Mute 1/2

[RoJoHen]

Within the last few years, I've noticed a trend in TV remote Mute Buttons. You usually have to hit the button twice to actually get it to Mute. If you hit it once, it only turns the volume down half-way (or 1/2 Mute).

I have to wonder...does anyone actually use this? When I push the Mute Button, I want the TV to be silent. I can't think of a reason where I would suddenly just need the TV half as loud as it was.

 

[Australis]

I have an old school TV, so it hhas an old school full mute. However,I can see the advantages - it'd make ads sound like normal volume.

Yes, they say they don't make ad volume louder, but it ain't true.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have an old school TV, so it hhas an old school full mute. However,I can see the advantages - it'd make ads sound like normal volume.

Yes, they say they don't make ad volume louder, but it ain't true.

I'm not sure they do. I think it's more that the specific networks don't have consistency between their shows and the commercials.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I don't think they make the commercials louder, it's just that the commercials are always at the max allowed volume.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yes, they say they don't make ad volume louder, but it ain't true.

They don't. Ads are, however, compressed over the airwaves/cable differently than programing in such a manner that the volume is effected.

 

[Australis]

Yes, yes, I know the sound in ads is compressed. The volume is technically the same, but to the human ear it seems louder. I just couldn't be arsed going through the whole explaino thing.

Aaaaanyway, that's my theory as to why it exists.

 

[erastus25]

Within the last few years, I've noticed a trend in TV remote Mute Buttons. You usually have to hit the button twice to actually get it to Mute. If you hit it once, it only turns the volume down half-way (or 1/2 Mute).

I have to wonder...does anyone actually use this? When I push the Mute Button, I want the TV to be silent. I can't think of a reason where I would suddenly just need the TV half as loud as it was.

Yep. I use it for commercials so I can focus on something else but still know when the program I want to see comes back. The HD sound on my TV is also much louder than the SD sound so if I'm flipping back and forth between HD and SD channels rather than adjusting volume constantly I use the half mute. This only works because SD volume on my TV is good around 40 and HD volume good around 20. I'm sure other people have different experiences.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Ads sound louder because you don't want to hear them.

 

[Holdfast]

Within the last few years, I've noticed a trend in TV remote Mute Buttons. You usually have to hit the button twice to actually get it to Mute. If you hit it once, it only turns the volume down half-way (or 1/2 Mute).

I have to wonder...does anyone actually use this? When I push the Mute Button, I want the TV to be silent. I can't think of a reason where I would suddenly just need the TV half as loud as it was.

My TV is old enough not to have this feature, but I can see it being useful when you want to split your attention between the TV and something else, but don't want to stop watching. eg. answering the phone.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I dunno about mute buttons but the volume buttons on all my remotes, all the remotes i've ever had never seem to work. I can be hitting the thing a billion times per second to try and turn the volume down and it just fails to work and that's with a fresh set of fully powered batteries.
I'll be sat there when suddenly an advert comes on and the volume skyrockets so I go to try and turn it down and it just will not do it, infact it seems to wait until I no longer need to turn it down before it actually turns down.

 

[John Clark]

I've got a couple of fairly new tv's, and they don't do this. Hitting the mute does seem to set them to silent. (One's a panasonic, the other's a no-name brand I believe)

 

[Spot's Meow]

Yeah, I use it on my parent's TV and I love it. It is great for commercials or when someone's on the phone or something like that. Basically a quicker way to turn down the volume without muting it.