this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Louder commercials than TV have long been illegal, but they don't enforce it. I know someone however that used to call or email or whatever the station to complain when they did it and they would stop for at least a bit because of those laws that went mostly unenforced.

But the less cynical more hopeful generations before us had passed those common sense laws and enforced them at one point.

[–] BlackAura@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Yeah they had their chance. Audio streaming services have (mostly) managed to figure out licensing agreements so all music is on all platforms.

Video streaming services all created their own walled gardens with various levels of advertising. Paramount even offered an advertising free tier but would happily advertise their own shows before other shows (noticed specifically on Star Trek shows but I imagine other providers do it too).

In the end... Fuck them. I give up on trying to figure out streaming video with all its complications. Back to the seven seas to procure my own.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 hours ago

Is this loud, or just boosted loudness?

Where I live it has been illegal to up the volume for publicity, but not to cram it so full of loudness the clipping cuts your hair.

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 20 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Not in the US, but I'd go even further and ban any ad mimicking an "alerting" kind of sound, especially starting with it.

Alarms, ringtones, even loud door knocking. Even worse, traffic sounds with car horns (rare, but some still do this shit somehow). I can't believe some of the ads I get are still legal, deliberately stressing you to get your attention shouldn't be.

[–] feetandballs@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Punish the brands that do it with boycotts, bad reviews and naming/shaming online. Call out the creative production and call them hacks. That must be why they're in advertising instead of making something someone would enjoy hearing.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 25 minutes ago

🏴‍☠️

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 5 points 8 hours ago
[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 13 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Excuse me, I am finally glad I'm in California for a reason besides the food

[–] grue@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

On one hand, this, on the other hand, y'all are trying to destroy the entire concept of property rights by putting government-snitch DRM in 3D printers. You've got some work to do to crawl out of that net negative.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

You're taking a lot for granted then. Seek out some broader perspective

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Happy Cake Day!

[–] EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml 74 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Adblock and piracy is the only way.

Fuck Big Media

[–] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 20 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Now we just need to normalize audio between action sequences and normal conversation, that shit hella disproportionate a lot of the time.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago

I mean my audio system pulls the dialog into the center channel and puts everything else into the surround so it's easier to pick out.

I am shit at picking out a voice in a crowd, so that helps me immeasurably.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 93 points 16 hours ago (4 children)
[–] scops@reddthat.com 58 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Imagine paying for ads...

This is one of those headlines for a problem I had no idea existed

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Use to be a problem on TV too. The same type of laws regulate tv ads.

And they are still too loud

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

TV ads are acceptable, they are strictly limited to -24 LUFS. Streaming media like YouTube enforces -14 LUFS.

That's 10 decibels, it's twice as loud.

And that's just the hard cutoff.
While YouTube will bring down the volume automatically (say, if you upload something with -9 LUFS, it will bring it down to -14), it doesn't scale up.
So maybe a conscious creator is uploading at -24, then BOOM ad at -14 and your ears start to bleed.

This law aims to fix that, by forcing the ads to be at the same volume of the content that's playing, instead of just being able to blast at full volume.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 3 points 6 hours ago

TV ads are not acceptable. that -24 limit is pretty useless if the program you were watching is quiet so you turned up the volume. Besides, even if this weren't an issue, no targeted ad is acceptable.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 2 points 11 hours ago

Sincerely. I refuse to comprehend some people.

[–] fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 8 points 14 hours ago

no thank you

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Me every year at super bowl time: ❔

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I still don't get the people who say they are going to watch the Super Bowl for the ads, then the day after the game they're bitching about how terrible the ads were.

I'm like... yeah... they are ads....

Admittedly back in the .com days there were some good ones.

[–] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 3 points 8 hours ago

I mean, you kinda answered your own question there. They USED TO be entertaining.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world -2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

How many times do we have to get laws like this passed?

I swear I feel like all consumer protections have just been thrown out.

[–] bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The socialist shithole strikes again! Capitalists love loud ads.

[–] nanometer1625@thelemmy.club 10 points 13 hours ago

Hell yeah California. Suck it, Peacock.

[–] Babalugats@feddit.uk 15 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (3 children)

granny has the audio for her TV shows turned up because she can barely hear them. On the ad break the volume is insane 🙉

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 12 hours ago

This was made illegal decades ago on network and cable television. About time it circled around to streaming.

[–] kambusha@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago

I HAVE A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT AND I NEED CASH NOWWW

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 4 points 13 hours ago

one of the reasons i have captions on all the time. so i can keep the volume low enough during the program that the loud(er) advertisements don't knock me out of my chair... or interrupt my nap.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Imagine when your grandmother watches them, it is already turned up too loud.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

This is me, but with my grandfather instead of grandma. He can barely hear anything, so he cranks his TV up too. I think it's almost 60 now. up from like mid 30's from 3 years ago.

And yeah, YouTube is a hostile offender of that. He watches everything on a Gemini device, because that device is the only way you can lock in your price for two years. Otherwise, they hold the right to jack you up to almost $50 more a month after 2 months of having service, so I can't just throw an ad-blocker style thing on it because it's directly controlled by DirecTV.

And you can always tell when it hits an ad break, because you can literally feel the ad vibrating the floor.

I feel bad for my gram because she doesn't remember/know how to reduce the volume on her own, and every damn time I turn it down he turns it back up again the next time he enters the room.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Dude I got tinnitus. I watch louder than gran

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 4 points 12 hours ago
[–] SnowMeowXP@lemmy.world 12 points 16 hours ago

I think if I experience this a number of times, I’ll stop watching that channel.

[–] DevDave@piefed.social 7 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain - works fairly well for audio. I imagine some sort of mean average would be good enough for balancing a movie's loudness to the adverts.

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, in the audio production world, it’s commonly referred to as a “compander”. A compressor for the loud parts, and an expander for the quiet parts. Commonly used in speaker phones for being able to pick up a large range of volumes, meeting rooms for remote meetings, plug-and-play ballroom mic systems, overhead announcement systems, etc… Basically anything that you want to set up once and then never worry about tuning. They can be a pain to properly dial in at first, but can be extremely useful.

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