Posted on 12/16/2009 5:58:54 AM PST by Poser
The US House of Representatives has approved a bill which aims to limit the volume of television advertisements.
The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) was approved by a voice vote in the house...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I'll bet I'm not the only one who hates loud commercials.
Anyone who invented a switching device that could lower the volume of loud commercials to normal levels would make a mint.
I agree on all points.
I suppose you could reasonably claim that they have no right to scream into your livingroom.
Thank goodness Congress is taking this up because, like, there’s no other pressing issues threatening America right now!
*Rolleyes*
This is my kind of regulation. It literally costs nothing to implement. It’s necessary because no advertiser will unilaterally lower the volume of his ad for fear of getting lost in the cacophony, but should have no issue with doing so if everybody else does.
I am just curious with all the technology we have manufacturer have not found a way to preset a volume level and keep all audio output to that preset level.
I know I would certainly pay more if I had that option.
Going from channel to channel there is a noticeable difference in levels. This really should not be a problem.
It’s funny you mention that...I seem to remember a sci-fi book, “Contact” maybe, where one of the characters became a billionaire after inventing a device that sensed the decibel increase of TV commercials and would automatically mute the television...
I think they should leave the loud commercials.
It’s an opportunity for an inventor to devise software or hardware that automatically shuts the volume off when it detects an increased level of music and/or voice.
About one or two seconds of delay is all that’s needed. There would be options to set upper and lower thresholds as well as delay in the signal.
Rather than legislate ourselves into stupidity, let us innovate to overcome obnoxious advertising.
I don’t want the government to be my mommy.
Why are they wasting time on this trivial matter when there is the risk of civilization collapsing and us returning to a new Dark Age because of the lack of a playoff in NCAA Division I football?
Good luck. It hasn’t worked here. The FCC has had a regulation for years that requires broadcasters to have equipment that limits the peak power they can use to send out their audio signals. We still have loud commercials.
I love the mute button.
****Thank goodness Congress is taking this up because, like, there’s no other pressing issues threatening America right now!****
LOL, I’d rather they take up this issue than many they are now.
Do we have to have a law about everything?? This is tiresome. I swear, it all started with seat belts and bike helmets and hasn’t looked back!
Thank God for the government. How has society survived so many years without television commercial volume control?!
> a way to preset a volume level and keep all audio output to
> that preset level.
Yes, it’s called compression.
A half-way decent compressor is all that’s needed. You could buy one from an audio store for reasonably cheap, or feed your audio through compression software on your computer.
Smart manufacturers will start shipping units with built-in compression.
It’s gotten so bad that we DVR all the programs we want to watch (mostly on cable) so we can fast forward through the loud commercials. Seems to me there was a VHS recorder some years back that automatically turned all commercials into a soundless blue screen. Wish I had bought one.
The “Billy Mays Memorial Act”?
I can deal with “loud” ads. How ‘bout they work on banning misleading/dishonest POLITICAL ADS that drive us all crazy in election years.
Or ROBOCALLS with recorded political messages that come in on our telephones?
There was a TV out a while back (don’t remember the brand) that was being sold on the basis that it moderated the volume of commercials in relation to the programming. Don’t know if it worked but have not seen it advertized in quite some time.
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