HD Audio Synch Off

[HersheyBud]

Watching HD NFLST pre-game show and noticed a slight audio synch problem, at least on the Fox channels. It's hard to tell if the audio or video is lagging, but it's definitely out of synch. I've noticed it on a few other channels recently too. HR20-700 HDMI going straight into the TV-no multiswitch or OTA involved. Anyone else seen this problem?

[gizzorge]

I had this problem, too. I compensated for it by using my sound system and tweaking some settings. However, it seems to be a small problem that only occurs occasionally.

[Bowtaz3]

Mine does it once in awhile too using HDMI

[dakeeney]

Watching HD NFLST pre-game show and noticed a slight audio synch problem, at least on the Fox channels. It's hard to tell if the audio or video is lagging, but it's definitely out of synch. I've noticed it on a few other channels recently too. HR20-700 HDMI going straight into the TV-no multiswitch or OTA involved. Anyone else seen this problem?

Yeah I'm having the same problem with the HR-20. Read where someone said to
unplug the dvr and reboot. I seem to be having trouble with mpeg-4 locals and
the new HD's and not on the SD channels.:confused: :confused: :confused:

[phxphotog]

I'm definitely have this issue. I dvr'd a whole bunch of smithsonian channel in HD and they all have lip synch issues.

[htgguy]

Yes I have noticed this multiple times the last few days. It has been on a variety of channels. I have an HR20-700 connected by HDMI.

[bt-rtp]

+1, on HR20 while watching the President's Cup Golf via OTA antenna.

[David_G]

I see it too. Mostly on HD channels. I don't recall any problems with OTA. I run optical to my audio receiver, I don't have a HDMI TV.

[russelle777]

I noticed it yesterday, it was on my HD locals, the voice was 2-3 seconds behind the video. I switched to the OTA of the same channel to see if it was at the station. No it was perfect. It is extremely annoying trying to watch with the audio lag.

[tominvt]

I have also had this problem for the past several days. It was off by about 2 seconds on StarzHD yesterday. Same problem with recorded shows. I am using HDMI. Is anyone who is connecting via component cables having this problem? Or is it the incoming signal that is off?

[omj]

Mine has been doing this for months. I have tried everything. I have called twice and they have taken 5 dollars off my bill both times. It had quit for a while but then starts up again. I think mine started working right around the update when they added the fast forward correct feature. Then when they added these new channels it's all messed up again. Restarting does not fix the problem. It is a problem with the feed from directv.

[KAK]

I noticed this on mine but only after changing channels with the up/down button. As soon as I change the channels by punching in the channel number, the synch issue clears up.

[Skins Fan]

Same here on my H20-100. I also get a kind of "studdering" type of sound once in awhile, espespecially on the SmithHD but it has also occured on the D provided local HD.

[Stuart Sweet]

I saw this on HistoryHD quite a bit this weekend. Nothing I did fixed it, except coming back a couple hours later.

[notnufbw]

In the past I've Googled for an explanation for this so-called "audio-lag" and one answer I've seen is "video signal conversion", which most TV's are doing in some fashion these days, causing, in some cases, the picture to lag slightly behind the audio. That in fact is what I was seeing on my equipment, video-lag, not audio lag. Fortunately my A/V receiver has adjustments for delaying the audio in order to sync it properly with the video. So, I'm suggesting that some of you might actually have video-lag due to your TV's normal video signal processing. If you study the picture and sound very closely you might find the words have finished and the lips still moved a tick or two after the last word sounded. It's not always easy to tell if you really have audio-lag or if it's video-lag....IMHO.

VR

[w84mike]

I'm definitely have this issue. I dvr'd a whole bunch of smithsonian channel in HD and they all have lip synch issues.

Yes, it is very noticeable on this channel.

[furjaw]

I found that if I hit PAUSE for a second or two, it always fixes the problem.

[newlions]

I have this problem too on some of the HD channels and OTA. I was hoping that somehow MPEG4 was going to make it go away. It doesn't seem to always happen, so that leads me to think it is NOT my HDMI connection or my cables, or the HR20.

However, since there doesn't seem to be any definitive reason, I will likely switch to COMPONENT video or a higher quality HDMI cable. Some channels are very annoying. I need to try something.

[rorkin]

This has been a problem from time to time with OTA direct to my TV.. It has become rather infrequent of late though.. It is quite noticable on some of the new mpeg-4. National Channels.. Since my Sony has a setting to compensate for it I wonder if it is not some inherent condition is some signals. It has nothing to do with recording since I only have H-20's

[JDogHooey]

I have just recently started seeing this problem, and mostly on the new MPEG-4 channels. It's a tish annoying...

[Pink Fairy]

I noticed last night on the new HD channels. Sometimes it is noticeable - others it is not.

[petergaryr]

I have just recently started seeing this problem, and mostly on the new MPEG-4 channels. It's a tish annoying...

I hear it only on some of the new channels, like MGM. TNT, the old standby for out of synch audio continues.

