Television's loudness war...

[UEAK]Clowd;7742230 said:
I don't watch much TV, but right now I'm relaxing after a project and I'm watching this movie on AMC... I have to turn the TV wayyy up to hear the movie, and then when the commercials come on it's like BAM and I am half deaf.

Same problem here... it's funny actually, as i was about to read up about this issue and see what is going on with commercial requirements/restrictments when it comes to volume.

I'll tell you this though, there was one company who were smart enough to create a commercial where there was just text.. no music, no voice, nothing.. absolute silence and just text saying "we dont need to shout to get the attention, if you need it, just buy it".
So they bought space between all the screaming commercials "BUY OUR PRODUCT!! BUY IT NOW!!" and then there is silence for 40 seconds.. surely that has gotten people's attention.. very smart marketing if you'd ask me.
 
ok i don't know if anyone here is crazy enough to think about this but i can't stand the compression used during sports events. ESPECIALLY baseball since i watch pretty much every baseball game i can on tv.

FOX is the WORST!!!

you can clearly hear the awful compression on the crowd noise when like a home run gets hit and it just makes the whole "stadium experience" be bad. i was watching a bunch of classic MLB playoff games from like the 90s and early this decade and the compression was much more subtle. it really irks me for some reason. you could tell the ratio is set wayy too strong and the attack time is too slow. the initial like, i don't know, crowd transient (is this a word?) sneaks through then just squashes to the level of a large crowd casually engaged in conversation instead of 50,000 roaring people.

tbs was a bit better for the playoffs this year but fox is awful. i'll try to find some clips. even SNY, the tv station of the new york mets, started this year and while it is not as bad as FOX it is still annoying. i'll try to find some clips.



ok here it is, proof:


first of all let me give you a background. i've been to well over 200 or so baseball games in my life, and pretty much every big sporting event in or around NYC in the last 10 years. i am a huge met fan and not a yankee fan. i can tell you with certainty that nowhere, except maybe college football games, is there any louder sports venues in America big spots than shea or yankee stadium. now most people say european soccer games, i don't know because i've never been to one. regardless that has nothing to do with this anyway. point is, during big moments, they get extremely loud. numerous tv announcers have said on the air nothing in professional sports compares as far as "instant moments" like a big moment in either of these. now i'll show some examples or really fucked up tv audio stuff and these examples are different viewpoints.

first, to get an idea of what it is like inside a raucous baseball stadium. this is a youtube clip of right before game 7 of the 2006 national league championship series, a game i was unfortunately at, and never recovered from as it was one of the darkest moments in mets history, but regardless, it was one of the most special moments being at that game the way the crowd was. -> [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp9w1dODHB4&feature=related[/ame]

ok got that?

now let's goto that very game. later on in that game here is one of, if not the best defensive play in baseball payoff history as seen on tv. once again i was there and it was one of the loudest i have heard that stadium. notice the compression on the crowd roar: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200806202968151

now here is the same play as seen from the stands via youtube:

clearly you see what i am talking about.

furhter proof. this year, in a crucial game late in the season against the chicago cubs, the loudest i had the heard the stadium, since that game in 2006 was when carlgos delgado hit a grand slam in the 3rd inning. this is on the mets own station, and the compression here is more apparent: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200809243541735

i can't find youtube of that but believe me, you hear like individual clapping and the whole roar transient just gets killed. i can tell you it was just as loud as the endy chavez catch, well, almost.

another 2008 clip from mets tv: ok this one is a joke, this was the last game ever at shea stadium, and with the mets clining by a thread to their life carlos beltran tied the score late in the game, though they lost this game, this was one of the 5 loudest i've ever heard shea stadium and the tv does no justice. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200809283566586


ok so you have seen some bad examples: compare it to older ones where you get the impact more.

ok let's goto 1999. this was again one of the top 5 loudest moments i've been part of and it was at the time the longest game in playoffs history. it was also freezing and raining and aside from a baseball aspect i got the flu after being in the freezing rain for 6 hours and when that HR got hit i jumped so high i slipped on the wet seat and hit my head on a railing and had to get a few stitched so i definetly remember it lol. regardless, here it is, one of the greatest moments in playoff history: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200806202968145

here is another one from that year a few weeks before the above video. as you can hear the crowd roar transient clearly punches through and it is sounds very clear. oh yeah, i was at this game too lol. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200809223530097

ok now back to fox. this is the 2001 world series. this was the first world series game i had ever been to, and like i said i am not a yankee fan, but i've gone to plenty of yankee games due to my geniune love for the sport. sooo i have to say, from a personal experience, next to game 7 of the 2006 nlcs at shea stadium, and one other moment in 2000, this was probably the loudest anythign my ears have heard in their life. i was not cheering that much here as i was stunned because this was definetly the second most amazing feat and display of pure magic i had seen. it is really special, and back in 2001, fox did a great job of recreating the excitement. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200805122685717

ok now waaay back to the days when they just probably didn't care and you can tell how the audio is it sounds much more like those youtube videos because it is less "treated": 1986 world series, one of the 2 or 3 best plays in baseball history: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200806202968146




anyway hope you get the point. same thing happens in football games nowadays btw. but the roar factor isn't as apparent because the games are pretty consistently loud unlike baseball where it is surges of energy.
 
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I LOL at the mentality that people will buy things and pay attention if its louder.

Take safestyle windows in the UK. I wonder whether anyone has ever watched that without wanting to grab something heavy to chuck at the TV screen. The quality of adverts at the moment is dire, It defies belief that people actually get paid for this shit. I think threatening people would be more effective than 90% of the shit thats on at the moment.

However... Australian beer adverts are usually good :)

Joe