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TV automatic gain control

Stops loud commercials
  [vote for,

Far too much of television's audio is poorly mastered. Some programs are far too quiet, while commercials are intentially turned up.

Let's put an automatic gain controller on the audio output. This simple circuit maintains a constant mean volume while retaining dynamic range.

Any commercial trying to blast you with decibels will instantly be reduced in volume.

Aq_Bi, Feb 03 2005

HB archive: "TV Normalizer" TV_20Normalizer
An early HB idea that is quite similar and has some, or at least one, quite explanatory annotation(s). [bristolz, Feb 04 2005]


       Often the commercial audio signal is not of any higher electrical energy than the regular program but has been manipulated so that its apparent loudness is much greater. What this means is that a limiter or AGC will have no effect as it can only analyze, and act upon, signal strength.
bristolz, Feb 03 2005

       In fact, it should be possible to detect when a series of ads are compressing the frequencies into the 'loud' band, and (i) turn down the volume, plus (ii) stop recording the ad if you have a PVE.   

       If ads are pushed into the 'loud zone' with, or without extra signal strength -- then the consumer should punish them!   

       My DVD player has a DRC setting (Dynmaic Range Control). When it is set to "on", the quiet conversations are about 10% louder and the explosions are about 10% quieter. I don;t know how it works, but I'd say it simply applies some kind of log-based-scale to the output.
not_only_but_also, Feb 04 2005

       I think that apparent loudness can also be measured. Anyway, it is an extremely annoying trend: even promo's are louder than the program. I cannot understand why a non-advertising channel insists on doing this. It has the opposite effect on me - I turn the mute button on immediately and so my attention to what they are announcing/ advertising is minimised.
My TV has dynamic sound control, but I think this boosts individual frequencies for music, speech etc.
Ling, Feb 04 2005


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