I emailed the Science channel this morning -

[frogmarch]

for all the good it'll do.

Dear Discovery Science:

WHOOOOOSH BangBangBangBang CRASH WHOOOOOSH RattleRattle Bang POP POP POP CRASH BOOM BOOM BangBangBangBang...

I hope you can hear me over all the annoying sound effects. If you can, your hearing is better than mine is when I’m trying to get some good out of the astronomy programs on your channel. The background sound in many of them has become foreground sound and overwhelms the voices of the scientists and other speakers. I’ve tried adjusting the level of background sound on my TV, but no matter what I have done to try to fix it, it still overpowers everything else.

I can’t watch anymore.

Sincerely,

(froggy)

Investigation Discovery (ID) has the same loud, annoying sound effects, but I (try to) watch Science more often than I do ID.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. it is sad that there is so little science on the science channel

history on the history channel

and news on the news channel

[frogmarch]

2. I agree. :( nt

[Warpy]

10. ..and certainly no learning on The Learning Channel. Even TCM is letting me down

Their new programmer thinks Hollywood came into being with his birth and his taste is 100% male adolescent. Gone are the wonderful old B&W movies of the 30s, replaced by film noir and color movies that were crap in the 50s and 60s and time has not improved them. My guess is that there is a post grad film school degree involved. In any case, his taste is all in his mouth and I'll likely dump the dish altogether after the election. For now, there is just enough to bother.

[lastlib]

13. And the once-venerable NatGeo Channel is now Fox pablum....

Stoopid is taking over.

[Warpy]

14. It takes a huge dive on weekends

when I suppose 9 to 5 workers want Nostradumbass and Babble crap. They still slip up and present decent fare during the week.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. But but but ... no one will watch without lots of cgi's, sound effects and neat camera work !

Without those it's just *science* -- no one wants to watch that !















<-- If you really need this, I feel for you, but I can't help you.

[frogmarch]

5. That's been their thinking, I'll bet.

But now that they've heard from me, they'll wise up and stop with the loud, annoying whooshes, crashes and bangs. haha. Right.

[21st Century Poet]

4. Well written

And funny too. Maybe you should just stick to books.

[frogmarch]

6. Thanks. :-)

Perhaps you're right. Books! I'd almost forgotten about books!

[ret5hd]

7. Books...how is that word pronounced? bow-ox?

[OnyxCollie]

8. Does your TV (or stereo, if you run your audio through one)

have different sound settings?

I've notice that some of my sound settings boost background sounds on the "sides," with a "hole" in the middle where the dialog is.

[frogmarch]

9. My audio runs through the TV, and

there are various settings, both for digital and for analog. I've tried every one of the settings, but to no avail. I saw nothing like a "sides" setting with a "hole." Maybe when my genius sons come for a visit later this month, they can figure it out.

Thanks, OnyxCollie. I'm glad you asked, because I did a double-check to see if I'd overlooked something. It wouldn't have been the first time.

[OnyxCollie]

11. The surround sound system

I have sends the dialog through the center speaker.

I noticed that some settings increased the background sound from the "sides," with little dialog from the center, leaving a "hole."

When I first got it, I couldn't understand why I couldn't make out what people were saying, even when I turned up the volume.

[frogmarch]

12. Thanks!

I'm going to investigate further using this information and see what happens.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. In space, no-one can hear you scream ...

... over the background sound effects.

[frogmarch]

16. :D

And more's the pity. heh

[saturnsring]

17. this happened to me as well - i was trying to watch a movie and wqas getting so pissed cause

the background music was soo f-ing loud i couldnt understand what anyone was saying. turned out that my main speaker in my 5.1 surround was out and all i was getting was background and extraneous sounds

[frogmarch]

18. Oh! Hey,

there's something else to check. Thanks!

[Blue Dalek]

19. Turn on Closed Captioning...

I do this quite frequently.

[frogmarch]

20. Good idea!

Thanks.