That Syncing Feeling

[Drummerdave]

Hello guys, I'm hoping you can help me with a problem.

I want to watch TV with the sound going through my HiFi, but the sound is out of sync with the video. I have a Sky HD box connected to an AVI LAb Series Integrated amp via some generic phono cables. The amp connects to the AVI Duo speakers with Kimber 4TC cable.

I had originally thought that the problem was due to the quality of the phono cables. That is until I tried connecting my Apple TV streamer. It is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable and to a Beresford Caiman DAC with a Beresford toslink optical cable.

The audio is still out of sync with the pictures when using the Apple tV, which makes me think it may be something to do with the amp. Or could it just be dodgy phono AND dodgy HDMI/optical cables?

Any comments/advice would be most welcome as alway.

Thanks. DD

 

[plastic penguin]

Hello guys, I'm hoping you can help me with a problem.

I want to watch TV with the sound going through my HiFi, but the sound is out of sync with the video. I have a Sky HD box connected to an AVI LAb Series Integrated amp via some generic phono cables. The amp connects to the AVI Duo speakers with Kimber 4TC cable.

I had originally thought that the problem was due to the quality of the phono cables. That is until I tried connecting my Apple TV streamer. It is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable and to a Beresford Caiman DAC with a Beresford toslink optical cable.

The audio is still out of sync with the pictures when using the Apple tV, which makes me think it may be something to do with the amp. Or could it just be dodgy phono AND dodgy HDMI/optical cables?

Any comments/advice would be most welcome as alway.

Thanks. DD

Hello stranger. Long time no read.

I think you'll need to strip your set-up back to basics. It'll be a process of elimination. I have a Sky HD box and run a HDMI cable from the box to the TV and RCAs from there [Sky box] directly to the amp.

Clearly there seems to be a breakdown between components. Detach the Apple streamer firstly and see whether that cures the problem.

Presumably the lips are out of sync too?

 

[Jota180]

The sound is out of sync because a TV takes some time to process the image whereas the amp takes no time at all to process the sound. You're using HDMI to the TV for the video only and RCA to the amp for sound and this is fine as long as you can fine tune the audio delay.

I had this issue with Blue Ray's on my Oppo and there was an option in the menu to mess around with the audio delay settings and found 75ms sorted it for me. If I changed my TV I'd likely need to change this setting if the new TV was faster or slower at processing the video stream.

So whatever source you're playing from, Sky box or whatever, see if there's an audio sync or audio delay option in the menu. Somewhere between 60 and 90ms should do it.

and hey bingo...

http://www.skyeurope.tv/adjust-sound-synchronisation

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Dodgey cables it ain't! There are delay settings in the amp and the Sky box.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Dodgey cables it ain't! There are delay settings in the amp and the Sky box.

 

[The_Lhc]

Yeah, I've got a Sky box with hdmi to the TV and optical to the amp, no issues with sync, it's probably the amp processing the analogue input that's adding a delay.

 

[Leeps]

My experience with lip sync issues (particularly when I had a separate stereo amp) was that analogue is fast, digital conversion can take a little longer.

So if you add a number of DA or AD conversions in purely the audio or visual part of the chain, then lip sync issues can happen.

My set-up at the time ran all my inputs into the TV with RCA analogue from the TV into the stereo amp, which worked fine as both audio and visual were sent down the same cables and were in sync at the time they hit the TV. I'm fortunate in my TV having RCA outputs, I appreciate this is uncommon now.

So by the time the TV had processed the picture and sent the sound out the RCA cable, it all took place at the same time. So try to look out for too many devices in one part of the chain, or as suggested above look for devices that have the option to alter the timing.

I have also found that some individual components aren't as good as others at processing audio and visuals in tandem. My current Pioneer Bluray is not as sharp with timing as my previous Panasonic, even though they're outputting via HDMI to my AV receiver and the menus and set-up options are very unclear compared to the Panasonic, so it's much more difficult to identify what's causing problems. When the Pioneer dies, I shan't be buying another one. Not that impressed.

 

[Jota180]

My experience with lip sync issues (particularly when I had a separate stereo amp) was that analogue is fast, digital conversion can take a little longer.

So if you add a number of DA or AD conversions in purely the audio or visual part of the chain, then lip sync issues can happen.

My set-up at the time ran all my inputs into the TV with RCA analogue from the TV into the stereo amp, which worked fine as both audio and visual were sent down the same cables and were in sync at the time they hit the TV. I'm fortunate in my TV having RCA outputs, I appreciate this is uncommon now.

So by the time the TV had processed the picture and sent the sound out the RCA cable, it all took place at the same time. So try to look out for too many devices in one part of the chain, or as suggested above look for devices that have the option to alter the timing.

I have also found that some individual components aren't as good as others at processing audio and visuals in tandem. My current Pioneer Bluray is not as sharp with timing as my previous Panasonic, even though they're outputting via HDMI to my AV receiver and the menus and set-up options are very unclear compared to the Panasonic, so it's much more difficult to identify what's causing problems. When the Pioneer dies, I shan't be buying another one. Not that impressed.

The Blu Ray player in your case and the Sky Box in the OP's case send an encrypted signal via HDMI and this must first be decrypted by the receiving TV and then processed. It's the TV having to decrypt then process the stream that takes the time and that's what's causing the delay in the OP's scenario.

The audio is sent analogue straight to an amplifier and doesn't have this 'lag' issue. All Blu Ray players and set top boxes should have a sound delay option for the above scenario where you can fine tune the audio delay. Different Blu Ray players shouldn't make any difference to the delay, different TV's should as it's they who need the processing power to decrypt then process the digital video feed.

 

[MajorFubar]

We're all answering with guesswork until he tells us whether the audio is ahead of the video or vice versa.

 

[Jota180]

We're all answering with guesswork until he tells us whether the audio is ahead of the video or vice versa.

It's likely the video will be behind. It's neither here nor there anyway as all he has to do is play around with the audio delay and that setting has positive and negative settings. Like I said, between 60 and 90 should do it. Whether that's between +60 to +90 or between -60 to -90 isn't really an issue. Twiddle with the settings to find out. Try 60, play a DVD/Blu Ray or watch some Sky TV and see what you think of the sync. Not quite there? Twiddle a bit more.

 

[Drummerdave]

Thanks for all the comments. I adjusted the audio relay setting and it is much better.

However another issue has come to light. When playing Netflix through the Apple TV there is a horrible white noise sound. This doesn't happen when watching Youtube, just when watching Netflix. I'm using an optical cable to connect the Apple TV to my DAC and was wondering if I using a USB cable would help?