Very Loud Channels and Very Low Channels

[hglass]

I live in Long Island, N.Y. and my cable provider is Cablevision. My Tivo is an S3. The firmware is 11C. there seems to be a huge difference between channels with regard to volume. Some channels are so low I have to turn my surround sound unit way up and others are normal. I know commericals are always louder but the difference between channels is great. Any ideas??

[sieglinde]

Mine do the same thing. The channels I get "loud" are 2-11.

[wmcbrine]

It's a good question why this still happens. After all, we don't have to adjust the Brightness when we move from channel to channel.

The fact is, there are standards that would largely prevent this, but the broadcasters aren't following them.

[NJ_HB]

Anyone ever notice that the vocal parts for certain shows like Supernatural, are barely audible, but the sound effects wake up the neighborhood.

[stoli412]

I live in Long Island, N.Y. and my cable provider is Cablevision. My Tivo is an S3. The firmware is 11C. there seems to be a huge difference between channels with regard to volume. Some channels are so low I have to turn my surround sound unit way up and others are normal. I know commericals are always louder but the difference between channels is great. Any ideas??My analog channels (2-99) are considerably louder than my digital channels. I think this is because the digital channels are sent in DD 2.0 or 5.1, so they have a wider dynamic range and sound quieter. The analogs are sent in plain analog stereo, which the TiVo has to convert.

If you're like me and your analogs aren't being sent as digital simulcast, then this may explain your sound problem.

[aaronwt]

All my channels with pcm audio are louder than the channels with DD.

[robla64]

How about commercials! I can't believe they are so much loader than the show you are watching.

[hglass]

Ive always found commericals to be louder than the regular t.v. program. My problem is when I go from one channel to another it is either very loud or its very low. This difference just started within the past month.

[TedE]

I have the same problem with Wide Open West (WOW) in suburban Chicago.

One more thing... local insert commercials are generally much louder than “real” commercials and shows.

The low/hi volume differences from channel-to-channel don't seem to be tuning-range related... local analog broadcast channels are all over the place, as are digital basic and premium channels.

I've had it explained to me that — although they have a big room with hundreds of monitors to constantly check the picture quality, no one is listening.

(Although you'd think that someone who worked for the company would also subscribe to the service, watch it at home, and tell someone at the headend the next day.)

TiVo itself compounds the problem... TiVoCasts — Techzilla, The Onion, 3 Minute Ad Age and other programs downloaded via the internet — blast out at what seems to be ten times the volume of recordings off the cable box. Ditto for the MusicChoice audio-only cable channels (Chs 500+) Same for antenna DTV feeds. I try to remember to reduce the volume before hitting play.

FWIW, I have two cable boxes and occasionally use a raw cable feed (Chs 2-100 analog); all seem to be at the same volume when compared to each other. The cable box audio outputs are set to “fixed” (max) rather than “variable.”

Thus, the problem is clearly the cable company. Since local ad inserts, MusicChoice, OTA DTV and broadband TiVocasts all come in loud-and-clear, and only the cable shows that they rebroadcast are Too Low or Even Lower. (Again, note that the local insert spots and MusicCast feeds that originate within their headend are loud by comparison, but it's actually the external content that's set too low, or lower.)

I've given up complaining; no one at WOW seems to have ears. U-Verse is getting close to my block, so I'll switch when it's here — with fingers crossed.

[aaronwt]

Ive always found commericals to be louder than the regular t.v. program. My problem is when I go from one channel to another it is either very loud or its very low. This difference just started within the past month.

Commercials being louder than the programs is not new. They have been doing that for decades.

[JonathanMeyers]

My TV has an automatic audio adjustment. It helps the problem but doesn't eliminate it.