It'll probably take an act of congress to ban loud commercials

Unfortunately with the dynamic sound of Dolby Digital sound in HD programming also comes crazy loud commercials. In addition to a few technical reasons, the main way advertisers get around the FCCs commercial volume regulations is by making the entire commercial just as loud as the explosion that killed off your favorite character. Obviously this is ridiculous and Rep. Anna Eshoo of California intends to do something about it by introducing CALM (Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act) to the House of Representatives. At the same time the folks at ATSC are looking for ways to let broadcasters get it under control, and of course there is Dolby Volume and SRS TruVolume if you want to take matters into your own hands. Personally we wish there was just a hack that would automatically hit the mute button during commercials, and just for the record, we DVR everything and skip commercials for everything except sports.