They do?
It's called "mute" and it toggles between 0 and whatever you had it set to last. 😌
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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I've had a few tv/stereos in the past that had a half mute as well. Press mute the first time and it cuts the volume in half, second press mutes completely, then third press restores full volume.
The old kenwood car cd players had an "att" button that instantly dropped the volume to background noise. It was fucking awesome and I used it all the time. I want that button on everything that makes noise.
I came in here to comment this! Back in the day it was perfect for when I was bumping my subs hard and had to turn into a neighborhood, or if a cop pulled up to a light you were bumping at.
It was a lifesaver for sure!
"turn down the music, I can't see we might be lost"
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This would be possible to DIY if 'smart' TVs weren't DRM'd pieces of shit.
You could actually do this with some of them. I know Vizio TVs can't, but iirc LG and Samsung can be controlled via Home Assistant. Google TV as well, and anything with Apple Homekit.
There's also the option of sticking an IR or RF transmitter on an esp32 and using that without connecting the TV to the Internet. There are some off the shelf devices that can do it and can also be flashed with Tasmota or ESPHOME.
Building my own smart devices is a hobby of mine. I'm even working on a HAL9000 system for my home (with 15% less mental illness).
Eh, it'd be tricky in case of misses. Usually there's a vol+ and a vol- not really any vol(int) api to set it to a number. You could spam vol+/vol- to get to the right number, but it'd occationally miss one and start drifting.
You'd have to zero the volume each time for sure.
True, would take a few seconds to switch each time.
Here is my preferred solution that will never happen:
Divide all media audio into separate tracks for dialogue, music, sfx, etc., and let the users control the volume of each separately. To avoid having an easily ripped pure music track, perhaps premix the other tracks in at 10% or so (in a logarithmic scale) and make that the minimum volume of any track other than music.
Many shows broadcast in surround sound. This includes a center channel where most voices are. Unfortunately if you don't have a system to support this, audio is "down mixed" to stereo, and the center channel gets merged into left and right. When this merge happens, you lose definition between the streams.
It would be nice if you could boost the center channel, like you would in a home theater, but before the down mix occurs.
My Peloton can do this, how come my TV can't? This technology exists and would not be that difficult to implement for digital media.
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Yep. Dialogue should be loud enough that you can comfortably follow the plot without making your ears bleed. Gunfire and music makes that a bit tricky though. Those should be toned down, but I can see why they're so loud all the time. Most likely many directors want to make the movie feel more impactful and intense, so they just do it by cranking up the volume those other things.
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Does a high end sound system actually solve the problem? Or does having a high end sound system just mean you no longer give a shit about annoying other people. Like the people who rev their engine so all their neighbours know how much they spend on their car.
other than the compressor the other comment mentioned, having a proper AV with multiple channels can also help with a lot of media, at least stuff that was mastered properly. Usually the center speaker carries mostly the dialogue and not much else, so I boost it like 7-8dB, this works pretty well for most things on Netflix and co, but Stereo (no center channel to boost) and shitty mastering (too much noise in center channel) still have the same issues
I have a 7.2 stereo plugged into my computer. Sound levels are entirely dependent on what service the sound is coming from and what format(mono/stereo/surround). Netflix tends to be quieter than the others. I should say netflix dialog tends to be too quiet and explosions and other loud noises are too fucking loud.
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I have Easy Effects with Advanced Auto Gain from https://github.com/JackHack96/EasyEffects-Presets running on my laptop. It's been great in that regard.
Would work for commercials, too
Am I the only psycho that just uses the TV as a monitor and my phone as the remote to the PC? After that, you can pretty much macro or script whatever you want.
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I've had that thought for decades, like they do (or used to) do a button to switch between the last channel. So you'd go to each channel and flip at a commercial. Then forget to switch back so you saw two half episodes but that's not really an issue with a volume setting.
Its ~~2004~~ 2026. They could quite literally have dynamic volume control that would adjust the volume based on a set limit. You could easily have lead-in curves based on the abruptness for smooth transitions.
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I have an old tv where the mute button will set it to 1/2 volume first, then mute.
Why do these high tech devices not have a single set volume output? instead we get 8K and "smart" bullshit.
There is absolutely a standard volume max. Unfortunately loudness isn’t that simple.
You can have something that peaks in decibels that you can barely hear and sounds that are the same decibels as talking, but sounds ear-piercingly loud.
Your TV can only set and perceive level, or “decibels” of the input signal. Sometimes they can have smarter tools like compression, but these are rare and when they are there, usually poorly implemented.
At least allow a range where you can set the min/max dB the TV can output. A single set volume would be... A little weird sounding, but something that says "No you cannot set off a bomb half an inch from the microphone in the middle of a whispering scene" would be great
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They’d probably implement it very poorly, like the AI “image enhancement” that makes things look worse
Sound should be mono, or stereo, not 5.1 surround, and it should be mixed and compressed for such.
My complaint about remotes is they should all come with a fob that you put on your keys and when you press the fob the controller beeps. That would be the best thing ever.
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Why not select the 2.0 channel audio track?
Most modern TVs have a Night audio mode that will compress audio to a smaller spectrum, basically for this exact reason.
You're not wrong in any way but I would just like to clarify in the most friendly way that the use of spectrum in audio context is frequencies and not amplitude. Compressing the frequency spectrum is not really desired unless for in very particular applications like specialized lossy audio compression, which in turn is even more confusing the terminology because now compression is about reducing the data rate in a controlled degradation. Anyway, the proper terminology would be that the audio is dynamically compressed to a smaller range.
I just build this function for myself with home assistant. Thanks for the inspiration.
Right up until you accidentally jump scare yourself by toggling to 100 or something.
There's little reason for a user to not want immediate, mostly continuous volume control rather than jumps.
I want two very distinct volume settings. If I watch media through my Xbox (or play games through it) I need the volume around 20-ish on my receiver. But if I’m using the Apple TV, or back when I used the TV itself to watch stuff, the receiver needs to be around 30-ish. Can’t remember which category the Switch and PlayStation fall into, but I know it’s one of the two.
(This might be something I can fix on the receiver, now that I think about it.)
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I have this for Kodi as a shortcut for iOS. You can connect via ssh if you allow ssh in settings.
My command is:
curl -u login:password —header “Content-Type: application/json” —request POST —data ‘{“jsonrpc”: “2.0”, “method”: “Application.SetVolume”, “params”: {“volume”: Rounded Number}, “id”: 1}’ http://localhost:8080/jsonrpc
My exact command is a bit different, it takes the current volume of my iPhone / iPad multiplies that by 100 (as iOS volume is between 0 and 1, while Kodi’s from 0 to 100) and sends that volume to the HTPC. But it’s a nice idea, and there are various options to make it. I think I’d just do two buttons.
So you can take that code and change Rounded Number to actual volume you need.
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