[mythtv-users] Obama Recommends Delay in Digital TV Switch

[Jake Anderson]

David Brodbeck wrote:
> Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>   
>> OK, I have to ask.  Now while I agree that sending "all the signal to 
>> the rich neighborhoods" is silly, there certainly appears to be 
>> occasions when commercials are much louder than the programming.
>>     
>
> My guess is the peak level is no higher, but that they're compressing 
> the dynamic range so that more of the audio is at peak loudness.  This 
> is perceived as louder and "punchier" than uncompressed audio, because 
> our idea of how loud something is is related to the average level more 
> than the peak level.  Also, if you're watching a movie, movie 
> soundtracks often have dialog and such at a fairly low level so that 
> they have room to go louder for things like explosions.
>
> Sometimes commercials also use Dolby Pro Logic encoding to send audio to 
> the back channel speakers, if you have surround sound.
>
> Now, in the case of locally-inserted commercials on cable TV systems, 
> there may actually be a difference in peak level.  I've noticed that 
> most cable TV systems do a really incompetent job equalizing the volume 
> levels between channels and between locally-inserted content and network 
> content.
>
>
>   
They typically do compress the audio up to maximum volume, so they talk 
at the same level as the explosions.
I believe they also spread the audio over a wider spectrum to get yet 
more volume out of it.

They are trying to get you to still hear it when you leave the room.

I *heart* commercial skip ;->
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