Well ... I just tried out a show I'd never seen, and marked it off my list too. Yeah - I know - they won't miss me.

Who is doing the sound levels now? It has to be an angry planet who is trying to drive us deaf so that they can take over .... but why do they need us to be deaf? hummmm. It's completely impossible to enjoy TV anymore. It's not just the lack of programing ... but the sound is just maddening and painful. The sound effects are so out of balance to the dialog, that you can't hear hardly any dialog. The actors mumble thru their micro burst quips of dialog in such as way that you can't understand, even if you can hear. And the new trend is to have some actor with an accent so thick or a mumbling attitude so rude, sarcastic, or "stoned" that you couldn't understand their meaning with subtitles.

If you turn the sound up so that you can maybe catch the third rewind of a phrase missed - then the background sound will drown it out. I spend all of the show turning the sound up - then down - they down more - then up - then rewind - then up and down. Hey - if I didn't care what the story line or dialog was - why watch? I can hear noise anywhere.

Anything remotely intense will absolutely cause a headache and might shatter windows if left to play. Turn it down and they place a banner blockiing 20% the screen for thirty seconds to notify you that you are turning the sound down ... ... and you'll surely miss something behind their helpful banner. Rewind to read a caption which they flash by ... and the banner notifying you that you are rewinding the track to catch something they are obscuring with the banner notifying you that you are trying to turn ..... ah nevermind.

Don't get me started with commercials and sound levels. Of course I DVD - but some commercials I actually want to see (Superbowl commercials) - some sneak up on you - some blast you out when you come out of hyperspace from fast forwarding the recording. Turn down the blasting noise - and they turn it up again every fifteen seconds or so during the five to ten minute commercial break. They know you are turning it down. They are turning it up even more. They own your TV - and your ears - and they will do it as they darned well please - and you will sit and grimmace through it - and like it! It's like they are some militant force trying to ruin any chance of you relaxing. Many commercials I have to turn down to numeral 6 to tolerate. Many shows I have to turn up to numeral 75 to hear the dialog. No - it's not my ears. I hear all manner of faint annoying sounds - so I'm not impared (other then perhaps some very high frequencies).

It's just another example where they can't let anything alone - and you can't relax - so I guess that's why I work as much as I do. It's a pathetic shame. And - of course - they are all on the same page. There is no place to escape - other then Rendezvous. hahah. And, I've been watching How to u-Tube flicks very late in the night.

Oh - the new show? Topic tonight was - surprise - yet more fascination with serial killers. Gosh - I wonder why so many people are warped out there. It's making it easier to just hide out here in the Yaupon. The world has gone completely nuts.

And - that's my attempt to reach out to Hollywood. Hey - I KNOW you are reading here!! Give us a break. Please stop escalating the stress cycle and allow us to just watch something in peace. We'll still buy the crap you peddle. Most will still watch the lousy movies, as we did before some wiz-kid sold you all on the idea of sound torture. If we want a sound extravaganzia ... we can always put a steel drum over our heads and have someone beat on all sides with a tire iron. Hey - surround sound! Maybe have someone light firecrackers under our chair as we kick back for a few minutes' relaxation.

I was with family some time back. The folks in the room were enjoying watching a superhero movie. Big box office. They were "enjoying" the surround sound. I could not understand 2 in 10 words of dialog as it muddled and mumbled along in the deep background. Open a desk drawer - and it sounded like twenty tons of snow sliding off a tile roof. And then the earthquakes and bombs of someone simply walking down a hallway in heels would be painful enough. When a gun went off in the sound track (as it did every few minutes or so) - it was like a 20mm cannon beside you. This was entertainment 2013. I was simply miserible. How can it be possible that millions of people ... enjoy this? Or does it even matter to anyone? This IS how it will be - it has been written. My new home even has the main TV viewing area wired for surround sound. And it's supposed to be good optical cable - etc. Nothing could be more of a waste for me. What an old foggie I've become. I should be banned to the shops and made to run machinery and carve ...... please! hahaha. I know - but I have these nice TV's I used to enjoy for an hour or two ....

Well - there ya go. That's my "Tech Watch" for Sunday - 2-3-13. Keep it right here for all the best stuff!

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2013 04:41AM by barnespneumatic.

I dunno Gary, many of us will be pleased that you've sworn off TV to spend time in the shop. On the bright side, I did hear the other day about a law regarding commercial volume vs. the show...