How to Turn Down Loud TV Commercials Automatically

Few things are more annoying than settling in for a quiet evening of television, only to be blasted by a commercial that is twice as loud as the show you were watching. This problem has been around for decades. Even though there is a federal law called the CALM Act that says commercials should not be louder than the shows around them, the rule does not always work in practice, especially with streaming services that the law does not cover.

The good news is most modern TVs, sound bars, and home theater systems have a setting that automatically keeps the volume even. It goes by different names depending on the brand. Samsung calls it Auto Volume. LG calls it Auto Volume Leveling. Sony calls it Volume Leveler or Auto Volume. Vizio calls it Volume Leveling. Roku TVs and devices call it Volume Mode or Leveling. The setting works by listening to the sound coming out of your TV and gently lowering loud bursts (like commercials) and raising quiet parts (like whispered dialogue) so everything stays at a steady level.

Turning this on means no more reaching for the remote every few minutes. The feature is built right into your TV. So it costs nothing and does not need any extra equipment. If you have a sound bar or a stereo connected to your TV, the same kind of setting may be on that device too, often called Night Mode or Dialogue Mode.

This feature does take a little getting used to. The sudden loud explosions in an action movie will feel less loud, which is the whole point. If you watch a lot of movies and want the full sound experience, you can turn the leveling off for movies and back on for regular TV. Most people find that leaving it on all the time makes television much more pleasant.