I've tried doing a forum search for the answer, and I get a number of hits about people complaining about it, but what exactly causes it?

[CliffV]

I almost always have a 3ms lip sync problem. I use HDMI for the video (non-native 1080i) and optical to my receiver. I've adjusted for the problem on my receiver.

For the first time today (watch Heroes) I noticed the 2 second delay. It only occured after slipping past commercials. Hitting PAUSE for cured the problem.

[n3ntj]

I've noticed a lot of video/audio out of psync (sp?) lately on live programming and while watching recorded programs. Weird, its gotten very noticeable in the past 2 weeks or so. It was VERY noticeable watching the MLB playoffs on TBS.. you'd hear the bat hit the ball when the ball was only half way to home plate.

[drmckenzie]

Until recently, most of my audio/video delay issues were the standard ones -- audio before video -- and I was able to easily synch them with my Lipfix unit

However, in the last week or two, I've been seeing the reverse problem -- video before audio.

Has anything changed in the last couple of weeks that could account for this?

[Nobody]

I too wonder what is causing this, and where in long path to my TV(s) this is occurring. I'll be watching this thread for other's observations.

[texasbrit]

Here's something I posted on another forum, in response to a question about why wasn't DirecTV fixing the A/V sync issues:
The problem is not necesarily DirecTvs to fix, although DirecTV has its part to play. You will see similar posts about audio-video sync on dish, digital cable and FIOS forums, and on forums discussing both hi-def DVDs and video processing in general. If you do a google search on A/V sync TV, you will find lots of references, including this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/V_sync and this http://tvtech.com/pages/s.0076/t.1814.html And a quote this year from the Director of Engineering at Iowa Public Television;
QUOTE There are actually engineering working groups (I am on several of them) that are working within the industry to create a set of standards and recommended practices to address this issue. A/V sync problems have been around for decades, but in the past, the audio usually lagged behind the video and our brains are accustomed to seeing something and then hearing the sound because in nature, sound travels slower than light and we have adapted to that. Most of the time in DTV, the sound is ahead of the video and that is very unnatural and it doesn't have to be very far off for us to notice. We are currently in the process of renovating our production facility for HD production and we are giving exceptional attention to insuring that audio and video signals travel through are systems in sync. This is not to say there won't be problems but we are working dilligently to correct them. UNQUOTE
The problem is that even if the audio and video are synced correctly at the source (and often they are not), with digital signals the audio and video are not tied together through the various stages of transmission, reception and display. Every time the digital video and audio goes through any processing , the data accumulates in queues and buffers and all these cause delays, and they are different for audio and video. This buffering, particularly of video, happens at the station, in the distribution system between the station and DirecTV, in DirecTVs transmission system, the satellite, the DirecTV receiver and the TV itself. Some TVs are notorious for adding as much as a second of delay to the video. And the delays in HD are much worse than in SD because of the large amount of data.
There is no easy fix for this, especially since the delays involved in your equipment setup will be different from mine, that's one reason why some people see poor A/V sync and others watching the same channel don't.. The TV stations/channels are getting better at anticipating what the delays might be (and for those channels new to HD, there will be a learning curve). There are new proposals for adding data to the audio stream so that the audio and video can be synced later in the process. Some A/V receivers allow you to adjust the audio/video sync, you can also buy add-on boxes to adjust A/V sync ($500 or so). And the latest release of HDMI, HDMI 1.3, has A/V sync adjustment capabilities using an interface between the TV and the A/V receiver..
DirecTV can contribute to improving A/V sync by reducing the amount of buffering in the various stages of processing. The H20 and HR20 buffering, including the MPEG-4 decoders, can become more efficient. But I don't see a complete solution to this problem without introducing some changes in the way audio and video are handled through the processing chain.

And although almost all A/V sync issues are where the audio arrives before the video, occasionally it's the other way around. This usually caused by an error at the source, although buffering with Dolby Digital audio signals can cause problems aslo.

[JeffBowser]

Excellent post Tex. One thing that helped me was I ran both my audio and video through my AV receiver. It has its own ways of keeping sync, and works well when the source is within acceptable limits. I had terrible problems when I bypassed my receiver on the video output, though.

[ChromaTick]

I've had various small issues with audio-synch for months, but usually it's fixed by a pause/play or switching channels and coming back.

However in the last couple of weeks it's really taken a turn for the worse. In our house the most noticeable culprit is ABC HD. The View is constantly out of Synch, and both weeks of Pushing Daisies was almost impossible for me to watch. (it doesn't seem to bother my wife that much).

Whether the problem is on the transmission end or D*TV's end, I hope someone can get it fixed soon.

[mchaney]

My HR20-100 has this problem almost half the time when I use the slip-forward feature a few times to get past commercials. Sometimes I use the skip-back function if I've gone too far. Doing this, it seems almost half the time I get major lip sync issues where the audio/video are separated by several seconds. Pressing pause and then play again always resolves the issue. Seems like an HR20 bug.

Mike

[mdgolf]

You all may be interested in the article I posted in this section about Audio Synch...:)