Loudness of TV Commercials

You can skip commercials with Tivo-like devices. Also commercials come in fixed time lengths, it's very easy to manually scan past them. Since the overwhelming majority of TVs and home theater systems are remote controlled, the changing volume just isn't a big concern - you use the remote to change the volume. Philips applied for a patent earlier this year for a TV that freezes it controls whenever a commercial starts so you can't change the channel or the volume. They have no plans to implement this feature since they see no consumer demand for it.

Early versions of PVRs such as Replay TV did allow you to easily skip commercials. The networks threatened the manufacturers, and the feature was soon eliminated. There may be hacks available for PVRs. A Google search will probably find some.

I remember when cable tv was promised "commercial-free" YEAH RIGHT, that blew out like the wind.

Now, they added the annoying animation commercials running along the bottom of your screen DURING programming, along with the station's permanent insignia in the corner, they can't get enough, can they ?

So you suffer VISUALLY and AUDIBLY, plus we're PAYING for these services.

I believe it was Magnavox that used to sell a TV that lowered the volume of commercials. Has anyone other than me ever wondered why you have to pay for cable TV but still have to watch commercials? After all, commercials are supposed to pay for the use of the broadcast.

Rwwear

Yep....not fair at all, it's not like cable is cheap? We pay a high cable bill to watch a program full of commercials.

Dave