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Badgercop
Enthusiast II
Dec 8, 2018 10:06 AM UTC

Beam: PCM vs Dolby

As we mostly all know by now, some TV’s (especially LG) have lip sync issues with the Beam.

Most people report that switching from Dolby to PCM helps the problem. So before I buy a Beam, can anyone tell me what the real world
difference is in sound quality and UX (when not using the Beam with any other speakers). Is it really noticeable? If I’m really going to be missing out, should I look at other options?
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    13 replies

    Paulw123
    Paulw123
    Virtuoso
    Dec 8, 2018 10:19 AM UTC
    You could always use the beam via optical lead, surely there is no lip sycn issues with optical?
    That would give you all the sounds quality of DD5.1, just loose the whistles and bells of controlling your tv, just use tv remote 😉
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      BadgercopAuthor
      Enthusiast II
      Dec 10, 2018 12:01 AM UTC
      Is that that all I would lose? I hear the TV control functionality is a bit janky anyway, so that might be a good option, thanks.
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      BadgercopAuthor
      Enthusiast II
      Dec 10, 2018 12:03 AM UTC
      Shame we can’t use optional for the audio, and ARC for control - or can we?
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      chubba
      Contributor I
      Dec 10, 2018 12:19 PM UTC
      Using the supplied optical adaptor in the box makes no difference, I still experience lip sync issues. As well as audio drop outs and incompatibility with Samsung. The list goes on...
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      BadgercopAuthor
      Enthusiast II
      Dec 10, 2018 2:12 PM UTC
      Using the supplied optical adaptor in the box makes no difference, I still experience lip sync issues. As well as audio drop outs and incompatibility with Samsung. The list goes on...

      What TV do you have? What source? I thought this was primarily an LG issue...
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      chubba
      Contributor I
      Dec 10, 2018 2:30 PM UTC
      What TV do you have? What source? I thought this was primarily an LG issue...

      No, it's never been solely a LG issue, where did you get that from?

      Samsung M5500 (5 series). Source is SKY Minibox on HD (surround) channels only. Exhausted all avenues with Sonos support aside from calling them directly.
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        Paulw123
        Paulw123
        Virtuoso
        Dec 11, 2018 10:42 AM UTC
        Well my LG oled works great with my sony AVR via optical, so this is beginning to sound like a sonos beam only problem.
        Can you not induce an audio delay in sonos or tv or sky mini box?
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        chubba
        Contributor I
        Dec 11, 2018 10:51 AM UTC
        Well my LG oled works great with my sony AVR via optical, so this is beginning to sound like a sonos beam only problem.
        Can you not induce an audio delay in sonos or tv or sky mini box?         I've tried with both the TV settings and SKY Mini box but quickly worked out that it needs to be a negative delay rather than introduce more delay (if that makes sense), which is how the increments go. 😞
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        melvimbe
        melvimbe
        Dec 11, 2018 2:46 PM UTC
        If there is no delay with PCM, but there is with DD, then it seems logical that the TV is processing the DD signal and causing a delay. I would look at the audio settings on the TV to see if there is any sort of processing I can turn off. If nothing is there to change, my next step would be to verify that my sources are sending audio in DD, so my TV isn't having to do any conversions.

        Last step would be to try connecting a source that's sending in audio in DD directly to the TV, bypassing the TV altogether. Hopefully this can be done by optical, so HDMI still goes to the TV. If there's no delay, then it's clearly the TV causing the delay.

        If the TV can't sending anything beyond PCM without causing a delay, then you're going to have trouble passing anything through the TV. You'll need a solution that doesn't pass through the TV, or get a new TV.
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        Danny
          chubba
          Contributor I
          Dec 11, 2018 3:02 PM UTC
          For my issue, I will look at connecting the tv to the Sky box with optical connection and go from there.

          Why would I want to spend £££ on a 5.1 soundbar only to use PCM?

          and as for buying a new TV :D:D:D:D You're funny.
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