LOUD Commercials!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RANT

[seeker4ever]

Do loud commercials piss you off? They piss me off.

The FCC has a little web page regarding this topic:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/backgroundnoise.html

It completely dodges the fact that the way channels like E! and Hallmark achieve such a disgusting disparity in the volume levels is not so much by making the commercials louder as by making the crap you're trying to watch so damn weak you have to turn your set up all the way.

just venting... thanks

[Scottie72]

1. UGH! I can't stand that also!!!

That drives me crazy!

[mvd]

5. Me too!

:-(

[unblock]

2. i remember a cartoon called "eyebeam"

where once, one of the characters, ratliff, gets a new job. he's pictured sitting in a chair next to a giant lever, chatting with a buddy about how great his new job is.

he appears to be doing nothing.

then finally he says "hang on, here it comes", and he pulls the giant switch. and his buddy says, "aha, so YOUR the guy who cranks up the volume on commercials!"

eventually he gets fired for forgetting to turn the volume back down when the late night movie resumes....

[number9]

3. didn't they once have a law against that?

as per most, it's probably long gone, but I swear I remember a law against that crap. I also dimly remember the creeps getting around it somehow with the way they projected/transmitted their sound. Does this sound familiar?

[olacan]

6. I think

the rule is still in place, but I seem to remember reading something about how they "compress" the audio so it only seems louder. So it must be just our ears as they would not risk upsetting the FCC. At least most of us have remotes so we can turn the noise down.

[mvd]

4. I even notice it on the major networks

Because I can hear conversations on the commercials better than conversations on the shows.

[Ramsey]

7. That's what the mute button is for

On the rare occasion I feel the need to watch commercial TV (mainly for the West Wing), I always mute the ads. I have always thought a device that would automatically mute during the ads and resume volume during the show would be brilliant. The damn things are at laast 3 times louder than the programming.

I boycott any product that deafens me when my program is at a normal volume!!

[sasquatch]

8. that always pisses me off

your watching TV late at night and commercial comes on that practicaly wakes the dead when it comes on.