Surely on more than one occasion it has happened to you that you have been watching a movie or a television program and suddenly you have noticed that the volume suddenly went up when the announcements arrived. Or you are watching a series or movie on a streaming platform and you have to be constantly raising and lowering the volume depending on the scene that is being broadcast to know what they say or not to go deaf to the music and explosions. Why does the volume change so much on television?
Why does the volume of the television change depending on what I am watching?
The answer to the question has a lot to do not only with the broadcast itself , but also with the fact that we have a certain television , or specifically an audio system that allows us to “balance” the volume so that we do not go crazy.
In the first case, that of the broadcast itself, it is more than evident that the volume rises as if by magic when ads are broadcast . It is something that happens always and on all televisions. But why? Well, because advertisers want the message of what they advertise to reach you even if you are not watching television.
Hence, we have to suddenly lower the volume or actually press the «mute» button on our remote control if we take into account the fright that we can get when the announcements arrive and suddenly the volume goes off, something that de This fact should not happen if we take into account that in Spain this situation is apparently regulated by law.
As provided in 14.2 of the General Law 7/2010 of Audiovisual Communication , which regulates the broadcast of advertising in Spain:
“ 2. Both the advertising messages on television and teleshopping must be clearly differentiated from the programs by means of acoustic and optical mechanisms according to the general criteria established by the competent audiovisual authority. The sound level of the advertising messages cannot be higher than the average level of the previous program . (…) ».
In other words, the volume is allowed to change so that we know that what is being broadcast is an advertisement, but never exceed the average sound level of the previous program. If you do not comply with this law, you can pay up to half a million euros in fine but the truth is that we continue to hear how the advertisements shoot up the volume, perhaps not so much because it is up, but because its quality is better with respect to the broadcast. being offered.
And what about streaming platforms?
As for what happens with the volume of the television and platforms such as Netflix, HBO or Amazon, it is that we have to spend all the time raising and lowering the volume depending on whether, for example, there are dialogues, explosions, shots, or background music .
Everything happens for a simple matter that despite the fact that all these productions are intended to be broadcast on television (it does not happen like with cinema films that are designed for large theaters where surround sound is available that somehow balances it everything even if a television is a “disaster”), the truth is that they have an audio system that would be much more appreciable if we had a good home cinema installed at home . A speaker system would surely improve our experience, but what can be done if I don’t have more speakers than the ones that the TV incorporates?
The solution to the volume of the TV
Unfortunately little can be done, although in the case of platforms, we can choose to configure the sound of our television in such a way that we can balance the volume a bit. To do this, you can try doing any of these things:
- Go to the sound settings of your television and choose the stereo mix, 5.1.
- Select the “optimized sound” mode of the TV.
- Select the “automatic volume” option so that the volume is regulated depending on each emission.
- Select the ” clear voices ” option that is included in some Smart TVs.
- Select the ” reduce loud sounds ” option that we can find on some platforms.
