henges@ingr.com (John Hengesbach) (09/18/89)
There has been a whole flurry of activity on this subject of commercial "killing". I just thought I'd add my two cents worth. On the subject of "louder" commercials: The audio level for programs is set so that the peaks do not exceed 0 VU . This means that the average program level is much lower. The same is tru for the commercials. That is, the peaks do not exceed 0 VU. However, almost all the audio for commercials is run through a compressor or reduce the dynamic range, but increase the average level. Therefore it sounds louder. If any station is broadcasting sound which is "clipped" or distorted, it is because the engineer has the levels set too high. From a dollars and cents (sense as well) point of view, the stations would never put in a system to automatically identify commercials. THIS IS THEIR LIFEBLOOD!! Without commercials, they don't exist!!!! The discussions about determining when changes in (or appearances of) chroma level occur are not guaranteed to produce repeatable results. While it is true that disturances in the various sync signals MAY BE detectable between programs changes (and that's what happens between the program and a commercial, or between two commercials), it will vary from programs to program, network to network. I thought the best reply was "what will you do with the time while the commercial is playing?". If you are watching the program on tape, the FF button will solve your problem. If you are watching live, you have to go to that bathroom sooner or later... I would vote for VCR manufactures putting a button on their machines which automatically fast forwarded in 30 second increments. All commercial time slots are in these multiples, even if they have 10 or 15 second commercials in them. BUT MY LARGEST VOTE WOULD GO to small stations who would employ people with common sense when "editting" movies for commercials. This is not typically a problem on ABC,NBC CBS etc, but the game goes something like this: Business Manager: "We need 15 commercials in this 3 hour film" Film Cutter: "No problem, that's 5 commercials per hour, one every 12 minutes" And that's EXACTLY what they do. Imagine if you will watching "Gone with the Wind" cut by someone of this ilk: "Frankly Scarlet, I don't....And you clothes can be as smell as clean as a spring day, if only you use...." If you don't believe this can and does happen, watch a late night television movie on any station, or your local independent station. -- John Hengesbach ..!uunet!ingr!henges Intergraph henges@ingr.com 1 Madison Industrial Park (205)772-2000 Huntsville, Alabama 35807
clw@hprnd.HP.COM (Carl Wuebker) (09/20/89)
You might be able to use the commerical's audio compression trick to silence them. Here's an idea... use the ratio of peak audio output to average (RMS) audio output (averaged over 1~2 seconds) to silence the speaker.