topic Re: A/V Sync in Home Cinema, Projectors & Players

A/V Sync

Whicher1980 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 10:47:31 GMT

Hi everyone. Brand new to the forum today!

I've always used and been happy with Sony products and have just upgraded my system a couple of days ago.

I went for a KDL-55W905 Television, STR-DN1040 Receiver Amp and BDP-S5200 BluRay player.

As I work in broadcasting as an Editor I'm pretty knowleagble about picture and audio etc and have spent a day calibrating the TV so I'm happy with the picture using the Spears & Munsell setup disk. Very happy so far!

Whilst calibrating the audio for the BluRay player I noticed quite a substantial sync mismatch between video and audio, which I thought was strange as I have the amp set to HDMI Auto for A/V sync. I have manually adjusted this and it is 80ms out. Seeing as I've gone for a complete Sony package I thought it rather odd that the sync would be so far out on the HDMI, but I've got it set up now so happy with that.

The big issue I have is with the sync on the Television. The audio comes out of the receiver amp AFTER the video on the television. This input is also set to HDMI Auto. The trouble is, I need to delay the Video to bring it into line with the audio and I can't see a way to do this. Even if I set the delay to 0ms manually, the audio still follows the video. Looks to be about 2 frames out. If I set the system to output audio through the TV and the Amp, you hear a noticable echo between the two when playing simultaniously.

Yesterday I went and bought a rather expensive optical cable to see if that would fix the issue rather than running the audio through the HDMI and selecting OPT as the input for the TV channel on the receiver. Exactly the same problem. I don't understand why the sync is not perfect when set to HDMI Auto.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I have emailed Sony about the issue, but as yet have had no response.

Many thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing your comments!

James

Re: A/V Sync

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:09:28 GMT

HI there

Welcome to the forums !

To sum up: The video on the TV is displayed and then a slight delay for the audio to the AV Receiver. ?

I am wondering if this is an Input/Output lag issue. Not sure how to fix that YET.

Cheers

Re: A/V Sync

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:14:03 GMT

Hi there

What happens if you set the A/V Sync to HDMI AUTO ? Does that assist or make the problem worse?

Cheers

Re: A/V Sync

Whicher1980 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:49:41 GMT

Thanks Quinnicus!

Your sum up is correct yes.

If HDMI is set to AUTO there is about a 2 frame delay before the audio is heard (about 80ms in PAL).

This looks to be about the same if the amp is set manually to 0ms delay rather than AUTO.

The same was with the BluRay player. HDMI AUTO was about two frames out but the other way, which is why I was able to dial in an 80ms delay and sync the audio back up.

One of the reasons I bought all Sony kit was to avoid issues like this. I would have thought all their high end consumer equipment would be tried and tested... mine is far from an unusual setup! Very basic in fact bearing in mind what the Amp can acutally support. I just have the telly and a bluray player. No other inputs into the system.

Any ideas would be welcome Sir!

James

Re: A/V Sync

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:48:26 GMT

Hi there

Unfortunately I have no idea on how to resolve this. So my advice is to persue this via Sony Support.

As silly as this sounds, what happens if you do the following (going on another theory):

Set AV Receiver to 2ch stereo (including the speaker setup)
Then set the speaker distance to 0m
Then test a freeview station thats only 2 channel

Unless another forum member has another idea?

Cheers

Re: A/V Sync

Whicher1980 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 13:11:30 GMT

Hiya,

Thanks for your help and suggestions. Have tried your suggestions this morning and still having the same problem. It's like the receiver is delaying the audio some how after it has left the TV. Very annoying.

Any idea how long it normally takes for Sony to respond to a queery? It's been a couple of days now.

Many thanks,

James

Re: A/V Sync

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:37:10 GMT

Hi there

Oh well, that theory is out 😞

Unfortunately email support tends to be slow - sometimes it may be best to phone them up especially if Sony want to confirm minor details etc. Give Sony Support a call on 0207 365 2810. If you feel that you are getting no joy, please post back. Actually please post back anyhow, as I am curious on the issue/resolution myself.

Cheers

Re: A/V Sync

tjc2005 — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 04:31:53 GMT

Hello, I have almost the same setup as you, same TV but the Sony AVR I have is the str-dn840, did you ever find a solution to your problem?? Thanks

Re: A/V Sync

simonbruce1982 — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:11:03 GMT

My hardware might be different, but this is exactly what I am experiencing and getting nowhere nearer to discovering a solution! You explained the issues very clearly.

I have an AF8 and the DH790 receiver. Appreciate this post is a few years old, but wondered if you make any progress with addressing the issue?

Re: A/V Sync

Joe_Dohn — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:15:00 GMT

Can you tell us more about the setup you have and how everything is connected as well as anything you've already tried?

Updating the software for all devices would be a great first step if you haven't done so already.

- J.D.

Re: A/V Sync

simonbruce1982 — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:49:35 GMT

Thanks for writing back. My setup as follows:

Sony AF8 (HDMI 3 ARC) connected to DH790 via a new QED Premium Performance 1.5m HDMI cable.

I am experiencing the audio lagging slightly behind the picture when watching live television or when using one of the built in streaming apps such as YouTube or Netflix. As the picture is ahead of the audio, adding delay via the receiver is not an option. See settings used below.

Tried a TOSLINK optical cable between TV and DH790 and I am experiencing the exact same delay.

I also have Apple TV 4K, Blu-ray (Sony UBP-X700) and PlayStation 4 Pro connected to the DH790 directly.
For each of these, I have to apply 80ms of delay in order to get perfect lip-sync.

This is a good solution for Apple TV and X700, but no so much for the PS4 as there is clearly a delay being added which affects game responsiveness. In addition, when playing a game where audio comes from the controller, it is out of sync with the same audio via the receiver, meaning what I am seeing and hearing is behind the input.

The above devices are all connected to the DH790 by QED "Pro Short Length HDMI" cables.

To validate lip-sync, I changed the TV to output to the TV speakers and then un-mute the receiver. This results in an echo being heard and allowed me to adjust delay for Apple TV and X700 to 80ms in order to sync correctly, but it's not possible to adjust to remove the delay from the TV over ARC in the same way (effectively needing negative delay of a similar amount of 80ms as the echo is about the same).

AF8 settings:

A/V Sync set to Auto
Audio output set to PCM (both advised by Sony)
HDMI set to enhanced (to support 4K HDR, which works fine)
TV set to Game mode when using PlayStation

PS4 settings:

Audio outputting as PCM

Software up to date on all devices, I also did a full factory reset on the AF8 and the issue persists.

Looking online it seems lots of people have issues with delay over ARC, but struggling to find any answers relating to my exact setup. I hoped an all-Sony (with exception of the Apple TV) setup, with no expense spared on the TV would be hassle-free!

Re: A/V Sync

Joe_Dohn — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:57:16 GMT

Since both devices are capable of ARC, why not connect everything directly to the TV and monitor whether you still get the same delay or not?

If you would post your findings here, it would help others later on as well ^^

- J.D.

Re: A/V Sync

simonbruce1982 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:11:57 GMT

As mentioned, audio from the TV lags behind the image, which cannot be dialled out with AV delay, so everything going through the TV is not ideal. At least with Apple TV and X700 going through the receiver I can delay then by 80ms to get them to sync perfectly.

Re: A/V Sync

Joe_Dohn — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 15:33:17 GMT

Have you tried just connecting the PS4 directly then? Since it seems that's the main niggle you currently have with your setup.