Ads louder then program.

[milly143]

Does anyone else notice how adverts and music are always louder then the program you are watching. Im constantly saying 'can you turn it down a bit' then 10 seconds later, 'can you turn it up a bit'. It drives me nuts!!! Do you have the same problem?

[Peri]

Absolutely milly,  and when my mother is here she turns the tv up full blast because she is deaf and during the ads it really goes through the roof.  I wonder why.

[nicola_red]

Yeah, I notice this all the time too.

[ICEMANSAV]

I think this has been mentioned before a long time back. Some thought it was an advertising ploy to increase the awareness of the products by making the advert louder at lower TV volumes than the programs normally shown, but then a media expert claimed it is something to do with the recording process and editing of the different programs and adverts. But I agree it is annoying.

[georgit79]

it happens on dvds as well- the background/accompanying music is always loads louder than the speech.Very frustrating!

[LeMarchand]

You can get a device that is supposed to detect and "dampen" the advert sound. Alas, it only seems to be available in Germany, and I don't want to risk getting stuck with a white elephant.

Apparently the ads aren't technically louder, they just sound louder due to some sort of audio processing.

On DVDs, I would say that your sound set-up may need fiddling with.

[hannahjo]

Yep, I�ve noticed this� very handy if you nod off � wakes you up so you can go have a wee / make a cuppa!

[DiggerDoo]

The audio processing isatually called "Compression" the idea is to make the ads punchier than the programme they are interupting, all the TV companies will deny that they compress the sound on ads but they are all guilty of doing it.

It is actually counter productive as the first compressed ad makes you turn the volume down and then you dont hear all the other ads,then you turn the sound up when the programme resumes.

It is the single most annoying thing on UK Commercial

[Xollob]

I live in Germany and the situation is the same here. Rather than turning the volume "up a bit, down a bit", I either switch to mute, zap somewhere else for the expected duration of the commercial break or, better still, try and avoid channels with advertising altogether.

When will the arrogant basturds [hope this gets past the asterisk monster] who determine the sound level of adverts realise it is counterproductive?

[chazza]

I notice that channel 4 is much louder than any other station!

[Bob Carter]

Techie answer ... the adverts are more compressed so have a narrower dynamic range of sound. In simple terms ... if you imagine a dB meter which ranges from 0-8. Ideally you set the sound so that speech peaks at the number of 6. In between though are a lot quieter bits. And the odd  louder bit.

Now if you compress the sound you set it so, for example, the needle will  never fall below 5 or go above 6. Anything louder than 6 will be brought down. Anything quieter than 5 will be turned up. And to all of us it sounds louder. Mainly because, for the most part, it is. But the actual peak sound, the loudest noise, is no higher and so the companies can rightly say they're played out at the same level

[jacey]

I also notice it more on CH 4 and remember reading a letter in the papers complaining about it, but they replied it wasn't so, as it was illegal for tv companies to do this ???????????????So I guess we're all hearing things !

[ludwig]

I know exactly what you mean, but I never have that problem. I just mute it or change channels when the adverts come on - oh the joy of remote controls. That's why I hardly ever answer a question in the adverts section - I never see them.

[kempie]

TV companies have been denying this for years but on 13th July (channel) five was found guilty of breaching the Advertising Standards Authority's standards code and its output made to undergo noise tests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4679575.stm

[rachaelersk]

yes milly we have  resorted to mute when the adverts come on and this does the trick. Also yes we think c4 is louder than any other.

[Ivankafka]

Yep, I have said this for years to people. drives me nuts too. But then adverts do generally.

And yes, georgegit79, I always find the background music on videos and DVDs are louder than the dialogue. You turn it up to hear the what they are saying and then an explosion or dramatic piece of music booms out and the TV shudders and the next door neighbour bangs on the wall.

[birdie1971]

In answer to the DVD volume question - the answer is that DVD audio is optimised for 5.1 surround sound. What happens when you play the sound through a standard stereo system is that every channel of the 5.1 sound (ie. all 6 audio channels) are compressed down to two channel sound. This has the effect of "squashing" all the sound together. Hope that rather poor description means something to someone! By the way, sometimes you may find that some DVDs have a "stereo" audio track. If you press the audio options while your DVD is playing and you see "1. English" and "2. English", often track 2 will be an optimised stereo track for us mere mortals with "normal" TVs.

[woofgang]

Its one of the reasons that I don't go to see films at the cinema any more, the noise is just too much. Other reasons are that they won't rewind when you miss a bit, let you eat takeaway while watching, allow my dog in, pause the film for a cup of tea or a pee or let you watch curled up on a settee in your jammies