Why does volume level vary so much?

[geneb11]

I have an idea as I am having the same problem. I read a post in the other forum that you have to call your local provider that sends the signal to D* and tell them they need to adjust it.

Maybe we could have a sticky post of our local providers contact #s so we all know who to call and complain to. This problem for me only seems to pertain to the HD locals. I guess the SD locals are better matched or something,who know's.

 

[mdicki01]

I have to go WITH bdoseck on this one, reason, D* is a Provider ONLY, I don't know if they have anything to do with volume ... the idea is for them to receive the signal and pass it along the way they got it.

Hence, the Native funtion.
That being said , many channels have various volume levels, I think that comes from the program provider.

Jimbo

It is the channel itself. If you remember a while back, before hd, You would be watching a show then when the comercial came on the sound would be really loud. So to combat this problem the newer tv's have an option to keep the same level of audio regardless of what your watching. However, with the advent of HD and different channels broacasting at different levels of HD, I think we are back to square one. I didnt know everyone had this issue.

 

[HDhysteria]

personally i dont want them to touch anything with the volume. since each program and even each individual commercial has different volumes by design, I do not want the audio levels being sent through a compressor just so they are all at the same level. I have spent thousands of dollars in audio gear to reproduce as close as possible the details of the original material, soft should be soft and loud should be loud. I will suffer through changing the volume once when a movie starts in order to preserve its dynamic headroom.

 

[DFWHD]

That's not good, Verizon is laying fiber in my area and I am hoping to switch over soon

Both VZ FiOS and TWC Cable have the same volume issue. VZ FiOS was our provider before we moved last month and we had TWC for about 3 weeks as a stop gap before D* was installed a few weeks ago.

Not to bash FiOS, but I can say that with D* and the new HDs that came online this week, if I had a choice, I would stay with D* now. The new HD is equally impressive as FiOS. I'm judging this based on the D* HD PQ from my all 4 of my LCD flat panels (52" Sony, 32" Samsung, 26" Samsung and 23" Philips).

Also, VZ will have all the same phone bill fees on TV service (about 20% of total cost) which adds a lot to the advertised cost. D* only has sales tax.

PM me and I can give you a breakout of my last few bills so you can make an informed decision before you switch.

 

[Neal]

Good to see this post on here. I find the varying volumes to be highly annoying and it should be consistent across the board. Are we going to have to start adjusting the brightness and color balance for each channel next? Varying volumes over the different channels is a royal pain in the butt and one would think that this would be an easy fix.

 

[bateau980]

personally i dont want them to touch anything with the volume. since each program and even each individual commercial has different volumes by design, I do not want the audio levels being sent through a compressor just so they are all at the same level. I have spent thousands of dollars in audio gear to reproduce as close as possible the details of the original material, soft should be soft and loud should be loud. I will suffer through changing the volume once when a movie starts in order to preserve its dynamic headroom.

While I agree with keeping it as accurate as possible... people who live with couch comandos who change the channel every minute don't like having to be blown away when a channel changes. There needs to be a standard output volume set by the broadcaster / producer community as a whole. TVs and audio systems that modulate the output can't keep up with the major fluctuations lately.

And yes... TURN THE COMMERCIALS DOWN!!!

 

[Tonedeaf]

As has been said it is the stations that provide the signal to DirecTV that are the problem.

In my local area, NBC is always the lowest volume channel out of all of them, especially in HD, I have to turn the Sunday Night NFL games way up and not change channel so I don't get blasted out of my couch.

 

[jcflesh]

I have never realize this problem until i read about here.. Just like a previous poster said "Are we going to have to start adjusting the brightness and color balance for each channel next?" but thats it, brightness and color is set by TV... thats y some tvs also have a setting to level out audio between channels (i have that setting on) and everything sounds the same to me. look for it if you havent done so..

 

[HDhysteria]

here ya go,,,, and like the article states, if you dont care about dynamic range, this is for you Home Entertainment: TV Volume Regulator Keeps Those Loud Commercials on an Even Keel - Gizmodo

 

[flexoffset]

From the FCC site:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not regulate the volume of programs or commercials. FCC rules limit the amount of power that a station can transmit and the peak level of the program material.

Within these limitations, however, broadcasters and program producers have considerable latitude to vary the “loudness” of the program material.

It seems as though the broadcasters DO have some latitude to massage the dynamic range of the audio.

 

[Larry]

personally i dont want them to touch anything with the volume. since each program and even each individual commercial has different volumes by design, I do not want the audio levels being sent through a compressor just so they are all at the same level. I have spent thousands of dollars in audio gear to reproduce as close as possible the details of the original material, soft should be soft and loud should be loud. I will suffer through changing the volume once when a movie starts in order to preserve its dynamic headroom.

as far as programming and movies go, i agree with you...but when the volume levels change drastically during a broadcast because of an engineering error or commercial, it's just wrong and needs to be addressed. programming and inserted material need to be at some type of baseline level...after that let the original dynamics be heard.

 

[leftstrat]

It seems like they could do a user-selectable volume level, sort of like the gain adjustments on some MP3 players. That way, the signal comes to user, untouched by D* and can be set by the customers to acceptable levels.

 

[tdenton1138]

Now there's a great idea. If you could set the gain for each channel... That would be fantastic. My OTA HDs are very quiet. In fact many of the HDs are quiet compared to the SDs. It would take some time on our end to set each channel, but it would sure make life better n the long run.

 

[Jamey K]

I've had my hair parted a couple times recently. I get that providers each provide a unique signal but the use of limiters at D*'s end would be very cool.