Why are they so loud? I thought there was a law about loudness of ads?
Watching a movie on a commercial station tonight and the freaking ads are punishing.

My understanding is thats ads have a restriction to how much louder they were to ordinary TV levels.. 2Db rings a bell.

The ad men filter the sound so that the output is biased towards 3kHz where the perceived loudness is highest for the same sound energy (dB).

Mute is my friend.

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ThinkaBowtit said..
Mute is my friend.

That's nice of you to have a mute friend, all too often people like that are stereotyped

Brief explanation..... If the sound of a movie might reach the maximum level that can be transmitted every few seconds, where as in a TV Commercial may reach that maximum 10-20 per second.... It all comes down to an average level.
Yes broadcasters have preset the commercial levels approx 2-3db lower than program level...BUT on a quiet movie that might not be enough and on a more upbeat program that might not be enough and should be louder.

Long gone are the days of a 'real' person monitoring the programs that go to air.

And if you think about it if you were paying lots of $$$$ for your companies commercial to be played you want it to come out loud and strong.....Remember that commercial broadcasters this is the only way they earn an income unlike the ABC that is funded by taxpayers.

Disclamer.... TV broadcast sound (Program + Commercial production) is what I have done for a living for more than 30 years.

Netflix, Stan other streaming platforms.....what commercials?

The worst ones are those that are not only loud, but they yell at you. Hardly Normal is a good example of bad. And Hillzeez. And Nigels. I don't think I even watch tv anymore really, just blast through the channels twice looking for anything decent with old mate mute of course, then switch it off in disgust. Hillzeez is okay muted. Nigels is horrendous either way.

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ThinkaBowtit said..
The worst ones are those that are not only loud, but they yell at you. Hardly Normal is a good example of bad. And Hillzeez. And Nigels. I don't think I even watch tv anymore really, just blast through the channels twice looking for anything decent with old mate mute of course, then switch it off in disgust. Hillzeez is okay muted. Nigels is horrendous either way.

Yes, these TV adverts are assaulting us at many levels. For a start, crap creativity. Then they sing, when all creative merits are exhausted. If they don't sing, they shout at you. The Fish and Chip advert is one of the worse. Of course, the Harvey Norman Warehouse-man does his best to ensure that you are still alive by the screaming. Hillzeez, how about calling it "Hellzeez", is doing the screaming, shouting, and top it up with something remotely resembles singing !

How about those really annoying funeral adverts. They cart out older folks to tell us that we are going to die soon. So must get our acts together and buy a funeral insurance. I suspect they also intentionally turn the screen colour to more grey shades. Have you noticed how old and sick the actors are ? YUI is anotherpiss-weak one. That wanker asserts that "We get you !"

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Shifu said..
Why are they so loud? I thought there was a law about loudness of ads?
Watching a movie on a commercial station tonight and the freaking ads are punishing.

Just stop watching commercial TV.

I did years ago and it's bliss.

JOYCE MAYNE

Record the movies on a PVR and watch them at your leisure. Use the various skipping controls to jump over the ads.

Is there even anything on commercial TV worth watching ?

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Gorgo said..
Record the movies on a PVR and watch them at your leisure. Use the various skipping controls to jump over the ads.

Cute. Have you heard of the internet?

^^ Some people still have slow internet. Mine can crawl along so slowly it can take a short gif. 10 minutes to load. Other times its fine.They call it congestion, which happens because every prick is watching internet tv and movies.