TV ads are acceptable, they are strictly limited to -24 LUFS. Streaming media like YouTube enforces -14 LUFS.
That's 10 decibels, it's twice as loud.
And that's just the hard cutoff.
While YouTube will bring down the volume automatically (say, if you upload something with -9 LUFS, it will bring it down to -14), it doesn't scale up.
So maybe a conscious creator is uploading at -24, then BOOM ad at -14 and your ears start to bleed.
This law aims to fix that, by forcing the ads to be at the same volume of the content that's playing, instead of just being able to blast at full volume.
TV ads are not acceptable. that -24 limit is pretty useless if the program you were watching is quiet so you turned up the volume. Besides, even if this weren't an issue, no targeted ad is acceptable.
I still don't get the people who say they are going to watch the Super Bowl for the ads, then the day after the game they're bitching about how terrible the ads were.
I'm like... yeah... they are ads....
Admittedly back in the .com days there were some good ones.
This should be a nice option, not a necessity. Sound mixing should be done correctly to adapt to the average stereo system with an average sound level by default. Then people who can afford a better setup and an individual house can opt for the mixing that fits their situation.
Not in the US, but I'd go even further and ban any ad mimicking an "alerting" kind of sound, especially starting with it.
Alarms, ringtones, even loud door knocking. Even worse, traffic sounds with car horns (rare, but some still do this shit somehow). I can't believe some of the ads I get are still legal, deliberately stressing you to get your attention shouldn't be.
I can't understand how people use any platforms with ads. Any ads are bad, but audio/video ads are the worst. I refuse to use any platform that tries to hijack my attention like that.
I worked on a crew that took lots of long interstate drives when "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys was a big radio hit. Every time that goddamned horn blasted in that song when we were on the road, we all frantically looked around to see the big truck that was about to kill us only to realize it was just the stupid Vengabus.
Punish the brands that do it with boycotts, bad reviews and naming/shaming online. Call out the creative production and call them hacks. That must be why they're in advertising instead of making something someone would enjoy hearing.
Louder commercials than TV have long been illegal, but they don't enforce it. I know someone however that used to call or email or whatever the station to complain when they did it and they would stop for at least a bit because of those laws that went mostly unenforced.
But the less cynical more hopeful generations before us had passed those common sense laws and enforced them at one point.
Yeah they had their chance. Audio streaming services have (mostly) managed to figure out licensing agreements so all music is on all platforms.
Video streaming services all created their own walled gardens with various levels of advertising. Paramount even offered an advertising free tier but would happily advertise their own shows before other shows (noticed specifically on Star Trek shows but I imagine other providers do it too).
In the end... Fuck them. I give up on trying to figure out streaming video with all its complications. Back to the seven seas to procure my own.
You can file complaints with the FCC, but the FCC doesn't actively monitor it. The biggest problem is that no matter how the law is written, they will find ways to abuse it.
The law actually requires that the average volume of the ad not be greater than the average volume of the show. And it even specifies that the average is a running average, not just the peak vs lowest. But then loud portions of the show pump that average up. Like let's say that during the credits you play really loud music, or really loud bloopers, well that would bump average. And if the commercial had a really long quiet period, like a long section where someone whispers the side affects a medication, well that bumps your loudest allowable portions up. They can also wait for the quietest part of a show to make the difference more significant.
And there's much more that they can do that makes it seem louder, like frequency boosting and audio compression that are all totally legal. So, they can actually bump the apparent "loudness" of a commercial quite a bit and still be legal.
one of the reasons i have captions on all the time. so i can keep the volume low enough during the program that the loud(er) advertisements don't knock me out of my chair... or interrupt my nap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain - works fairly well for audio. I imagine some sort of mean average would be good enough for balancing a movie's loudness to the adverts.
Yeah, in the audio production world, it’s commonly referred to as a “compander”. A compressor for the loud parts, and an expander for the quiet parts. Commonly used in speaker phones for being able to pick up a large range of volumes, meeting rooms for remote meetings, plug-and-play ballroom mic systems, overhead announcement systems, etc… Basically anything that you want to set up once and then never worry about tuning. They can be a pain to properly dial in at first, but can be extremely useful.
Indeed this is an overly solved problem. Personally I prefer ReplayGain for music and some video-audio productions while compression is great for making voices clearer. Thinking about adverts, compression would likely be the winner for making it less jarring decibel wise.
