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Volume increase on promo videos on BBC One Sth HD

peterworks

peterworks

Ye Olde Bowler
Has anyone else experienced this ? Some promos before the 10 o'clock news, especially Match of the Day, have a much increased volume. After the promo the sound level returns to normal.
It has only started happening on the 'new' channel and does not happen on any other channels. It is the same whether using the sound bar or the TV itself.
 
Owen Smith said:
I tend to only watch recordings so I never watch the promos for anthing.
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This is what I usually do. If I watch something live then adverts, promos etc always seem to be louder whatever the channel. I'm sure the broadcasters will deny doing this. Empirical evidence suggests otherwise.
 
It's called audio compression. Peak sound levels are identical, but psycho-acoustically they grab attention by being more sound dense, with less dynamic range.

It is nothing new. Lots of BBC promos suffer from it; as do adverts on commercial channels. But as I seldom watch live TV I miss most of such issues by viewing a recording of the programme.

e.g. We find The One Show intro is particularly strident after our local news (about the only live TV we tend to watch).

Other examples are older pop songs cf the latest releases.

I don't think any sensible broadcaster can/will deny it happens. I'm sure we fielded complaints about this issue way back in the 1990s.

I know that broadcasters are moving away from peak level metering of sound and to a Loudness Units system to, possibly, help with some of this. https://www.bbc.com/academy-guides/why-is-loudness-such-an-issue-for-tv-viewers/
 
Thanks all and @Rodders53 for the link. We have not particularly noticed it before as we tend to watch recorded stuff too. Obviously more wide spread than we thought. Looks like we may have to live with it.
Is it worth complaining to the BBC or do you think they will sort it out at some stage ;)
 
Always worth complaining to the BBC.
Keeps people in employment and does inform Management via the Daily Logs (which would make some entertaining reading for me on occasion).

I seriously doubt that anything much will change, though. It hasn't since all-analogue days after all.

Responses to perfectly valid complaints can sometimes be rather dismissive or played down in severity though e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaint/thecoronation

Some TVs have auto volume controls that attempt to minimise some variations. It might be worth investigating any such on your devices in case it helps with this?
 
Black Hole said:
...which I hate but might help for those suffering from hearing loss. The problem I find is when (in programme) the main commentary pauses, the background noises get boosted to fill the void. Ugh!
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I expected as much, but always worth a try.

I've just got a new TV and have discovered that - just as with my AVR and Audyssey - that its built in 'speaker room space tuning' function just makes the sound :poop: so have switched that off and am getting there with it (at last).
 
peterworks said:
Thanks all and @Rodders53 for the link. We have not particularly noticed it before as we tend to watch recorded stuff too. Obviously more wide spread than we thought. Looks like we may have to live with it.
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Have you got, or can you record, the relevant section showing the problem with enough material either side for other people to have a listen/compare?
It needs to be the decryped .ts file.
peterworks said:
It has only started happening on the 'new' channel
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Can you be specific? Do you mean BBC ONE South HD only and not BBC ONE HD? In which case, can you record the SD version too at the same time and make that available?
 
I have set the TV to auto volume as suggested by @Rodders53 and will see how this goes.
@prpr - have only noticed it on BBC ONE Sth HD as do not tend to watch anything else live. I will try and do some recording as suggested - probably over the weekend when MOTD is promo'd (with auto volume off).
 
prpr said:
Do you mean BBC ONE South HD only and not BBC ONE HD? In which case, can you record the SD version too at the same time and make that available?
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BBC ONE HD is now long gone; everywhere has their appropriate nations or regions variants on both satellite and Freeview.

All BBC playout is HD and downscaled / transcoded as required at Code & Mux to produce the SD version on Freeview (and the now pan-UK SD version on DSat). They won't be altering any sound levels in that process on an item by item basis.

Only if the regions opt in/out of BBC ONE could that happen; afaik the English regions don't opt in for local headlines at the 10 like they do for the 6 news... ? Even opted the levels w(sh)ould remain higher / lower until they do their bit and return (or remain opted throughout the news).
 
Rodders53 said:
BBC ONE HD is now long gone
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The last vestige of the old service (ID 17540), which made the video/audio sans EPG work, was only removed 3 days ago.
everywhere has their appropriate nations or regions variants on both satellite and Freeview.
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Yes, I know.
All BBC playout is HD and downscaled / transcoded as required at Code & Mux to produce the SD version on Freeview (and the now pan-UK SD version on DSat). They won't be altering any sound levels in that process on an item by item basis.

Only if the regions opt in/out of BBC ONE could that happen
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I know but you never know when there's some metadata funky stuff, or settings on people's tellies that affect it. The latter might turn out to be the case. That's what the request for the streams was for.
afaik the English regions don't opt in for local headlines at the 10 like they do for the 6 news... ?
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They most certainly do.
peterworks said:
Is it okay to shrink ? Would this change anything ?
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Yes it's fine. It will remove the EIT packets (EPG) but they are irrelevant for this.
 
In that case there is the possibility of Southampton's HD studios causing some sound level changes - as the signals route through their sound and vision mixers prior to and after the actual opt-out material? They may even remain in circuit throughout the entire show?

On non-HD studio opts (e.g. Norwich that I see) one might well notice the HD-> SD downscale in studio mixer that gets upscaled back to HD in the Code & Mux centre(s) before emission. So I expect most centres would not do that. But a full HD studio shouldn't affect the the picture quality in any way.

Unlikely that will introduce any sound level changes (for just the trailers) - but anything is possible?
 
@prpr - I managed to record the MOTD promo segment with the extra volume while watching the TV (on HD). However the recording on both SD and HD play without the extra volume so must assume it is the TV.
I have kept the recordings in case they are of any use.
 
peterworks said:
@prpr - I managed to record the MOTD promo segment with the extra volume while watching the TV (on HD). However the recording on both SD and HD play without the extra volume so must assume it is the TV.
I have kept the recordings in case they are of any use.
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In that case can't you watch via the Humax instead since it doesn't suffer the problem? Unless the TV is adjusting volumes live or such, and if it is you may be able to disable that.
 
Check the sound options on the TV first, you might find it has some kind of enhancement configured. Or maybe even the sound settings are per input, and the HDMI is configured differently from the tuner.
 
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