[mythtv-users] FCC releases CableCard changes

[Andre]

On 18 Oct 2010, at 18:33, Brian Wood wrote:

> On Monday, October 18, 2010 10:19:07 am Ben Kamen wrote:
>> On 10/18/2010 11:04 AM, Brian Wood wrote:
>>> Those locally-inserted ads on cable seem to be the easiest for Myth to
>>> identify as commercials, brutal, abrupt sometimes not even synchronous
>>> transitions and large differences in both APL and loudness, pretty easy
>>> to spot.
>> 
>> I worked at a local CATV company about 20yrs ago.
> 
> Likewise, but in my case over 30 years ago (pressure taps, .412 feeder, 30-volt power, single-ended amps. We had moved to 
> solid-state amplifiers by them though)
> 
>> 
>> I remember how much our CATV tries to keep the levels consistent with a
>> knob -- the problem was, the knobs, er, Interns were running around
>> recording local content on cameras that were set all over the place.
>> 
>> OR the source (pick and upstream provider) wasn't consistent in their knobs
>> either.
>> 
>> Funny how compressor/limiters still seem to be a nebulous concept for the
>> engineer trying to control the source->customer equation.
>> 
>> And now with things being digital, you'd think it could be in the stream
>> someplace as a simple matter of programming. Heck, there's an AGC someone
>> wrote as an accessory for my Empeg car player. CONCEPT!
> 
> Controlling audio levels is always a problem, the only reliable method is a good audio mixer operator with a decent pair 
> of ears, in a good listening environment.
> 
> The problem is that a lot of audio, especially commercials, is highly processed. There is a vast difference between what a 
> VU meter will show and the "psycho-acoustic perceived loudness" (a term invented by Orban), which is what the listener 
> perceives as "how loud it is".

Yup, the monitoring gear almost everyone has is useless with modern sources, add in the differences in handling; Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, Stereo, AAC surround, then pseudo surround and listening modes as done by every modern TV or home cinema amp and you have the current mess, oh and don't forget that almost all Audio "Engineers" working today don't understand surround metadata so don't configure it correctly.

> 
> This is why the recent congressional action to stop loud commercials is doomed to fail. Broadcasters do NOT want to have 
> to hire qualified people, it's too expensive. It's nice to know that Congress had nothing more important to deal with 
> though.

There is a great deal of activity in the industry around this right now, lots of companies touting their "perceived loudness" metering gear, EBU setting standards for loudness metering and normalisation. Almost every EBU event seems to have some sort of talk on solutions to this issue or just raising awareness.

I found out about this coming from the other direction, insufficient dynamic range for digital cinema live events. :-)

Andre