5 ms·

Good. I absolutely hate videos that are so low volume that I have to turn Youtube up to 100%, and then adjust volume in Windows too, to hear anything. And then

by Joona 12y ago

Good. I absolutely hate videos that are so low volume that I have to turn Youtube up to 100%, and then adjust volume in Windows too, to hear anything. And then imagine finding one of the louder videos next. I've tried to give people advice on volume levels, but it feels like no one is willing to do it. Hopefully Twitch will do something similar soon, too.

vanderZwan 12y ago
I think that is exactly the motivation: avoiding the random shifts in volume between videos. Pushing back against the loudness war was probably just a bonus. It's like watching a series on TV and then getting blasted with EXTREMELY LOUD COMMERCIAL BREAKS (and they do that shit on purpose too).
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  Re the commercials, over here in NL they (finally!) introduced a law that prohibits that behaviour.
  - McKayDavis 12y ago
    In the US, Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act in 2010 and the FCC began enforcement in 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudness_Mitigation_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudn...
  - jon-wood 12y ago
    Related to the sibling comment here on the CALM act - who thinks up these names? Is there a committee in some basement somewhere that gets told the gist of each act, and has to think up a suitable acronym for them?
    - dccoolgai 12y ago
      Underpaid legislative aides, generally. Occasionally with the help of overpaid lobbyists.
  - rada 12y ago
    They passed a similar law here in the US (http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials) but unfortunately, it did not help very much because sound engineers use tricks that make the commercials meet the technical requirements while still being loud to the human ear. For example, they mix a loud opening and a quieter closing so the overall decibel level averages out but you still get startled when the commercial starts.
    - blktiger 12y ago
      Just one more reason not to watch normal television.
- Joona 12y ago
  Definitely. It allows people to discover more videos without creating the annoyance of having to change volume for every video.
- SixSigma 12y ago
  While it has a degree of intent, it is also because music is louder than dialogue.
- thirdsun 12y ago
  Loudness of course isn't new to commercials, but recently I noticed that some TV shows are also compressed into oblivion, resulting in a very noticeable pumping effect between dialogue and the ambient noise in-between.
- learnstats2 12y ago
  > It's like watching a series on TV and then getting blasted with EXTREMELY LOUD COMMERCIAL BREAKS (and they do that shit on purpose too). Call me cynical, but I immediately thought that formed part of YouTube's motivation for this.
  - mattmcknight 12y ago
    I must be the opposite of cynical, because I assumed they were doing it to combat that. The FCC already acted against the practice on TV. http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials
    - malka 12y ago
      If France, the network cant increase the loudness during the ads. Instead, the sound is (sometimes, heavily) compressed. Annoying as hell.
      - kragen 12y ago
        That's what this article means by "loudness". They're talking about compressing the dynamic range so that the average power is higher, not increasing the peak power.
disillusioned 12y ago
With YouTube pushing auto-advancing to additional content, and heavily pushing playlists, this is even more important now.
amelius 12y ago
But this is a problem with the design of the software, not with the video.
stinos 12y ago
I hear you. In one way it's weird they only started doing it now: any somewhat decent audio player has this functionality built-in or at least available via plugins. Yet I feel it would be more fair to all listeners and all people creating the music if everyone at least had the choice to hear the music as it was made to be heard originally.

by Joona 12y ago

vanderZwan 12y ago

I think that is exactly the motivation: avoiding the random shifts in volume between videos. Pushing back against the loudness war was probably just a bonus. It's like watching a series on TV and then getting blasted with EXTREMELY LOUD COMMERCIAL BREAKS (and they do that shit on purpose too).

Cthulhu_ 12y ago
Re the commercials, over here in NL they (finally!) introduced a law that prohibits that behaviour.
- McKayDavis 12y ago
  In the US, Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act in 2010 and the FCC began enforcement in 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudness_Mitigation_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudn...
- jon-wood 12y ago
  Related to the sibling comment here on the CALM act - who thinks up these names? Is there a committee in some basement somewhere that gets told the gist of each act, and has to think up a suitable acronym for them?
  - dccoolgai 12y ago
    Underpaid legislative aides, generally. Occasionally with the help of overpaid lobbyists.
- rada 12y ago
  They passed a similar law here in the US (http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials) but unfortunately, it did not help very much because sound engineers use tricks that make the commercials meet the technical requirements while still being loud to the human ear. For example, they mix a loud opening and a quieter closing so the overall decibel level averages out but you still get startled when the commercial starts.
  - blktiger 12y ago
    Just one more reason not to watch normal television.
Joona 12y ago
Definitely. It allows people to discover more videos without creating the annoyance of having to change volume for every video.
SixSigma 12y ago
While it has a degree of intent, it is also because music is louder than dialogue.
thirdsun 12y ago
Loudness of course isn't new to commercials, but recently I noticed that some TV shows are also compressed into oblivion, resulting in a very noticeable pumping effect between dialogue and the ambient noise in-between.
learnstats2 12y ago
> It's like watching a series on TV and then getting blasted with EXTREMELY LOUD COMMERCIAL BREAKS (and they do that shit on purpose too). Call me cynical, but I immediately thought that formed part of YouTube's motivation for this.
- mattmcknight 12y ago
  I must be the opposite of cynical, because I assumed they were doing it to combat that. The FCC already acted against the practice on TV. http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/loud-commercials
  - malka 12y ago
    If France, the network cant increase the loudness during the ads. Instead, the sound is (sometimes, heavily) compressed. Annoying as hell.
    - kragen 12y ago
      That's what this article means by "loudness". They're talking about compressing the dynamic range so that the average power is higher, not increasing the peak power.

disillusioned 12y ago

With YouTube pushing auto-advancing to additional content, and heavily pushing playlists, this is even more important now.

amelius 12y ago

But this is a problem with the design of the software, not with the video.

stinos 12y ago

I hear you. In one way it's weird they only started doing it now: any somewhat decent audio player has this functionality built-in or at least available via plugins. Yet I feel it would be more fair to all listeners and all people creating the music if everyone at least had the choice to hear the music as it was made to be heard originally.