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"Loud Commercial" Legislation Proposed In US Congress
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.'"
I hate loud commercials too, but this is just too much government IMHO. I'd much rather just have intelligent TVs or receivers that turned the volume down upon detecting a commercial...based on the settings *I* want, not what the government thinks is best for me.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
dvr
You take the average gain of the last 30 seconds of a program before it goes to commercial, and don't allow the commercials to be any louder than that.
If I can make karaoke and techno music automatically crossfade with my meager skills(link below)
http://www.facebook.com/v/203775860215
Then surely a TV station or broadcast network could make commercials stay at the same gain as the programming.
Enough with the over-exaggeration, she seriously has to close the windows? Maybe shes watching TV too loud in the first place. And Ive never seen an ad that pumps up the volume more than a few bars if at all, so rather than trying to get her name on a piece of legislature, she should focus on her own habits?
But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials.'" ...every time my wife yells at me to "turn down that damned TV" because commercial suddenly starts blasting, the advertising executive for that commercial gets a 24 kvolt shock?
There, FTFY.
Yes, I know the chances of surviving a 24 kilovolt shock are pretty low, but I'm willing to risk it.
Why, yes, I'm not an advertising executive. And yes, I do hate those God-awful advertisements. How could you tell?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
please mod up, first post to actually introduce the relevant information and not just 'MAKE THE VOLUME LOWER'. Volume is already legislated, its the issue of compression and headroom
Billy Mays didn't need no stinking dynamic range compression. Billy Mays was always at full volume in real life.
To be fair, what you're doing is almost a Godwin. The huge majority of what Congress does pales in comparison in many ways when put next to wars, and even health care. But many of those things need to be considered, even with bigger, more important things going on.
If you support or decry this proposed law, do so on its own merits. Otherwise, we may as well compare everything to the wars and to healthcare, and ignore a huge range of very real issues which need resolution.
The CB App. What's your 20?
i think the fact we can easily hear the difference means that it can be easily classified by sound engineers.
you'll find that tv companies have compliance document for independant producers technical specs, and in there they will say what is the "average" audio level (generally dialog) and what is the peak (i.e. kaboom!). Its not rocket science.
DRC is not a problem, its only when you apply post DRC gain to raise the average level up that it gets annoying.
stuff like that made me cancel my satellite subscription and now i don't own a tv. everything is available on torrents sans the crap that these companies put out (and seriously? if you pay a monthly subscription for tv you shouldn't have to watch damn adverts in the middle of the sodding shows you paid for. paying for the priviledge of watching adverts? feck off)
Mod parent down for not knowing what he's talking about. It's impossible to receive a 24kV shock and not have a non-lethal amount of current going through you (unless you're wearing insulated gloves, which means you're not getting the full 24kV). A 24kV shock for 10 seconds means death. When you get a shock from touching a door knob, the voltage and current both are high enough to kill you, but too short of duration.
Oh, and amperage does not exist.
Do something about it, personally. You can even do it tonight! Turn off the TV. I did over a decade ago and haven't regretted it since!
How about banning radio stations from broadcasting commercials with car crash sounds, police sirens, and screeching tires during the morning and afternoon drive times? That nonsense has made me jump out of my damn seat a couple times, now.
Also, on a less serious note, ban commercials from using that one blaring alarm clock stock sound that they all love to use. You know, the one that sounds exactly like the alarm clock I had for years, and always makes me feel miserable and pissed off.
Stop watching TV.
POKE 36879,8
Years ago I got an Alesis Nanocompressor for my parents and installed it inline between the audio outputs of the cable box and the TV. Now the blasted commercials bother them no more.
Cost: $50 used plus some audio adapter cables.
Yes I know some TVs have built in compressors. Guess what, they don't work worth a damn.
Commercials are what drove me to dump cable/broadcast TV forever... not just the volume but the increasing ratio of ads to program per hour. Way too many commercials and they're even showing them in sidebars during the program. I ceased watching TV since 2000 and I do not miss it.
If the government wants to help, they can mandate decent quality compressors in new TVs that are enabled by default. It won't cost any more than those V-chips or the digital TV receivers.
