Losing YouTube adverts

Technology
1

I have a strong loathing for adverts. My favourite instruction is “Alexa – mute” whenever adverts appear on a tv program which I am watching (Is it me or do they increase the volume during adverts?)

YouTube is particular annoying with adverts that you are forced to watch before getting to the stuff that you are actually interested in (particularly on monetised channels) unless you pay their ransom fee to avoid watching them.

A friend suggested a hack to avoid the adverts for free. Use a VPN with the country set to Albania. I have been giving this a test this morning and it actually seems to work though I have no idea why! Anyone else tried this?

2

Change your internet browser to brave no adverts. Un navigateur Web sécurisé, rapide et privé avec fonctionnalités de blocage des publicités | Brave

4 Likes
3

Never tried this, but I changed VPNs last year from NordVPN to ExpressVPN and now, on ITVX, I somehow don’t see any adverts. The screen just goes blank for about 5 to 10 seconds and then resumes the program. You do get the ‘sponsored by’ bit, but I think that’s part of the program video whereas adverts are separate videos. No idea why this happens, but I’m not upset by it :grin:

1 Like
4

Thanks for that Wozza. Seems to be an even better solution.

5

Yes they do increase the volume during adverts. Or strictly speaking, they increase the “sound pressure”. Apparently as they know that’s when the viewer might move to the kitchen or bathroom etc. for shorr trips a longer distance from the telly during the commercial break.

And you thought your TV wss your own didn’t you… :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

I did wonder. I also noticed that if I tuned into the TV (rather than the fire stick) and muted the sound on the adverts, sometimes it would suddenly unmute when certain ads came on. Does this mean advertisers can control my TV?

7

Wow. That totally works. All ads on pages I look at are now gone. Cheers - Steve

8

Sort of… I think what tends to happen is that adverts use a greater degree of audio compression than programmes - i.e. there is less difference between loud and soft in the audio level in an advert.

It’s not actually broadcast at a higher level - in fact the Advertising Standards Authority mandates that the loudness of adverts should be "consistent with " that of surrounding programming - but the psychoacoustic effect of compression can be to make adverts seem louder, because they contain fewer quiet bits than programmes!

https://enhancedmedia.medium.com/why-are-tv-ads-so-loud-ea1f3b059ea4

Advertising Standards Authority PDF on the subject:

2 Likes
9

That works a treat, thanks for the tip.

Though I’m getting a bit confused trying to keep track of my countries, Albania for YouTube without ads, Turkey for cheap Adobe subscription, Argentina for cheap Tidal subscription :rofl:

2 Likes