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HDTV Almanac - Turn Down the Sound!
by Alfred Poor on February 1, 2010 Categories: General Interest

I have reported previously on the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act”, or CALM, which has been passed by the House of Representatives and now is in the hands of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. However, we don’t have to wait for federal legislation to do something about the large variations in sound levels between television programming and the commercials that are inserted throughout them.

Last month, SRS Labs reported that their “TruVolume” technology is now at work in 30 million individual consumer electronic devices. More than 3,500 products use TruVolume, including HDTV televisions, set-top boxes, and soundbars. It is also found in automotive and mobile products. Samsung and Vizio are two of the companies that use SRS technology in many of their flat screen televisions. SRS also has offers a Analog Volume Leveling Adaptor, an accessory that sells for less than $50 and can add automatic volume control to televisions that don’t have the feature. (There is also an HDMI version that sells for less than $100.)

The Analog Volume Leveling Adapter from SRS sells for less than $50 and can automatically smooth the differences between program and commercial volume levels.

I believe that technology is the correct way to solve the problem, as opposed to invoking a new federal law or additional regulations. It puts the viewers in control of just how much — or how little – variation in volume levels is acceptable, rather than have some branch of government make that determination for them.

Posted by Alfred Poor, February 1, 2010 5:00 AM

Reader Commentary

Reply
videograbber • Feb 1, 6:29pm
Strange. Very strange.

I'm all in favor of keeping control in end-user hands. And I don't like more legislation, when we can possibly get away without it. But the approach you're advocating is:

a) have broadcasters/advertisers spend $$$ for technology to raise the volume to get your attention, and

b) have consumers spend $50 x (millions of homes) for a circumvention-device (aka, volume leveler) to restore balance again.

What's wrong with this picture? Maybe it's just me, but I'd say that when one group (producers) takes actions that are offensive to another group (consumers), it's a lot more efficient to just have a law that says "don't do that". Now, granted, it would be better if they simply did so voluntarily, in response to consumer feedback. But lacking that, a law isn't a bad solution.

OTOH, forcing viewers to purchase 100 million $50 devices in self-defense will definitely be a bigger boost to the economy than simply forcing advertisers to rotate the knob co...
Reply
chester • Feb 1, 9:50pm
Look... I get AT LEAST as pissed off by the loud commercials as anyone else.

And, yeah the techno remedy SOUNDS good... until you HEAR it???

But look... it's a DUMB BOX!!! It's just a stupid COMPRESSOR!

It doesn't know an obnoxious, screaming lawyer's commercial, from the REAL dynamics of REAL programming!

I REFUSE to give up the dynamics in the well produced modern programming. It took way too long to get decent sound on TV & I'm finally LIKING it!

Any TV I set up WILL have its compressor turned OFF!

I think that this legislation is WAY overdue (by about 50 years). BRING IT ON!...
Reply
alfredpoor • Feb 2, 4:49am
Churchill once described democracy as the worst form of government, aside from all the other ones that have been tried. I think we're in the same situation here.

Tim and Chester, you both make good points. Yes, the SRS technology is ultimately a compressor which reduces the dynamics of the sound track. Imagine how awful a symphony would sound at a constant volume. And it's likely to introduce audible artifacts, especially for the louder portions that get clipped.

But how do you think broadcasters will respond to the federal requirements? They'll be the ones tasked with compliance, and they'll continue to get amped up commercials. They'll just slap a compressor in the line to make sure that they are in compliance.

Now, in defence of the compressor approach; at least 90% of the affected content will be commercials, so I don't really feel too bad about that. And since the compression circuitry is already built into millions of devices (at a cost that I expect is less than $5, as ...
Reply
hislonv • Feb 2, 6:28am
OR you could just turn on the "midnight mode" or "RF" mode in your Dolby Digital decoder and do the same thing. That solution has been around since the inception of Dolby Digital and doesn't cost anything extra to anyone. And the stations could set the program levels correctly and/or the dialog level to accomplish the necessary level balances to eliminate the problem. It doesn't take an act of Congress to solve this issue. It requires broadcasters to take action. The old analog stations used compressors to give you a very small dynamic range signal. They doubled as overmodulation protectors. They aren't necessary in digital broadcasts. 6 dB of headroom became 20 dB in digital. Nobody said it all had to be used, but "louder is better" seems to be the motto of advertisers. Just say NO! should be the motto of broadcasters....
Reply
dalelpuckett • Feb 4, 5:30pm
Is there any way to level out the differences in the sound volume between the HD channels and the SD channels on Dish. I have a VIP-622. I saw the volume leveler article recently but I read that it won't work with the Dolby 5.1 sound which I don't want to lose on the movie channels. Thanks, Dale...

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About Alfred Poor

Alfred 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.