Turning down the volume on TV commercials

[California Girl]

Cut Paulie some slack here Ravs. It's perfectly reasonable to be of the opinion that this is an unnecessary waste of time. I might disagree, but at least that position is defensible. It's the idea that it's somehow unconstitutional that is absurd. I guess I might have missed it, but so far I haven't seen Paulie make that claim.

Where in the Constitution does it give government the power to regulate it?

fyi


The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress. It is common to see the Commerce Clause referred to as "the Foreign Commerce Clause," "the Interstate Commerce Clause," and "the Indian Commerce Clause," each of which refers to a different application of the same single sentence in the Constitution.

I see nothing about the volume of adverts.

 

[Anguille]

Paulie, I don't buy their products

Stealing cable is illegal...

He was talking about the products being advertised.

 

[California Girl]

Where in the Constitution does it give government the power to regulate it?

fyi


The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress. It is common to see the Commerce Clause referred to as "the Foreign Commerce Clause," "the Interstate Commerce Clause," and "the Indian Commerce Clause," each of which refers to a different application of the same single sentence in the Constitution.

And here:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble_to_the_United_States_Constitution#cite_note-0 promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I hope you're kidding. I'm gonna assume you're not that stupid.

 

[Anguille]

Advertisers don't have rights?

Not at the expense of others' rights.

Are they preventing you from pushing mute or turning the damned tv off and picking up a book without pictures for the first time in your life?

You may think that repeating idiocies over and over again like a broken record or an annoying commercial that broadcasts at high volume will somehow hypnotize people thinking you are right. But most people will just hit the mute button for your posts.

 

[Paulie]

No matter how much some of you might think I favor big business, you're sorely mistaken. I'd LOVE to see the people defeat them. I simply don't think the people have what it takes to get something like that done. That's why they go crying to congress to do it FOR them.

Come on Rav, go do it.

Hey clueless, this is what democratic government is, people getting together to defeat tyranny. Crying to congress, as you call it, is the the people taking steps to defeat big business.

But you and I differ on what Congress' role ultimately is.

Nice name-calling, too. It definitely becomes you.

 

[Anguille]

Nice name-calling, too. It definitely becomes you.

I thought Jersey boys were tough.

 

[Paulie]

Nice name-calling, too. It definitely becomes you.

I thought Jersey boys were tough.

Not THAT tough, Ang

 

[Anguille]

Nice name-calling, too. It definitely becomes you.

I thought Jersey boys were tough.

Not THAT tough, Ang

Okay, I take it back, Paulie, You have a clue or two.

 

[Paulie]

I thought Jersey boys were tough.

Not THAT tough, Ang

Okay, I take it back, Paulie, You have a clue or two.

Aww shucks

 

[☭proletarian☭]

Paulie, I don't buy their products

Stealing cable is illegal...

He was talking about the products being advertised.

Speaking in the third person or sharing the account?

 

[☭proletarian☭]

Not at the expense of others' rights.

Are they preventing you from pushing mute or turning the damned tv off and picking up a book without pictures for the first time in your life?

You may think that repeating idiocies over and over again like a broken record or an annoying commercial that broadcasts at high volume will somehow hypnotize people thinking you are right. But most people will just hit the mute button for your posts.

So the answer to my question is 'no, they're not preventing me from pushing the button; I'm just too stupid to do so'?

 

[Anguille]

Stealing cable is illegal...

He was talking about the products being advertised.

Speaking in the third person or sharing the account?

Paulie was talking about the products being advertised. No one is discussing sharing an account. sheesh!

 

[Ravi]

Careful, Angie. This dolt makes RGS look intelligent.

 

[BridgieBridge]

Grow the fuck up and turn off the tv.

You are quite nasty, and it's quite uncalled for.

I got yer point . . . was just making mine.

Have you ever tried a 'white noise' machine? Or even a fan? When my son was little I used to turn a fan on because it was summer and hot and he always slept better when it was on. He was/is a light sleeper. 16 years later the fan still goes on at night for background noise. Also did you ever try this? It's available in most drug or grocery stores, is safe, no side effects and it works to quiet restless minds (if that's what's keeping you from sleeping).

Quietude® combines homeopathic medicines traditionally used to treat sleeplessness and restless sleep. Homeopathic medicines are made of very dilute substances and are regulated as drugs by the FDA.
Quietude® is made by Boiron, world leader in homeopathy. For more than 70 years, Boiron has been committed to funding scientific research and education the public and health care officials about homeopathic medicines.

Made according to the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States.

Buy Boiron Quietude, for Sleeplessness and Restless Sleep Online at drugstore.com

I do use a fan in the summer, but my house gets very cold in the winter. I am a light sleeper also, and yes when i lay down and close my eyes, the thoughts start racing. I have not tried that. I have tried other things in the past, but i do not like anything that makes it hard to get up in the morning, and leaving me drowsy. So thanks for the tip, i will check it out!

 

[The T]

fyi


The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress. It is common to see the Commerce Clause referred to as "the Foreign Commerce Clause," "the Interstate Commerce Clause," and "the Indian Commerce Clause," each of which refers to a different application of the same single sentence in the Constitution.

And here:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I hope you're kidding. I'm gonna assume you're not that stupid.

In the context presented? I don't think it's an act.

