Don Quixote’s Thought for the Day: Sound and Fury

When I switched from cable to satellite TV a few years ago I was very pleased, except for one problem.  The sound volume varied dramatically from channel to channel.  Thus, I was (and am) constantly adjusting the volume when I switch channels. 

At the same time, I use a nifty piece of software on the Internet called Ventrilo.  This allows me to talk in real time with groups of people from all around the world.  And, of course, since the people have widely varying equipment setups, they come in an very different volumes.  Ventrilo allows me to adjust the volume for each person, amplifying the soft voices and quieting the loud ones.  Set it once, and the system remembers to adjust for that person whenever he or she is on.

Why not do the same thing for my TV stations?  The satellite box obviously has tons of memory.  Why can’t it let me adjust the volume for each channel and automatically adjust accordingly every time I switch to that channel?  It’s so obvious I can’t imagine why DirecTV hasn’t done it already.