Automatic TV attenuation with thumb drive....Possible?

[vandy12]

TL;DR Summary

Stopping the TV volume from fluctuating between normal and really loud.

Greetings from Tennessee. I am not an EE but I like to tinker. So you are watching TV and the commercial comes and all of a sudden you are getting blasted out of your recliner. Also when I'm watching Andy Griffith on Amazon prime? Everything is going along fine and then they play some music and again it blasts your ears out. Would it be possible to make some kind of a limiting device, attenuating device, that would automatically stop the TV from blasting you between music, speaking voice, and commercials? I would love a thumb drive you could plug in and do this or some kind of small in line device. Thanks.

 

[anorlunda]

Good question. Many of us are annoyed by loud commecials.

Yes there are many automatic volume systems. Some TVs come with that as a built-in feature. For example the following.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00013859
What is Advanced Auto Volume feature?

To get noticed, television advertisers love to make their commercials really loud. This can lead to unpleasant jumps in volume when a television show goes into a commercial break. Other unexpected jumps can happen when you change channels or switch inputs. Sony corrects the problem with Advanced Auto Volume.
Most movies and high-definition programming is recorded using a 5.1-channel sound track. The main sound is typically sent to the center channel by design. This enables dialog from the actors to appear to come from the screen. Even stereo sound tracks tend to place dialog in the middle. Typical auto volume systems cannot tell the difference between the center channel and the ambient or background sounds. These systems are often aggressively turning the volume down if it jumps too high or up if it jumps too low. An example would be a program where a couple is talking in a car. When the husband speaks, the circuit decides this is too loud and lowers the volume. Before the wife can answer, the circuit decides this is too soft and raises the volume. This can result in highly unstable volume, which is distinctly unpleasant to hear.
The Advanced Auto Volume circuit is smarter. The circuit considers only the center channel, it is less often fooled. The Advanced Auto Volume can be bold and make more powerful adjustments when the commercials come on or there are volume changes.

 

[vandy12]

Good question. Many of us are annoyed by loud commecials.

Yes there are many automatic volume systems. Some TVs come with that as a built-in feature. For example the following.

I like your detailed answer, but a lot of TV's do not have this feature and I think the majority of them don't because I've seen some people say they were seeking them out and they are hard to find. This leads to this question. Since this technology has been developed is there any way to make it portable so you can use it on any TV at any given time? If someone could figure out how to do this with a thumb drive would they be an electronic genius and millionaire? HA! Seriously, if you can do this within the TV circuit it makes sense to my feeble mind you should be able to make a portable device which can accomplish the same task on any TV. Because of my lack of electrical expertise, I don't know if this is physically or technically possible without it being integrated into the TV so I thought I would run it by the experts for thoughts because I'm nosey.

 

[berkeman]

This leads to this question. Since this technology has been developed is there any way to make it portable so you can use it on any TV at any given time?

Yes:

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/...om/dam/imageserve/699112087/0x0.jpg?fit=scale

 

[anorlunda]

Have you searched elsewhere. Here's a free-standing device I found with 10 seconds of searching.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008VWOJ/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[vandy12]

I actually did several searches on both Amazon and Google before I posted the question. I just missed this what can I say? Must have been the way I worded the search but I tried TV auto volume, TV automatic attenuation, etc. The ones I found had volume controls in the line but not automatic. Thank you for the link.

 

[DaveE]

Yes:

View attachment 279781
https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/1200x0/filters:format(jpg)/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/699112087/0x0.jpg?fit=scale

Mine's always too slow.

 

[DaveE]

Back in the day, I had a VCR that would post process the recording to remove the commercials. This involved a lot of tape whirring sounds and took several minutes. As I recall, it worked really well. I wonder what it was looking for to decide?

 

[vandy12]

Yes:

View attachment 279781
https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/1200x0/filters:format(jpg)/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/699112087/0x0.jpg?fit=scale

Your link goes to a picture of a remote...is there some kind of device you were trying to link to? I can see where latency would be a really big problem. How can the TV anticipate the big volume change before it happens?

Back in the day, I had a VCR that would post process the recording to remove the commercials. This involved a lot of tape whirring sounds and took several minutes. As I recall, it worked really well. I wonder what it was looking for to decide?

When I bought my first computer they didn't have writable CD's so I had a Colorado tape machine for backup. That sucker did a lot of whirring too...back and forth. I also spent 400 extra dollars for a whopping 16GB of RAM and a whopping 1GB HD. The standard at the time...500 MEGS. The good old days when it took three days to configure Doom, Doom connect to sound card, Doom connect to joystick, Doom configured to video card...HA!

Mine's always too slow.

 

[berkeman]

Your link goes to a picture of a remote...is there some kind of device you were trying to link to? I can see where latency would be a really big problem. How can the TV anticipate the big volume change before it happens?

Yes, I linked to a picture of a remote control because that's what I use to deal with the volume issues you described. For most shows that I watch, it's pretty obvious when they are about to cut to commercial, so I just reach over and click the Mute button on the remote. When the commercials are over, click Mute again to return to normal volume.

