Loud "Local" Commercial Breaks

[Buy_The_Tie]

We were watching the season premiere of 24 tonight on my fancy new HTPC in glorious high definition.

The commercial breaks that appeared to be from the network were at the same volume as the program.  The commercial breaks that were "local" were *really* loud.

Did anybody else notice this, or is there some sort of setting in my HTPC that is causing the problem?

[kevbeck122]

FOX's national feed is in Dolby Digital 5.1, while the FOX6 local feed is only stereo... that's why.  DD5.1 has a wide dynamic range and will sound quieter, mainly during dialog.  There might be a plugin or sound setting in your HTPC program where you can compress the dynamic range so that volume levels are similar between DD and stereo.

[techboy]

Try adjusting the dialogue normalization function of your audio decoder properties.

[Buy_The_Tie]

I found the following adjustment, I'm hoping it does the trick.  I will report back with what I find.  (Look for the big obvious orange arrow)

[LoadStar]

I found the following adjustment, I'm hoping it does the trick.  I will report back with what I find.  (Look for the big obvious orange arrow)

I'm not seeing the arrow, sorry... can you make it a bit clearer?

[SRW1000]

I found the following adjustment, I'm hoping it does the trick.  I will report back with what I find.  (Look for the big obvious orange arrow)

That should help, but keep in mind that it will also compress the dynamic range of the show you're watching.  So, for a show like 24, the dialog will seem louder, and the explosions will likely sound more quiet.  Some see this as a benefit, other's prefer to watch it as intended.

As an alternative, we usually either turn down or mute the commercials, or just use the DVR to skip over them completely.

Scott

[Steve Mann]

Commercials... how last century.  

[RLJSlick]

No kidding, you ever heard of a remote control?

[Buy_The_Tie]

Just to be clear.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro, using the media center as my PVR.

The "skip ahead" button on the remote jumps 30 seconds.

For the1/2 second between button presses, the commercial is playing, and it just about blows us out of the room.

Don't be silly.... of course we don't sit through and watch the commercials.  :wave: