Sound Volume on TCM

[nsallieharding]

I recorded Cartoon Alley and just watched it, the sound volume was lower than normal. Has anyone else noticed any sound problem on TCM this morning? The volume and mix is lower and with less separation than on FMC and Sundance.

[FredCDobbs]

I notice the low volume often on TCM. I had to buy a separate stereo hi-fi so I could use it to amplify the sound of some of the movies.

[nsallieharding]

Thanks Fred. I notice that the sound is back to normal today, it's good to know that someone else can tell the difference when there is distortion going on.

[FredCDobbs]

There is a way of operating in the TV business and two basic theories of sound volume, regarding old movies. Some old movies have low-volume sound tracks because the copies we see weren?t recorded at the proper high volume. The simplest thing for a TV network to do about this is turn up the playback volume so we can hear the old movie. But sometimes when they do this, the old sound track has a hiss in it, because it when they turn up the sound volume they also turn up the general ?noise? of the sound track too.

 

And in old sound tracks, the dust particles that were on the old sound track when it was optically copied to the print we are seeing gives us a ?popping? sound, sort of like a constant background ?static? on the sound track, so when the TV networks turn up the playback volume, we can get a constant ?hiss? and a lot of dust ?static? sounds.

 

Some engineers don?t like to turn up the playback volume, because they can?t stand to put on the air the ?hiss? and the ?static? of the bad sound tracks of some of the old movies, and they believe that if the public wants the sound louder, they can turn up the volume on their home TV sets.

 

But, I?ve also noticed that with the last two TV sets I?ve owned, I can?t turn up the volume very much, like I used to be able to do on old TV sets. I suspect the TV industry wants to sell us these expensive add-on ?home theater? sound systems, and maybe they are making the TV sets today so that we just can?t turn up the volume like we used to be able to do. I haven?t noticed this low-volume problem with modern radios, just with the last two TVs I?ve owned.

 

There is another classic problem on some of the commercial channels that show movies. They turn down the playback volume of the movies and turn up the playback volume of the commercials, so we will hear the commercials at a louder volume than the movies. Have you noticed that there are never any low-volume commercials and that most commercial announcers shout at us all the time?

 

I have a recording of ?Lucky Devils? I recorded off of TCM, and the volume of that sound track is so low, I have to amplify it on my hi-fi stereo system. I also have some other movies recorded off of TCM that have very low-volume sound tracks. This is irritating.

 

Another problem that turns up sometimes is that the satellite and cable companies seem to have some way of turning the volume of each channel up or down, and sometimes there will be one or two channels on the system that has low playback volume for a few days. I think that might be a problem with the satellite and cable systems.

[Bill_McCrary]

The sound volume is so low....

 

I'm in South Carolina, too, but with DirecTV. My mother, at her house, has TimeWarner. Neither of us is having any problem with TCM. It's almost assuredly your cable people. No idea why, if it used to be ok, they changed; unless maybe they were doing some kind of changeover to their whole system.

 

I used to be MUCH more bothered by the channels they (TW) would boost to maximum volume, with limiters working, so NOTHING ever got soft. When a cannon goes off, or such, it should be LOUD relative to the other stuff. With TCM (as on DirecTV) it almost always is. If you call Comcast and get anybody who even has any idea what you're talking about, impress on them to increase the volume on TCM a LITTLE. Otherwise.......

 

Experience in our area (with TW) shows they no one there ever seems to be checking on the signal; they always are ready to send someone to check your set (and charge); nothing could EVER be wrong with THEIR signal, oh no! But do be sure (before calling them) that if you're running A/V cables (left/right audio cables) that both of them are plugged in and working. One could have gotten unplugged and therefore you're getting only half your volume. It would be obvious using amplifier and speakers, but maybe not if you're only using your tv speakers.

 

Hope I didn't state all the obvious, and that maybe something there was or will be helpful.

Bill

[Guest]

What about the volume in-between movies.Is it loud a odd thing happened to me, I'm no techie but something I recorded had a lot of unwanted ..noise so I put it in a program which shows the right and left wave and they didn't match up. I don't understand it. I don't think it was my connection because it was going right and left at times, sometimes the right had the signal somtimes left had it. That would explain a low volume but I don't know why it happened.

[nsallieharding]

Fred is the expert on this and what he said about providers and sound levels was right on the money. I had sound level problems when I had DirecTV and now with Dish I have no sound problems at all. So as Bill just said get in touch with your provider and let them know about your problem, but beware, because when I told DirecTV about my problem they said no one else is complaining about this and gave me no help at all. Two weeks later I changed to Dish and they lost a customer.

 

Allie