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"Loud Commercial" Legislation Proposed In US Congress

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-have-my-grandmother's-vote dept.

Hackajar writes "Have you ever caught yourself running for the volume control when a TV commercial comes on? Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has, and is submitting legislation that would require TV commercials in the US to stay at volume levels similar to the programming they are associated with. From the article: 'Right now, the government doesn't have much say in the volume of TV ads. It's been getting complaints ever since televisions began proliferating in the 1950s. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials.'"

4 of 636 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Technology to the rescue! by EdZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, dynamic volume control also affects sound in programs you want to watch, not just adverts. Imaging if you were watching a movie, and all the whispers were louder and the explosions quieter. Not so great. "Turn it on only for the adverts" is just making a more complicated and less useful mute button.

    As an alternative to legislating the volume of adverts, I propose that before any advert is allowed to air, the director of that advert must be forced to watch it on repeat for 12 hours, locked in a room with a loaded gun and no controls for the TV (with the TV protected by bullet-resistant glass, of course). If the director survives, the ad can be aired.

  2. Shitty Options by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Many TVs have the ability to auto-level stuff.

    But if you've got audio running to a receiver, the receiver has to do it (and likely doesn't).

    At best, you've got dynamic range compression modes, which kill off the sound quality for normal programming.

    Even if we have a magical loudness law that everyone magically decides to abide by, the latest tactic I've seen is far more annoying.

    Commercials now exploit surround sound to the extreme. The soundstage is either panning back and forth and around, or the ad is done in such a way that billy is on my left and molly is on my right and mom is shaking and baking that chicken directly inside my fucking subwoofer.

  3. Re:I'd much rather... by jimbolauski · · Score: 5, Funny
    BILLY MAYS HERE! FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!
    IF YOU HATE LOUD COMMERCIALS YOUR GOING TO LOVE THIS!
    THE COMMERCIAL KILLER!


    Stupid Filter it won't let me shout the whole time, if I stream my tv through /. the filter will fix the loud commercials.

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

    --
    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  4. Re:I'd much rather... by AlamedaStone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now, nobody's saying that marketers are less than human and deserve to be marched into the ocean

    I am.

    --
    "All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."