[mythtv-users] CALM Act in US

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Wed, 2009-10-14 at 10:02 -0400, Tom Dexter wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 12:07 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > LOTs of things are involved, "loudness" is not the same as "volume", and
> > neither term really has a scientific definition. Then there
> > is "psycho-acoustic perceived loudness", which may be closer to what we
> > perceive as "loud", but studies show there are psychological factors at work,
> > something you do not want to hear may be perceived as "louder" simply because
> > you don't want to hear it.
> Even without the factors like "it seems louder because I don't want to
> here it", I don't know how they could enforce anything, as I have no
> clue what the metric could even be....I guess peak to average ratio
> might be the closest...but I think you're correct...it'll never
> happen.

Why not use ITU-R Rec. BS 1770 or Leq ?

Obviously perceptual loudness is not something you can quantify
and control, but sensory loudness is directly measurable by
sticking needles into the proper parts of the brain. This work
has already been done for the deaf and hard of hearing community
and can now be used by the broadcasting industry to provide a
better viewing experience. There are already companies selling
equipment that does this for you.

It's really amazing when you look at a graph of the loudness of
a commercial TV station vs. something like the BBC. And the BBC
does not have the greatest of control over loudness, they just
don't have commercials.

Anyway, I really hope this does not pass. I'm afraid loud bangs
in movies would get lost by compliance post-processing equipment,
but commercials would just be re-engineered to take advantage of
the difference between perceptual and sensory loudness.

-- Daniel