EBU R128 Loudness Normalization

manolito · 26th November 2014, 02:39

For the last two days I have educated myself a little about the EBU R128 recommendation for audio normalization. An AVStoDVD user over at videohelp requested that this standard should be integrated into the software (which creates DVDs, nothing that would be broadcasted).

I do understand the concept, but I am not sure if this is something that should be used for DVDs (or Audio CDs or BluRays). I see that users have a need for a uniform loudness perception across different media, but is EBU R128 the solution?

The standard has been developped for (and by) broadcasting people. Even before this standard was adopted, broadcasters peak-normalized their content to -9 dBFS which is much lower than what you see on audio CDs or DVDs (usually around -2dB to -3 dB). The reason is that in broadcasting the content is much more diverse compared to CDs or DVDs, with an emphasis on spoken content.

The overall result when applying this EBU R128 standard is that broadcasts are around 3 dB quieter than they were with the old -9 dB standard. This EBU standard will eventually be adopted for online content, too. But does it make sense for Audio CDs, DVDs or BluRays?

Any comments welcome...

Cheers
manolito

26th November 2014, 02:39	#1 \| Link
manolito Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Berlin, Germany Posts: 3,079	EBU R128 Loudness Normalization For the last two days I have educated myself a little about the EBU R128 recommendation for audio normalization. An AVStoDVD user over at videohelp requested that this standard should be integrated into the software (which creates DVDs, nothing that would be broadcasted). I do understand the concept, but I am not sure if this is something that should be used for DVDs (or Audio CDs or BluRays). I see that users have a need for a uniform loudness perception across different media, but is EBU R128 the solution? The standard has been developped for (and by) broadcasting people. Even before this standard was adopted, broadcasters peak-normalized their content to -9 dBFS which is much lower than what you see on audio CDs or DVDs (usually around -2dB to -3 dB). The reason is that in broadcasting the content is much more diverse compared to CDs or DVDs, with an emphasis on spoken content. The overall result when applying this EBU R128 standard is that broadcasts are around 3 dB quieter than they were with the old -9 dB standard. This EBU standard will eventually be adopted for online content, too. But does it make sense for Audio CDs, DVDs or BluRays? Any comments welcome... Cheers manolito