Annoyed by those high-decibel television commercials that blast you out of your favorite lounger and have you reaching for the mute button on the remote control before permanent hearing loss sets in?

The Federal Communications Commission, Congress and a nonprofit group made up of broadcasters and cable operators are all working on ways to even out the highs and lows of program sound and commercial volume.

The House Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee passed a bill this week on for consideration by the Commerce Committee, which must also approve the bill before it can be considered by the full House.

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act (HR 6209) directs the FCC to come up with regulations so that:

• Advertisements accompanying video programming aren’t excessively noisy or strident.

• Advertisements don’t have modulation levels substantially higher than accompanying program.

• The average maximum loudness of advertisements shall not be substantially higher than that of the accompanying program.

DailyFinance.com pointed out that the FCC has regulatory interest in this matter.

Within the next month, a group called The Advanced Television Systems Committee may reach an agreement on technical standards for what broadcasters call the “audio loudness differential.”

Al Tompkins writes that if you don’t want to wait for Congress or others to fix the problem, try a new gadget called TruVolume, which anticipates when a loud commercial is about to air and tones it down. This YouTube video shows how the technology works.

The Orange County Register ran a story last week explaining how TruVolume differs from other volume levelers.