audio solution needed

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This topic is right up there in my list of pet peeves. The FCC has ruled that commercials cannot be loader than the show they interrupt. No one in that feckless agency is enforcing this, and broadcasters and advertisers do not care about viewers. We could all ban together and refuse to buy products from the advertisers that do this, but alas our cupboards would be bare.

On top if that, the volume of the background music on most shows is higher than the dialog, forcing you to turn up the volume to hear the dialog. This must be the result of some ivy league marketing school that is brain washing the current crop of producers with some hogwash about how louder music makes your show rate higher.

The audio is set up for surround sound, and most good systems allow you to adjust the front and rear volume (where most of the background is) separately. On a TV or a sound bar, it all comes out in one place. When I switched from surround sound to a sound bar, I couldn't hear the dialog and I was constantly reaching for the remote when a commercial came on.

Finally, I did some research and bought one of these.

Problem of loud commercials gone. Problem with louder background music mostly solved. What this does is to lower the overall volume when the music is louder. It helps with dialog, but on some shows you still need to bump up the master volume. Using the box and playing with the settings on the sound bar pretty much solved the issues.

As a life-long musician and sometimes large-venue sound reinforcement engineer, I have never seen/heard a TV with what I would consider decent built-in speakers and amps (OK - maybe a few large console TVs back in the '50s and '50s that had 10" speakers with a tweeter). When we had a stix 'n brix, the TV played audio back through our high-end stereo system. In the rig, everything plays back through a Polk Audio sound bar with sub-woofer (including music from a tablet). The OEM sound system in the RV has only been turned on once.

As for the remotes, we use Logitech Harmony remotes that can control everything with a single unit. They are programmed with your PC and are GREAT!

Rob

There are 3 issues with Television sound.
one is NOT ENOUGH This one is easy to fix
One is crappy quality. Often the same fix
one is that though the VOLUME of commercials (Product) is by law the same as the Volume of the Filler (Bait-Program) the LOUDNESS is far greater.. If you want a technical explanation of the differene.. ASK.

That one takes special hardware

The first tow.. Most modern TV's have audio out and you feed it to a quality home theater system.

With the drive to make bigger, thinner, lighter tv’s many things have gone by the wayside and speaker size and quality has been one of the casualties. Years ago, a good sound from the TV console made up for the lousy TV reception.

I have a Sharp brand TV that sounds reasonably well for a flat panel TV. I have Samsung that sounds terrible. But the Samsung is in the "movie" room. So I have a bar and sub to it. The Sharp is the main TV we watch for TV shows or sports. Its not bad, but I wouldnt want to watch music videos on it.

All my other Tvs are smaller 36" or so in bedrooms, and they sound terrible as well.

Sadly no. Most all new TVs have 3 or at the most 4 inch speakers. Those speakers usually push sound down and not to the front. If you really want good sound quality out of your TV go buy a sound bar, or a amplified output. You might also have your hearing checked. Dont laugh, I am serious. Both DW and I were always complaining about poor sound quality until we both discovered we needed hearing aids. Now I hear the TV, phone etc in stereo right in the center of my head.

The older I get, the more "audio" problems I have....:B