Just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, SRS Labs in Santa Ana begins selling that handy little gadget that plugs into a TV to soften the volume of TV commercials.
This is a technology I’ve covered in the past (see “SRS Labs’ gadget could end annoyingly loud TV commercials“).
SRS Labs’ TruVolume takes all audible signals, ignores the extreme lows and highs and focuses on the middle range volumes. Loud bursts in this middle range are typically TV commercials. Its technology can distinguish between talking levels of the announcer to the sudden crowd cheers in the game to the obnoxiously loud TV commercial. SRS offers a more detailed explanation about what’s really happening in its “Leveling the Volume” white paper, a PDF file.
There are two available directly from the company’s Web site: The RCA version for older TVs is $49.99 while the HDMI version is $99.99. The HDMI version won a CES Innovations award. Here is the new HDMI version, complete with the new “My Volume” logo:
For more CES 2010 coverage, visit the Gadgetress CES page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2010.
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