OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

wrote in message
...
snip..
So anyway, the other day I started feeling better so I did a new
shower in my dad's bathroom, went down stairs to look things over and
found that they had our high low water temp settings at 155 - 175 and
they set that the day they were here, last fall when I was not really
paying attention.. No wonder we used so much oil, trying to heat a
house in winter with 155 degree water, we are all furious right now..
snip...

Good Lord... I have my hot water set around 130 on my electric hot water
heater.
Plenty for a family of four. (no teenagers)

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

wrote in message
...
Is there a device or TV that keeps volume level or at least
constrained? My kid is trying to watch a movie on FX and the volume
fluxuation is so severe that we can't even let my kid watch it as we
are trying to have phone conversations with clients in the next room.
One second it needs to be at volume level 45, the next 18-20 is
plenty.. This is rediculous, can't even watch the TV we pay 100 bucks
a month for.. Crap...

The show goes bang...

The ADS GO BANG BANG BANK SCREAM!!!

Yep, I would pay for one of those devices.

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:46:44 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Is there a device or TV that keeps volume level or at least
constrained? My kid is trying to watch a movie on FX and the volume
fluxuation is so severe that we can't even let my kid watch it as we
are trying to have phone conversations with clients in the next room.
One second it needs to be at volume level 45, the next 18-20 is
plenty.. This is rediculous, can't even watch the TV we pay 100 bucks
a month for.. Crap...

Hey, one of my kids mentioned the same problem while watching History
Channel yesterday.
Besides the sound going up and down. it sometimes cuts out, and
sometimes both sound and picture freeze for a few seconds.
This is Comcast cable.
I blame it on digital. And Canada. Just like Tom.

--Vic

Hey... the worse offender for sound cutting out on my cable is the Fox HD
channel from Rochester NY.
I figured it was Doug up there harassing the station employees. ;-)

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:32:05 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:19:50 -0400, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:46:44 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Is there a device or TV that keeps volume level or at least
constrained? My kid is trying to watch a movie on FX and the volume
fluxuation is so severe that we can't even let my kid watch it as we
are trying to have phone conversations with clients in the next room.
One second it needs to be at volume level 45, the next 18-20 is
plenty.. This is rediculous, can't even watch the TV we pay 100 bucks
a month for.. Crap...

It's not the volume actually - the signal input never varies.

What changes is the frequency of the audio.

Very clever.

The frequency of the audio? Wouldn't that make the voices sound
unnatural.

I do a lot of radio station time shifting via the Internet. I like to
listen to programs from the old home town at night. I have the same
problem
with audio level differences between commercials and the programming.

I took of the files I downloaded and loaded it into Cool Edit Pro. Sure
enough, the audio amplitude level between the commercials and the
programming is significantly different.

Just my observations.

It's true. The shift is to slighty higher, sharper tones and
frequency - you really wouldn't notice it.

The other reason is that in addition to the slight frequency shift,
the audio is leveled such that it's loud all the time.

The FCC regulates how loud a commercial can be and it can be no louder
than the highest audio level reached in the show. The same with
frequency.

However, the FCC doesn't regulate the audio level for commercials - so
with the slight shift in frequency bringing sharper audio, the levels
are at the loudest level produced during the broadcast itself.

Net effect - louder commercials even though they aren't louder than
the broadcast.

Like I said, very clever.

I forgot to mention that the frequency shift is the real reason it
sounds louder because it's different than those used in the programs.

Here's a basic description of the process. Pretty much along the lines you
described.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G3.HTM

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:13:18 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Vic Smith" wrote in message
.. .


I figure the frequencies slow down and speed up because of clogs in
the fiber optics cable. Maybe fibers falling off and collecting into
fiberballs. Probably rodding out the cables would clear it up.
Tomorrow I'm going to look for a small rodder intended for that.

Sorta like the guy with an old fashioned TV antenna on his roof. Now that
the weather is getting warmer and the antenna is thawing, he's starting to
watch shows that were broadcast last September, but got frozen in the
antenna.

ROTFL!!!

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

"D.Duck" wrote in message
...



Here's a basic description of the process. Pretty much along the lines
you described.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G3.HTM


That ShortWave guy isn't so dumb after all. Never knew that.

I have a new complaint. It seems like lately there are a bunch of different
commercials that include a cell phone ringing.
Half the time I have a TV on, sorta half listening to it, as I do other
stuff. When the stupid cell phone in the commercial rings, it catches my
attention .... at least for a moment. I don't know if it's coincidental or
if some marketing research group figured out how to get you to pay attention
to the commercials.

Eisboch

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

Vic Smith wrote:
On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:46:44 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Is there a device or TV that keeps volume level or at least
constrained? My kid is trying to watch a movie on FX and the volume
fluxuation is so severe that we can't even let my kid watch it as we
are trying to have phone conversations with clients in the next room.
One second it needs to be at volume level 45, the next 18-20 is
plenty.. This is rediculous, can't even watch the TV we pay 100 bucks
a month for.. Crap...

Hey, one of my kids mentioned the same problem while watching History
Channel yesterday.
Besides the sound going up and down. it sometimes cuts out, and
sometimes both sound and picture freeze for a few seconds.
This is Comcast cable.
I blame it on digital. And Canada. Just like Tom.

Comcast is too blame for the cutting in and out of the sound and the
picture freezes and losses. It is the nature of digital information
transmission.

OT Trying to watch a movie..
 

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:36:25 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"D.Duck" wrote in message
m...



Here's a basic description of the process. Pretty much along the lines
you described.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G3.HTM


That ShortWave guy isn't so dumb after all. Never knew that.

OH gee - now you're embarrassing me.

Um...er...

HEY!!!

I have a new complaint. It seems like lately there are a bunch of different
commercials that include a cell phone ringing.
Half the time I have a TV on, sorta half listening to it, as I do other
stuff. When the stupid cell phone in the commercial rings, it catches my
attention .... at least for a moment. I don't know if it's coincidental or
if some marketing research group figured out how to get you to pay attention
to the commercials.

Ah yes - the "hook". If you watch commercials carefully, you will
always find the "hook" - which is basically the thing that forces you
to pay attention. Kind of like popups.

However, as long as we are on pet TV peeves, mine is the upcoming show
banners they put on.

They put these huge banners that cover the bottom left corner of the
screen and take out about 20% of the viewing surface and they last for
like ten seconds.

Annoys the crap out of me. History Channel is the worst offender with
Discovery close behind - my two favorite channels. I don't mind the
bug in the right hand corner, but those upcoming show banners really
**** me off. Recently, History changed their bug from a unobstrusive
semi-transparent logo to this really ugly red and yellow huge freakin'
H. Took a while to get used to it.

OT Trying to watch a movie..