I agree. We're talking about different things though. It doesn't level the entire track, it turns up the volume on the track (or down in this case. A lot of mine were set to 110dB) so all the tracks are averaged. It didn't change the tracks themselves. I'm not an audio engineer, I don't know the precise term. I still get, for example in edm, good bass drops, I just don't have to touch the volume knob anymore.
This is me, but with my grandfather instead of grandma. He can barely hear anything, so he cranks his TV up too. I think it's almost 60 now. up from like mid 30's from 3 years ago.
And yeah, YouTube is a hostile offender of that. He watches everything on a Gemini device, because that device is the only way you can lock in your price for two years. Otherwise, they hold the right to jack you up to almost $50 more a month after 2 months of having service, so I can't just throw an ad-blocker style thing on it because it's directly controlled by DirecTV.
And you can always tell when it hits an ad break, because you can literally feel the ad vibrating the floor.
I feel bad for my gram because she doesn't remember/know how to reduce the volume on her own, and every damn time I turn it down he turns it back up again the next time he enters the room.
79 Comments
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 118 pts · 38d
Imagine seeing ads…
scops@reddthat.com · 84 pts · 38d
Imagine paying for ads...
This is one of those headlines for a problem I had no idea existed
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 38d
Use to be a problem on TV too. The same type of laws regulate tv ads.
And they are still too loud
ByteJunk@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 38d
TV ads are acceptable, they are strictly limited to -24 LUFS. Streaming media like YouTube enforces -14 LUFS.
That's 10 decibels, it's twice as loud.
And that's just the hard cutoff.
While YouTube will bring down the volume automatically (say, if you upload something with -9 LUFS, it will bring it down to -14), it doesn't scale up.
So maybe a conscious creator is uploading at -24, then BOOM ad at -14 and your ears start to bleed.
This law aims to fix that, by forcing the ads to be at the same volume of the content that's playing, instead of just being able to blast at full volume.
Ghoelian@piefed.social · 5 pts · 38d
TV ads are not acceptable. that -24 limit is pretty useless if the program you were watching is quiet so you turned up the volume. Besides, even if this weren't an issue, no targeted ad is acceptable.
yakko@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 38d
Sincerely. I refuse to comprehend some people.
takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 36d
And watching ads to see ads (watching trailers on IMDb).
fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip · 9 pts · 38d
no thank you
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 38d
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Me every year at super bowl time: ❔
toddestan@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 38d
I still don't get the people who say they are going to watch the Super Bowl for the ads, then the day after the game they're bitching about how terrible the ads were.
I'm like... yeah... they are ads....
Admittedly back in the .com days there were some good ones.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 38d
I mean, you kinda answered your own question there. They USED TO be entertaining.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 38d
I miss when ads were fun and you'd watch the superbowl to see the new California raisins animation and Michael Jackson video.
Smooth Criminal was amazing the first time it aired. Still great, but the long video blew us away.
EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml · 87 pts · 38d
Adblock and piracy is the only way.
Fuck Big Media
Whitebrow@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 38d
Now we just need to normalize audio between action sequences and normal conversation, that shit hella disproportionate a lot of the time.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 38d
I mean my audio system pulls the dialog into the center channel and puts everything else into the surround so it's easier to pick out.
I am shit at picking out a voice in a crowd, so that helps me immeasurably.
oce@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 37d
This should be a nice option, not a necessity. Sound mixing should be done correctly to adapt to the average stereo system with an average sound level by default. Then people who can afford a better setup and an individual house can opt for the mixing that fits their situation.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 37d
This is why I watch with subtitles. I set the volume based on action scenes, and they are practically whispering in conversations.
brsrklf@jlai.lu · 47 pts · 38d
Not in the US, but I'd go even further and ban any ad mimicking an "alerting" kind of sound, especially starting with it.
Alarms, ringtones, even loud door knocking. Even worse, traffic sounds with car horns (rare, but some still do this shit somehow). I can't believe some of the ads I get are still legal, deliberately stressing you to get your attention shouldn't be.
celia@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 36d
Those car horn/siren radio ads are worse than Internet clickbait and dangerous. Hate them worse than extra loud ads.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 37d
Emergency sirens in radio ads (i.e. often played in the car) are the worst.
