Comercials too loud. Any plugin for this?

[gkar]

If you're not interested in Comskip, or any other variant, why not set up your config to skip the average length of a com break, then FF to the beginning of the next programme segment. 4 or 5 keystrokes and you're there.

Whether commercials are playedback or recorded louder is semantics: they do playback louder through HT systems & radios. It is a deliberate ploy operating off human psyche. Why does advertising work for the majority in the first place: repetition & emotion. I say the majority because I assume everyone here who has commercial deletion plugins operating detest ad breaks as much as I do.

to quatify (for me, at least) what I said earlier about radios. I carry a small pocket-sized one personally so I can listen to my favourite sports station at work. Everytime one of their incessant ad breaks come on I am forced to manually adjust the volume level as it clips the small speaker. Then readjust when the host comes back on.

[4zm4r3d02]

Here's a link to a FAQ on a US tv station's website that includes an explanation of why commercials sound louder: http://www.wwsb.com/frameset.asp?page=ht...ch.shtml#5

[elite]

Basicaly the people making commercials compress the sh*t out of the dynamic range, so the audio is sitting just below 0db for the majority of the time - the idea being that if the commercial "appears" louder it will be more likely to grab your attention... This can also be seen in certain circles within the music industry, where everyone wants their track to be "louder" than everyone elses.

The only solution (without detecting commercials) is to reduce the dynamic range of the entire recording (including the show), then the difference between commercials and the show will be reduced - of course the contrast between the quiet and loud parts of the show will also be reduced.

Having worked in music production for a few years I have a couple of compressors lying around I have in the past patched these between gbpvr and my audio amps. The trick is to add just enough compression to level the dynamic range out, but not enough that you introduce "pumping". If done with enough care and with decent equipment the use is transparent (apart from the neighbours not be woken up when the ads kick in).

IIRC we had a discussion about this a few months ago, and I think the way forward was to use ffmpeg to patch in a software compressor/normaise.

Links:

Normalisation in GBPVR
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=7347
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16190

Audio Compression
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec00/ar...ession.htm

[4zm4r3d02]

Here's a link to a freeware application that can alter various properties of directshow audio output: http://www.tfm.ro/audiofilter/audiofilter.html

It claims to have automatic gain control, but those settings are greyed-out on my pc. It does say it is a beta version.

It can do eq and increase the gain, as well as channel swapping and mono mixdown.

It works with GB-PVR on my pc.

[smajor]

I too wouldn't mind seeing this as a plug in (perhaps as part of the Volume plug in?) Our newer model Sony TV does have this as a built in feature, however our other TVs do not.

[Torque]

I have a Sony TV too and it works really well. So well that I had really forgotten this problem existed... until I went to see some family and was watching TV with them. Holy-moly the commercials are "loud". If my TV didn't handle it, this would definately be something I'd be interested in.

[SWK]

Here's a link to a freeware application that can alter various properties of directshow audio output: http://www.tfm.ro/audiofilter/audiofilter.html
...
It works with GB-PVR on my pc.

I guess this would have no effect when watching using an MVP?

[4zm4r3d02]

I guess this would have no effect when watching using an MVP?

No, I think GB-PVR just streams the mpeg file to the MVP, and the application I mentioned only effects the volume during playback on the pc by GB-PVR or other program that uses directshow for output.