Why Are Commercials So Loud?
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I’m sitting on the couch watching a movie. It was getting pretty intense, you know when you’re eating your popcorn staring at the TV and can’t take your eyes off it, when all of the sudden the volume shot up as a commercial came on. It scared the bejeebers out of me and when I jerked my popcorn went everywhere. Needless to say I was a little agitated and it also got me wondering why commercials are so darn loud!
I got looking on the net for the reason and apparently, the commercials aren’t louder, they just sound louder. Huh? Isn’t that the same thing? Apparently not. It seems the FCC does not regulate how loud television shows or commercials can be, but instead regulates the peak power they can use to send out audio and video signals. A TV program has a mix of audio levels. There are loud parts and soft parts. Nuance is used to build the dramatic effect. Commercials do not want Nuance so there are no soft parts. They want to grab your attention. To do that, the audio track is electronically processed to make every part of it as loud as possible within legal limits. “Spencer Critchley, writing in Digital Audio, explained it this way: “The peak levels of commercials are no higher than the peak levels of program content. But the average level is way, way higher, and that’s the level your ears care about. If someone sets off a camera flash every now and then it’s one thing; if they aim a steady spot light into your eyes it’s another, even if the peak brightness is no higher.”
There are televisions that automatically adjust the volume so the commercials do not seem louder. Unfortunatley, I don’t have one of those. Anyway, that is apparently why commercials “seem” louder.
6 Comments
Robin
September 27th, 2008
at 11:53am
Thanks for the research! I have been wondering and hating this “perceived” jump in loudness!
Oh, great! Another thing to complicate the choices when buying a new tv, and unfortunately, having done so recently, but not having this info at the time, I am stuck with one that doesn’t filter noise!Sigh!!!
Doug
September 27th, 2008
at 12:29pm
Another reason to consider, at least with my home TV setup, is the amount of speakers that you have connected. I have an Onkyo receiver with 7.1 speakers, a Samsung LCD HDTV, and DishNet HD. The dialog of a TV show or a movie comes through the center channel in a surround sound setup; thus meaning the volume has to be higher. In the “old days,” “regular” spoken audio came through both the left and right channels; thus meaning that the volume didn’t have to be as high.
My suggestion to anyone with a surround sound setup, if it is possible, calibrate your channels so that the center channel is automatically louder than all of the others.
Ejay
September 27th, 2008
at 5:18pm
HERE IN AUSTRALIA THEY HAVE BEEN COMPRESSING THE HIGH AND LOW NOISE LEVELS INTO ONE BAND OF WHAT I CALL THICK NOISE , THIS IS LEGAL AS THEY DO NOT EXCEED THE PARAMETERS OF THE SET REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSMITTING A SIGNAL OF EXTREME LEVELS AND OF COURSE TO THE NORMAL HEARING IT SOUNDS LOUDER THAN THE STANDARD TRANSMISSION OF MOVIES ETC.
MARIAH MILLER
October 12th, 2008
at 6:36pm
WELL I THINK THAT THE COMMERCIALS ARE LOUDER OR A CERTAIN STATION IS LOUDER THEN THE OTHER
CoseCrariaRek
October 21st, 2008
at 4:46am
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Krestort
April 23rd, 2009
at 4:36am
Recently one of my friends started an obsession with the actor Nicholas Cage (mostly because their names are both Nicholas - sounds strange but he is strange and that isn’t the point). After asking around the rest of my friends he seems to be a very controversial figure.
What does the forum think? do you love the all action superhero? Or do you hate the droning voice of the man who does nothing but action shooters?