Zink@programming.dev · 5 pts · 36d
I'm thinking of a couple of entire industries that could be banned or destroyed to help people's brains.
emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 37d
I can't understand how people use any platforms with ads. Any ads are bad, but audio/video ads are the worst. I refuse to use any platform that tries to hijack my attention like that.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 36d
I worked on a crew that took lots of long interstate drives when "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys was a big radio hit. Every time that goddamned horn blasted in that song when we were on the road, we all frantically looked around to see the big truck that was about to kill us only to realize it was just the stupid Vengabus.
feetandballs@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 38d
Punish the brands that do it with boycotts, bad reviews and naming/shaming online. Call out the creative production and call them hacks. That must be why they're in advertising instead of making something someone would enjoy hearing.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 37d
🏴☠️
teyrnon@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 38d
Louder commercials than TV have long been illegal, but they don't enforce it. I know someone however that used to call or email or whatever the station to complain when they did it and they would stop for at least a bit because of those laws that went mostly unenforced.
But the less cynical more hopeful generations before us had passed those common sense laws and enforced them at one point.
BlackAura@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 38d
Yeah they had their chance. Audio streaming services have (mostly) managed to figure out licensing agreements so all music is on all platforms.
Video streaming services all created their own walled gardens with various levels of advertising. Paramount even offered an advertising free tier but would happily advertise their own shows before other shows (noticed specifically on Star Trek shows but I imagine other providers do it too).
In the end... Fuck them. I give up on trying to figure out streaming video with all its complications. Back to the seven seas to procure my own.
Test_Tickles@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 36d
You can file complaints with the FCC, but the FCC doesn't actively monitor it. The biggest problem is that no matter how the law is written, they will find ways to abuse it. The law actually requires that the average volume of the ad not be greater than the average volume of the show. And it even specifies that the average is a running average, not just the peak vs lowest. But then loud portions of the show pump that average up. Like let's say that during the credits you play really loud music, or really loud bloopers, well that would bump average. And if the commercial had a really long quiet period, like a long section where someone whispers the side affects a medication, well that bumps your loudest allowable portions up. They can also wait for the quietest part of a show to make the difference more significant.
And there's much more that they can do that makes it seem louder, like frequency boosting and audio compression that are all totally legal. So, they can actually bump the apparent "loudness" of a commercial quite a bit and still be legal.
Aatube@piefed.social · 1 pts · 35d
FCC does not have jurisdiction over streaming.
Test_Tickles@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d
That is true, but I am not sure why you are telling me. Responded to the wrong comment maybe?
Aatube@piefed.social · 2 pts · 35d
just to clarify that this only works for TV and not streaming, because the article is about streaming
Aatube@piefed.social · 1 pts · 35d
for TV, yes, not for streaming.
Babalugats@feddit.uk · 19 pts · 38d
granny has the audio for her TV shows turned up because she can barely hear them. On the ad break the volume is insane 🙉
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 17 pts · 38d
This was made illegal decades ago on network and cable television. About time it circled around to streaming.
adarza@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 38d
one of the reasons i have captions on all the time. so i can keep the volume low enough during the program that the loud(er) advertisements don't knock me out of my chair... or interrupt my nap.
kambusha@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 38d
I HAVE A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT AND I NEED CASH NOWWW
AstralPath@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 37d
CALL J.G. WENTWORTH!
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 38d
Excuse me, I am finally glad I'm in California for a reason besides the food
grue@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 38d
On one hand, this, on the other hand, y'all are trying to destroy the entire concept of property rights by putting government-snitch DRM in 3D printers. You've got some work to do to crawl out of that net negative.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 37d
Wow. Way to hunt down one of the few issues we're dealing with. An issue other states are also dealing with.
It is shitty, but go to Idaho and tell us we're not doing well (if you aren't arrested for some crazy draconian law, of course).
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 37d
Yeah, this unfortunately. The Californian government is nuts
Snapz@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 38d
You're taking a lot for granted then. Seek out some broader perspective
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
Happy Cake Day!
