This seems to be the latest trend with TV shows in the U.S. Background music that plays during the dialog and loud enough that the people in the show can't be heard easily. Some bloggers on the web say that turning off the super surround sound option on your TV helps drown out the background music which is sometimes in the surround channels. Geeks on the video editing forums are actually trying to decompose the multi-channel audio, extract only the main channel with the dialog, and delete all of the surround sound channels to get rid of the background music completely. In a similar vain, Youtube has been providing users with a list of god-aweful background music to add to their videos. They probably make money off all of this plugging of someone else's music.
yeah, must be the surround sound thing since i don't have surround sound and i haven't witnessed this. what annoys me is movies where people whisper long sections of dialogue, and you can't hear a damn thing that is said.
we have surround sound and I haven't noticed issues with music being too loud but I do notice that voice volumes are all over the place, whether there's music or not. And its not the surround sound since we tested this with many things. A specific example are the (don't judge me, monkeys!) Harry Potter movies (blu-rays to be exact)...you'd think I wouldn't have to keep turning the volume up and down with technology being so advanced.
I find a lot of shows have a sound track that is far louder than the actual show is. Commercials are another issue in that they come in far louder than the shows.
The commercial thing is supposed to be illegal now...networks are supposed to balance the sound of commercials. Fortunately, I think my TV does that automatically...I don't know the technicalities of it (I leave it to my husband) but the sound runs differently on TV as opposed to video/gaming
i haven't noticed the commercial thing in a while on tv, but on hulu they sure as hell scream at you during the commercials.
yeah they do, and I lost the tv remote so I have to get up during commercials to turn the tv down. hulu plays a lot of commercials too, its good exercise.
It has to do with your flat screen, Bandwidth and HD picture and sound. You hear the "dramatic" sound loud the whole time and they mumble the words. But the only thing i can find that it relates to, Is the new HD TV's with 720p and 1080i option. Most companys are at least 720p now and some have blu-ray clear HD if you have the $$. IMO leave the old with the old. When you try and make it "re-mastered" it gets pixelated and blotchy.
Limiting the change in volume for commercials. http://www.fcc.gov/guides/program-background-noise-and-loud-commercials
I don't have surround sound either and have not noticed the issue of the OP. I am annoyed at the movies as well though. Their sound is all over the place, which probably works in a movie theatre but does not work for me since I live in an apartment building and try to keep my TV turned down. In our place the cable TV stations also each have their own level of sound so if you are channel surfing one station is fine but the next is blasting. That can be annoying as well.
I thought it was me cause I'm getting old. I find it increasingly hard to understand what people are saying. But, now that I think of it, old shows are fine. I have surround sound and found I needed to turn the base way down and play with what mode it's set to. As far as commercials, as I understand it, local stations have no control over what they broadcast, except the local news and commercials. They have to take the signals as they get them and pass them on. Most can't afford equipment that would automatically adjust volume. Local commercials might be made at one volume, then national commercials at another. Local stations don't make most local commercials, outside production companies do. Also it used to be that commercials were not allowed to be any louder than the peak loudness of the TV show. So the commercials are made to be as loud as the peak loudness of the show, not the average of the show. So a loud one second explosion equals a loud 3 minute commercial. I don't know how it is now.