 

[Ravi]

If you idiots think the preamble is meaningless then so be it.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Not quite right. The advertisers may be cranking up the volume on the fucking ads they sell to the broadcasters, but the broadcasters have control over the volume they send out over the airwaves. This is why I place the blame at both of their sets of feet, but primarily at the broadcasters'.

An advertiser cannot exploit jack shit if the broadcaster decides to turn down the volume as they send out the signal.

The problem with that is that the broadcaster doesn't change the audio levels constantly during broadcasting. Especially for television. It's set at a constant level, and the processing equipment keeps the peaks at a certain level.

There's no guy in a control room saying "OK, here come the commercials...crank it NOW".

This stuff is all automated now man. The computer doesn't care about the content of what is going on the air, all it cares about is the peak levels being sent out and keeping it below a certain level to prevent over-modulation. Doesn't matter if it's Law and Order or Crazy Sams Sunglass Emporium. The advertisers use the dynamic range processing to bring ALL the audio up to the peak levels and keep it there. And the system on the broadcast end doesn't care as long as none of it is going over the peak levels. Doesn't matter how often its getting to the peaks, as long as none of it goes over.

I gotta run, but next weekend when I'm at the station, and if this thread is going on, I'll post a couple of audio examples of a non-compressed song (what you normally would hear on a CD) and a compressed song (what you would hear on a commercial if the song was used as part of the ad).

See ya next week.

Again, that's just a weak excuse for what the broadcasters CHOOSE to do.

They clearly have engineers while their stations are up and running. It would be a simple enough task to check the levels and turn the shit down. They could PROGRAM their equipment to do that automatically if they had a mind to be civil in fact. And they could do a check on the volume of an advertisement when they screen it for impermissible content (they do have to do that to make sure some dopey ad guys haven't inserted nudity into a commercial for example). They could declinee ads which violate their policies in that regard. They could issue guidleines and standards to the ad compmanies informing the latter that they will not accept ads that blast the eardrums of their customers.... Their warnings can be written in geek-speak, but hte gist of it could be simple and clear. They do none of that. It's their fault.

Yer not understanding me...

It IS programmed to do that. Audio levels not to exceed XXXXdB. What yer experiencing is ALL the audio levels of a commercial at XXXXdB. The commercials are following the "letter of the law" so to speak, it just seems that they are louder. And it is purposefully done that way through compression of the audio commercial.

 

[RadiomanATL]

See: Audio dynamic range compression.

Dynamic range compression - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The broadcasters aren't doing it. It's the advertising production companies who create the commercials. They are simply exploiting the peak audio range that the broadcasters are limited to at a more constant level.

Shouldn't it be possible to subject the incoming signal to volume normalization prior to forwarding it to the tv?

Sure, it's already done that way. Normalization just makes sure that the peaks don't exceed a certain audio ceiling. What compression does is bring as much as possible to that peak.

 

[RadiomanATL]

The problem with that is that the broadcaster doesn't change the audio levels constantly during broadcasting. Especially for television. It's set at a constant level, and the processing equipment keeps the peaks at a certain level.

There's no guy in a control room saying "OK, here come the commercials...crank it NOW".

This stuff is all automated now man. The computer doesn't care about the content of what is going on the air, all it cares about is the peak levels being sent out and keeping it below a certain level to prevent over-modulation. Doesn't matter if it's Law and Order or Crazy Sams Sunglass Emporium. The advertisers use the dynamic range processing to bring ALL the audio up to the peak levels and keep it there. And the system on the broadcast end doesn't care as long as none of it is going over the peak levels. Doesn't matter how often its getting to the peaks, as long as none of it goes over.

I gotta run, but next weekend when I'm at the station, and if this thread is going on, I'll post a couple of audio examples of a non-compressed song (what you normally would hear on a CD) and a compressed song (what you would hear on a commercial if the song was used as part of the ad).

See ya next week.

Again, that's just a weak excuse for what the broadcasters CHOOSE to do.

They clearly have engineers while their stations are up and running. It would be a simple enough task to check the levels and turn the shit down. They could PROGRAM their equipment to do that automatically if they had a mind to be civil in fact. And they could do a check on the volume of an advertisement when they screen it for impermissible content (they do have to do that to make sure some dopey ad guys haven't inserted nudity into a commercial for example). They could declinee ads which violate their policies in that regard. They could issue guidleines and standards to the ad compmanies informing the latter that they will not accept ads that blast the eardrums of their customers.... Their warnings can be written in geek-speak, but hte gist of it could be simple and clear. They do none of that. It's their fault.

Exactly right.

Except that it's exactly....wrong.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Here's the best, visual way I can put it. Here's a clip of audio at a normal, uncompressed level. This would be what normal television programs would put out. The less you compress audio, the more you can hear the nuances and subtleties. So programs want to have lows and highs. Notice that the audio does not peak above or below that thin white line running on both the top/bottom of both L/R channels. Here's the screen-shot:

Now, this would be a wav form for an in-your-face commercial. All audio has been compressed and brought up to it's full in your face potential. I purposefully made this as an extreme an example as possible, so the audio sounds like shit, but it illustrates the point well. Notice that the audio still isn't peaking above the white line. There's just a lot more of it riding that line constantly. Here's the screen shot:

Keep in mind that this is the exact same cut of audio, one is just compressed beyond belief...but even with that it still is within the peak levels that have been mandated.

This is exactly how it works. No broadcaster is breaking the law, and no advertiser is breaking the law. There's no gremlin in the back room jacking up the volumes just to piss you off.