DirectTV Question

[mjarrels]

I've had DirectTV for many years now... BUT the last few days, when the comericals start playing, you can't hit the mute button fast enough... the volumn must double during comercials and will blast you out of the room... does this happen to others? Driving me crazy.

mark

 

[Chuck52]

I get the same thing, but it does seem to vary between channels.

Chuck

 

[Skyco]

I have tried to complain to DirecTV about our local channels. They have very loud distorted commercials, and they don't sound near that bad direct off the air, just through DirecTV. I have never been able to find the correct department at DirecTV to address this. I've tried complaining to the local stations engineering staff as well with zero results.
Its to the point I may cancel the inclusion of the local channels and just pull them directly off the air. You are correct though many network originated commercials are just too dang loud compared to the regular programming. Seems like they'd figure this out, that many people hit mute and hear none of their advertising dollars.

 

[ToadHill]

I'm hard of hearing and they are too loud for me. As I understand it they can make the commercial as load as the loudest sound in the program they sponsoring. If they have a gunshot or a scream they they can broadcast the commercial at that sound level.

 

[mjarrels]

I'm thinking three colors for DirectTV... Green, pink up the phone and say yellow... Talked to a guy the other day and could only understand about every other word... asked where he was calling from and he said India... I spent many years in the Philippines and I'm used to broken english but nothing like this!

mark

 

[WarrenF]

I've had DirectTV for many years now... BUT the last few days, when the comericals start playing, you can't hit the mute button fast enough... the volumn must double during comercials and will blast you out of the room... does this happen to others? Driving me crazy.

mark

Here is how I would approach this. First of all you must know that each and every customer is rated. When you call the CSR's will have that information on the screen in front of them. Of course your rating will be based on the amount of programing you buy and the regularity of your pay and the length of your being a customer.

Now based on that, I would call the DTV customer service department. I would complain about your problem, and ask them if there are more updated recievers available. If you talk real nice, and you are a customer who is rated very high....you could get a brand new reciever for a few dollars.

Try to get that to happen and then see if your problem with the volume isn't taken care of. I would suspect that your reciever has a bit of a problem.

 

[DougM]

I have Time Warner and have the Same prblm with the sound also on the High deff channels the complete sound leveal is lower

DougM

 

[turbo36]

I have Time Warner and have the Same prblm with the sound also on the High deff channels the complete sound leveal is lower

DougM

We have Comcast and experience the same thing with the HD channels, the volume jumps so much when the commercial comes on that the dogs all start barking! If I have a choice I will choose the non-HD channel just so I don't have to hit the volume control every time a commercial comes on.

 

[Bird]

Here is how I would approach this. First of all you must know that each and every customer is rated. When you call the CSR's will have that information on the screen in front of them. Of course your rating will be based on the amount of programing you buy and the regularity of your pay and the length of your being a customer.

Now based on that, I would call the DTV customer service department. I would complain about your problem, and ask them if there are more updated recievers available. If you talk real nice, and you are a customer who is rated very high....you could get a brand new reciever for a few dollars.

Try to get that to happen and then see if your problem with the volume isn't taken care of. I would suspect that your reciever has a bit of a problem.

I hadn't thought about it, but you may have a good point there. We don't have the problem with the commercials being louder anymore than we have had it with an antenna, cable, or Dish TV, but our current DirecTV receivers are less than 5 months old, and we just might be one of their best customers since I'm paying for just about everything they have to offer.

 

[Jimbrown]

I suspect it is because youwatch them in HD. And I sure do there is no comparison in the picture quality. But for some reason i have never figured out the sound on the HD channles is lower and you must turn up the volume. Thus when the local ads come on the volume goes up to SD level. Don't know about yours but my TV has a volume level control that will automatically keep the volume at the same level. It has to be turned on cause it is off by default. Also most newer ones have a setting whre you can set the maximum sound level it it will not go over that.

 

[Bird]

OK, Jim. Thanks for the information. Of course, I had noticed some channels considerably louder than others. So after seeing your post, I got the manual out and, sure enough, there's an "auto volume" that was off by default, so I just now turned it on. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Skyco]

I guess I've been out of touch on TVs...we will be buying a new one soon and I'm definitely going to be sure it has the auto volume feature! That won't fix the problem we have with distortion on local stations ads but it will sure help other ads. BTW we have a Sanyo/Sears 13"color TV in the kitchen that is about 34 years old, never missed a lick, still works great. The 26" or so Sylvania we will be replacing is 4 years old and has picture problems, ain't buying another one of them

 

[Bird]

Skyco, if you think you're out of touch, wait until you get to be my age. Our new TV is a Samsung 40" LCD/HD flat panel, etc. and I haven't even started to read all the manual, but I learned today that it has different "sound" settings for talk shows, music videos, movies, custom sound settings, etc. Anyway, so far we like this TV; might like it even better if I understood it and got everything adjusted properly.

Last month we went to a family reunion in West Virginia; stayed in one motel in WV, one in TN, and one in AR. All 3 of them had LG TVs in the rooms and had some of the simplest (fewest buttons) remotes that I've seen in years. They even had a single button to turn closed captioning on and off, which I liked, since with my hearing loss, I don't watch TV that isn't closed captioned.

 

[Mighty Dodge]

My older Magnavox tv has a feature called smart sound that keeps the volume level the same. Check you setups you may have something similar that's not activated....maybe.

J.I.M.

 

[Lasgambler]

Interesting thread to me. I have DirecTV and do not pay for HD broadcast. My receivers are about ten years old. The commercials are way to loud.

I have a Flat screen Sony about 2 years old, I'll have to check to see if it has "auto volume"

Edit, My Sony has something called "Steady Sound" it is now turned ON.

 

[gotrocks]

I wonder what results would be gained if letters (e-mails) were sent to the advertizers and they were told their high price commercials were being muted because of the over powering volume increase.

We have a few commercials that are so disgusting I just change channels and look at some other commercial then back to "program in progress".

 

[dmccarty]

I don't think this is a DirecTV problem. We noticed the loudness of the commercials when we had Time Warner cable back in the city. Its very annoying and all we end up doing is fussing at the TV and turning down the volume until the show comes back on. Hard to believe that turning up the volume is helping the advertised products.

We don't have HD receivers and still have this problem.

Later,
Dan

 

[texbaylea]

We just bought a new HD tv to replaced a perfectly good analog set, bah This is a Toshiba REGZA model and it has a sound limiting setting per the manual. I will be turning it on as soon as I finish this post.

We don't have satellite TV yet and are not sure we want it.

Vernon

 

[WarrenF]

I hadn't thought about it, but you may have a good point there. We don't have the problem with the commercials being louder anymore than we have had it with an antenna, cable, or Dish TV, but our current DirecTV receivers are less than 5 months old, and we just might be one of their best customers since I'm paying for just about everything they have to offer.

Fifteen years in this business says that you should start with your receivers first. Especially if they are more than a year old. Bird, if you subscribe to "about everything they have to offer," and you have been a customer for about three or more years...then you are in the drivers seat.

All of the others who are offering your speculation....is simply that...speculation. If your TV set doesn't do the same thing when you are on your analog TV antenna....then it is your receiver period exclamation point.

 

[3RRL]

We have a brand new Samsung HDTV too Bird, so I will look at the settings for those annoying commercials. I too haven't broken open the book. (Not my job) Thanks for pointing that out Bird and JimBrown.
Especially John Scherer and his free eBay programs. It's OK once or twice, but to see it over and over again...shees, have a clue? We've gotten into the habit of pausing the commercial, get some popcorn or whatever, then fast forward back to the show.