The FCC has been hearing for DECADES about obnoxiously loud commercials, and now they want to help...?
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
This is exactly the sort of bullshit excuse that broadcasters/advertisers will use to get around any legislation introduced. "The ads really aren't any louder than the content, they only sound louder." Well guess what? THERE'S NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE! Their audience is people, not sound meters, so it does not matter what their instruments read - if the ads sound louder to human ears, then they really are louder.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
The fed caused the current financial crisis.
Hth.
Deleted
No, there is no "fair" way to write the text when you already know that those subject to the rules will hire very expensive law firms to find any and all loopholes.
I have rules in my online game (battlemaster.org) - and one of them is roughly "attempts to exploit the rules and violating their spirit while formally abiding by the words double the punishment". It's time the legal system adds a rule like that, especially for corporations who willfully and intentionally choose that route.
We have "contempt of court" already. It's time to add "contempt of the meaning of the law" to it.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Its not so much "black and white", its just stupid people acting stupid saying stupid things.
I love how American's have such a constructed view of who or what the are and what makes them this way. The amount of fictional works of literature that support this is astounding. However if some people took 5 seconds to look around at what is reality, or 10 seconds to actually look into how thing actually operate in the real world, they might be able to remove themselves from this fantasy that has been constructed over the years, that so many seem to adhere to and actually cherish as the American way. They may perhaps be the ideals, however it doesn't reflect reality in the slightest, and typically is a super over simplification of real world processes.
I can't read one more book about a rugged, individualist industrialist, who is for open markets and no regulation, who is fighting against the government and the freedom they are trying to suppress, while at the same time making billions, and sleeping with beautiful women, while toting guns, and getting into fist fights with commies.
Aryn Rand wants here pound of flesh America!
Ben Bova also wants a cut.
Heinlein also called and will arm wrestle you for his IP fee.
Anyway that just off the top of my head I am sure there are more. It might make for good fiction (even if the same principles are expounded over, and over, and over again), but it doesn't have a shred of reality in it.
Except maybe Richard Branson (even his name is right for it!), but he, is , er, British....whoops!
Who is the closest in the US? Donald Trump? Your Fired!
I'm not talking about money spent in elections. The vast majority of high office candidates are preselected by the parties, so it doesn't matter who is elected -- they'll still vote in the corporations favor on any issue where the corporations have an interest, or else the party won't support them. Ventura's a good example of what happens to exceptions: The environment is intolerable for them. The only successful exception one can point to is Ron Paul, and there, "success" is defined by not getting his way except once in a blue moon... he just manages to hang on in an environment where his outlook is steadfastly ignored.
This is what I mean when I imply that the dollar controls the system. For example, you'll never be able to put up your own FM station, because corporations control access to the airwaves through the congress and the FCC. You'll never be able to set up a private Internet, because the telecomms control your ability to do so though congress; they'll tie you up with legislation about being responsible for what others move through your network, licenses, and so forth until you're right out of the game. You want to make toys in your garage? Welcome to a brand new web of regulations that blows your profit margin off the face of the planet. It goes on and on. Corporations have the edge, and they'lol keep the edge, because why? Because they have the money.
If you think voters have any control, you're completely naive. "Loser's lament", my eye. If anything, it's a patriot's lament.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
You fucking troll. Ron Paul was a huge success. His libertarian message of freedom was spread far and wide. He became a household name, and that caused a LOT of people to actually listen to what he was saying. He did much to introduce important issues to the social consciousness of the USA, issues that slashdotters care about: freedom of the internet, tech-friendly legislation, economic freedoms, individual freedoms, fiscal responsibility, and limiting the control of big government/brother.
So you gloat that the same puppets won. Well, while you try to dismiss Ron Paul as inconsequential, we will remember this proverb: "If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito."
Nice try. We aren't drinking your kool aid anymore, troll. Romney, Huckabee, same difference. Pointing out that Huckabee has a Prime Time, Mainstream Media TV show doesn't help your argument. Hillary, Obama, same difference again.
Try harder. Your floundering logic amuses us.