Dolby promises to automatically control the volume of your TV

[roma_turok]

Las Vegas (NV) - Dolby promises to automatically control the volume of your TV: Most couch potatoes have clutched the remote control to raise the volume on quiet television shows only to be blown out of their sofas with a surprisingly loud commercial. In front of a select group of journalists at the MGM Grand Hotel, Dolby demonstrated 'Dolby Volume' and proclaimed that people would "never reach for the volume again."

Dolby Volume technology will first be built into flat-panel television sets and will process digital audio signals to dynamically raise and lower levels, the company said. Incoming PCM audio is processed "psycho-acoustically" and PCM audio is exported. According to Dolby engineers, Dolby Volume will work with all audio signals and won't care about bitrates or sampling rates. In addition, the processing does not impact the audio signal.

The technology was showed off in a listening room in the MGM Hotel Conference Center. Various pre-recorded television clips were played back to simulate the channel changing habits of an average viewer. At first, engineers demonstrated the clips with Dolby Audio turned off. The result was the typical "riding of the volume controls" or constant fiddling of the volume to raise or lower voices or annoying commercials.

With Dolby Volume turned on, engineers replayed the same set of clips. Company officials told us that the volume control aims for a "comfortable volume level" and would only need to be set once. Quiet scenes were adjusted upwards, while loud commercials were muted to an acceptable level. We did not notice a delay in the audio and the sound quality appeared the same as before.

Brett Crockett, an engineer for Dolby, said that Dolby Volume handles up to 30 db of reduction or amplification giving the technology 60 db of total range. According to Dolby, the adjustments are non-linear and are split into 40 sound bands called "critical hearing channels".

The firm intends provide the technology to semiconductor makers this quarter and estimates that television set makers will deliver the first Dolby Volume-embedded sets by next Christmas. No prices were specified, but executives said that the integration would result in an increase of "more than just a few percent."

For computer users, a software plug-in could be possible. Ramzi Haidanus, senior vice president and general manager of Dolby's Consumer division, said: "There are no obstacles to making a software product."

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/01/18/ces2007_dolby_volume/

[canadateck]

Sounds good.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Of course, it would be better if the FCC just enforced the law.....

[ozymango]

Of course, it would be better if the FCC just enforced the law.....

For broadcast stuff, yeah, but this would be cool for even your standard DVD movie that has a lot of dynamic range -- ever have to crank the sound to hear somebody whisper something and then a bomb goes off and you scramble for the remote? :P

Or more seriously, for people like my dad who has hearing issues and is both hard-of-hearing in some frequencies and overly-sensitive in others (variation of tinnitus) and getting the sound balanced out is a real pain for him.

Although I definitely would want this to be an option that could be switched off, versus just adding it as the defacto standard.

[edDV]

Kudos to Dolby if this works but expect enormous pressure from the ad community to fight this.

It is all about equalization and volume compression. The problem is difficult to fix at the broadcast transmitter location because the audio modulation envelope looks similar for quiet movies and loud commercials. The tricks are embedded into the audio at the ad production stage.

AC3 has made the problem so much worse. The wide dynamic range of AC3 causes a lower volume floor for normal dialog. The loud end of the scale is reserved for explosions and car chases. The ad guys equalize for compressed constant average volume and use announcers (like that Office Depot siren-harpie) that have mastered the controlled yell to penetrate your ears.

If Dolby is successful with this battle, the ad mafia will seek counter measures using even more annoying announcers and music equalization.

I'm glad Dolby is in the fight on the right side but this isn't the end of the war.

I think the answer is Dolby type solutions + consumer complaint. Gov't regulation is usually counterproductive. The technology is too easily manipulated.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

haven't Sony and Phillips/Magnavox TV's offered an option on their sets for like 8 years now that promises to do the same thing?
Both of my current Sony's have it (I'm at work now -- can't remember the name of the feature) and my old 27" Phillips had it too.
Didn't work for shit...
this sounds promising, but as already stated, I'm sure somebody will still figure out how to get around it and have commercials blast out of the rear channel.

[edDV]

Those modes (like Toshiba "StableSound") never worked on any of my TV sets. I even paid more to get it.

[dvdguy4]

SmartSound is what I think its called

[Mr. Dweezel]

"After thousands of complaints to the FCC about this problem, a battle was fought and the end results were that TV commercials could no longer be INCREASED in volume. Unfortunately, the ruling did NOT say that the TV show (program) could not be REDUCED in volume so, the problem continues. Also, they have added audio compression to TV commercials to make them SOUND louder without increasing the volume so much. This is info obtained from the FCC web site."

Link to the quote..... (4th post from the top)

http://www.creativitypool.com/viewtopic.php?t=535&highlight=




.

[Wile_E]

For broadcast stuff, yeah, but this would be cool for even your standard DVD movie that has a lot of dynamic range -- ever have to crank the sound to hear somebody whisper something and then a bomb goes off and you scramble for the remote? :P

Some DVD players like my Panasonic has a "night sound" mode that compresses or normalizes the dynamic range. Now Dolby needs to go after NTSC colors and try to stabilize them! The colors on my cable service range vastly across channels. Even some digital HD channels are out of whack.

[FulciLives]

Am I the only one that wants full dynamic sound?

I don't like the idea of any device mucking about with my audio to make it more "normalized".

I think in the end that is just asking for compromised audio.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[edDV]

There are many senarios where commercial breaks can be separated from the primary program and processed separately.

An extreme piece of counter ad volume hardware would completely mute (at user option) commercials deemed excessively loud. It would be a great stocking stuffer next Christmas.

Just offer it for $29.95 and charge for firmware updates.

[lordsmurf]

but expect enormous pressure from the ad community to fight this.

Sorry to be frank, but the ad community can go **** themselves with a broomstick. I'm sick and tired of commercials that are so loud they are almost damaging my speakers.

[edDV]

but expect enormous pressure from the ad community to fight this.

Sorry to be frank, but the ad community can go **** themselves with a broomstick. I'm sick and tired of commercials that are so loud they are almost damaging my speakers.

They will look at the numbers. They only react to complaints creatively applied.

[redwudz]

My grandmother years ago had a plug in device on her TV so she could mute the audio during commercials. I guess it gave her something to do... It was fine until she forgot to raise the volume back up after the commercial.

I have a volume limiter on my Magnavox TV which works fairly well. But when it's activated it insists on putting 'SMART SOUND' and 'STEREO' on the screen in large glaring red letters every time I change channels. I finally gave up and turned it off. Why do these manufacturers just not get it

[RabidDog]

They put in things like smartsound and volume normalization so they can be added to the feature list b4 you buy. However they have to make sure it has some inbuilt flaws so you dont actually use it. Its called commercial TV, funded by ad-breaks.

Unless its the BBC which has no advertising, just infomercials abouts its own upcoming programs and its website and its radio stations and its Farsi language Podcasts