 

[hutchphd]

For the true couch potato (moi, sometimes) my favorite remote button was the "30 second previous channel " function. If you were surfing two parallel programs and the commercial came on, this could be pushed to watch your alternative channel. Four quick `pushes would produce a perfect two minute alternate interlude with automatic return after the commercials.
This was twenty years ago and I haven't seen it on any other set. Probably today I would just get confused...

 

[Averagesupernova]

A DVR that let's you pause/review while watching a current program is wonderful. Just start watching late enough so that you can skip through all the commercials. Just make sure it's set on the appropriate channel ahead of time. Start watching an hour long show about 20 minutes late will get you caught up to current time right at the end. Or, recording it and watching it later works well. Without a DVR I would not likely watch any TV. I don't watch much the way it is.

 

[Keith_McClary]

skip through all the commercials

I used to have a VCR with a button to skip ahead by one minute intervals while playing. My more recent VCRs and DVR don't have this - I have to fast-forward manually to the end of commercials.

I would like to have a gadget that would mute repeated commercials (and any other repeated material).

 

[anorlunda]

I would like to have a gadget that would mute repeated commercials (and any other repeated material).

Not really a gadget, but it is called Netflix.

 

[vandy12]

Yes, I linked to a picture of a remote control because that's what I use to deal with the volume issues you described. For most shows that I watch, it's pretty obvious when they are about to cut to commercial, so I just reach over and click the Mute button on the remote. When the commercials are over, click Mute again to return to normal volume.

I do this too but it is much more than just the commercials. It's going back and forth between the music and the show. The music blasts in Star Trek, Andy Griffith, then during talking it is too low. So your turn it up when the talking is going on, then the music comes on and wow it is so loud it makes your ears ring. I've adjusted the center speaker too. This actually happens during the TV show. Those commercials are terrible too. Pretty tired of the My Pillow dude. Look guy, I bought a couple of your pillows a year ago now will you shut up? HA! Thanks.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Back in the day, I had a VCR that would post process the recording to remove the commercials. This involved a lot of tape whirring sounds and took several minutes. As I recall, it worked really well. I wonder what it was looking for to decide?

There are several strategies that can be used. Average sound level, even enhanced colour saturation can be measured. But they will all risk losing legitimate programme material. But we now have programmes on demand and we usually don't have to rely on 'curated' material.

I would like to have a gadget that would mute repeated commercials (and any other repeated material).

I'm afraid that you suffer from the common misapprehension that TV material is 'free'. In the same breath, people object to paying for programmes via a TV license and they also object to the adverts 'spoiling' the watching experience. It's the same with online data sources as people assume it should all be free. Nothing is free.
Ads and access to our personal data are the price we pay for a poor model for information services these days.

A dated story. I remember a very sad senior member of staff who used to fly for the firm quite regularly. He was so pleased to tell us how he managed to listen to the sound track of the in-flight movie by using a rolled up magazine as a 'speaking tube' so that he could listen to the sound from the hole in the arm rest avoid paying for the hire of a pair of headphones. I think his back suffered as a consequence - but, hell, he got it for free.

I have to declare an interest here because I used to work for a well known public service Broadcaster.

 

[Keith_McClary]

I'm afraid that you suffer from the common misapprehension that TV material is 'free'.

No, that's why I'm targeting repeated material. I think this would be do-able. It might involve a 1(?) second delay line to give it time to recognize the repeat. For TV the video would also need to be delayed.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I'm targeting repeated material.

That's a personal choice and, of course, it can be great fun to make yourself a facility to cheat the system. (approve approve approve) But you are still paying the 'cost' in terms of time and effort.

I think we're not far from a much more Cloud-based system which will give us anything we want at a realistic price and we won't have the problem of doing our own archiving and following standards changes. How many of us have a cupboard full of ageing / decaying VHS tapes and a dead VHS player? (not me, aamof).

 

[Klystron]

I do this too but it is much more than just the commercials. It's going back and forth between the music and the show. The music blasts in Star Trek, Andy Griffith, then during talking it is too low. So your turn it up when the talking is going on, then the music comes on and wow it is so loud it makes your ears ring. I've adjusted the center speaker too. ...

My two year old TV includes audio controls for 'dialog normalization'. It works reasonably well with related audio settings to enhance speech while mildly inhibiting 'interference' from the soundtrack. Speech also seems much clearer using wireless headphones with ambient sound attenuation active.

Downside of using Bluetooth wireless connection coupled with dialog normalization includes some inherent delay between visual speaking cues and actual speech recognition. The delay becomes less noticeable after a few hours acclimation, presumably as one's brain adjusts to the simulated environment.

FTR I activate closed captioning (CC) in order to read the dialogue slightly before the actors speak, also helping bridge the gap in the inherent delays between visual and audio expression. While I read rapidly, CC's become just another visual cue to understand dialogue without being conscious of reading words.