so you have the full dynamics of the movie sound without any limiting. The device is use is by Audiovox and is labeled: "TV Volume Controller". At first I was skeptical that it would work, but it functions perfectly. The only drawback I see is rather minor - sometimes you hear a low click in the audio as the limiting level changes.... Of course, the best solution is to record (almost) everything you watch, and skip through the commercials when you watch them. Loud or not, you don't have to put up with it. On the other hand, if you are forced to watch a live show (sports broadcast, or something important), the "mute" button on the remote works, and pausing the program during the commercial break, then skipping back to live does the trick, too.... More from Alfred Poor
More in Category: General Interest
About Alfred PoorAlfred Poor is a well-known display industry expert, who writes the daily HDTV Almanac. He wrote for PC Magazine for more than 20 years, and now is focusing on the home entertainment and home networking markets. |
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