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com · 15 pts · 38d
The socialist shithole strikes again! Capitalists love loud ads.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 38d
WHAT
SnowMeowXP@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 38d
I think if I experience this a number of times, I’ll stop watching that channel.
nanometer1625@thelemmy.club · 10 pts · 38d
Hell yeah California. Suck it, Peacock.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 7 pts · 38d
W
DevDave@piefed.social · 7 pts · 38d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain - works fairly well for audio. I imagine some sort of mean average would be good enough for balancing a movie's loudness to the adverts.
too_high_for_this@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 38d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 38d
Yeah, in the audio production world, it’s commonly referred to as a “compander”. A compressor for the loud parts, and an expander for the quiet parts. Commonly used in speaker phones for being able to pick up a large range of volumes, meeting rooms for remote meetings, plug-and-play ballroom mic systems, overhead announcement systems, etc… Basically anything that you want to set up once and then never worry about tuning. They can be a pain to properly dial in at first, but can be extremely useful.
DevDave@piefed.social · 3 pts · 38d
Indeed this is an overly solved problem. Personally I prefer ReplayGain for music and some video-audio productions while compression is great for making voices clearer. Thinking about adverts, compression would likely be the winner for making it less jarring decibel wise.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 38d
I used an app to level my entire audio collection to 93 dB a while back. Now it's all the same loud at the same number. It just took a day of work.
crimson_iris@piefed.social · 2 pts · 38d
There is music that benefits from dynamic range. Maybe not metal or pop or techno, but classical music and soundtracks for example.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 37d
I agree. We're talking about different things though. It doesn't level the entire track, it turns up the volume on the track (or down in this case. A lot of mine were set to 110dB) so all the tracks are averaged. It didn't change the tracks themselves. I'm not an audio engineer, I don't know the precise term. I still get, for example in edm, good bass drops, I just don't have to touch the volume knob anymore.
Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 38d
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
Dude I got tinnitus. I watch louder than gran
Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
Pika@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 37d
This is me, but with my grandfather instead of grandma. He can barely hear anything, so he cranks his TV up too. I think it's almost 60 now. up from like mid 30's from 3 years ago.
And yeah, YouTube is a hostile offender of that. He watches everything on a Gemini device, because that device is the only way you can lock in your price for two years. Otherwise, they hold the right to jack you up to almost $50 more a month after 2 months of having service, so I can't just throw an ad-blocker style thing on it because it's directly controlled by DirecTV.
And you can always tell when it hits an ad break, because you can literally feel the ad vibrating the floor.
I feel bad for my gram because she doesn't remember/know how to reduce the volume on her own, and every damn time I turn it down he turns it back up again the next time he enters the room.
darkmogool@feddit.org · 4 pts · 36d
ads? 🏴☠️
lenocolomo@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 36d
Depends on if local or hosted. Just that the hosted ones are ... usually not filtered.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 38d
Is this loud, or just boosted loudness?
Where I live it has been illegal to up the volume for publicity, but not to cram it so full of loudness the clipping cuts your hair.
W3dd1e@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 38d
FINALLY
SaraTonin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 36d
They say “average” volume. What do they mean by that? Or, more precisely, how are they measuring that? RMS? LUFS?
Probably LUFS, but even with LUFS there are ways to make perceived volume louder while remaining within a threshold
Blackfeathr@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Now do broadcast TV.
FullPenguin@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 38d
That was passed federally in 2010 under the CALM Act
WYLD_STALLYNS@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 38d
How do viewers report violations?
Blackfeathr@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 38d
Oh wow. In that case it is definitely not being followed on my local stations.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 38d
That’s because enforcement is largely based on viewer reports. And nobody bothers to report them.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 36d
finally! This has been a scourge for decades.
nroth@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
Focusing on the real problems of our time
Snapz@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 38d
Didn't takeaway from anything else to do this. Grow up.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 37d
I feel MAD Magazine was already lampooning loud ads in the 1960s.... plus ca change
87Six@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 36d
There are people that still get ads on their shows? Ew. Icky.
Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -2 pts · 36d
I know right? This is 2026, we're all self-hosting and ad-blocking now! Only sheeple would pay for no ads.
pyre@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 36d
because this is Lemmy it's impossible to know if this comment is sarcastic or genuine.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 36d
the instance is anarchist so i would assume it's genuine.
Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 4d
Both I guess
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 38d
How many times do we have to get laws like this passed?
I swear I feel like all consumer protections have just been thrown out.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
They’re working on it.