If you're experiencing audio delay issues, read this

Could not have been a problem of process on Sonos to »translate » the LG signal and to diffuse it on the different speakers?


Not in my opinion, no. To the best of my knowledge, what the PLAYBAR is expecting is the Dolby Digital standard. This is why the PLAYBAR works with so many TVs, it only has to deal with one "standard" signal, and not a signal specific to each kind of TV. So there shouldn't be anything unique about the signal being sent by the LG, it's simply a matter of timing.

In my world, the PLAYBAR is actually a pretty "dumb" device. The only thing it does is take 2 specific types of signals, either stereo (PCM) or Dolby Digital, and do a minimal amount of processing to get it out to the appropriate speakers (the three in the device itself, the SUB and surrounds if they're connected). Not a bunch of processing there.

I do think that some of the issues that have been seen in the past were due to various manufacturers inserting their own special codes added to the Dolby Digital signal so that they could do something special with the manufacturer's soundbars. I would hazard a guess that in some cases, it "broke" the standard that Sonos was expecting, and in other cases, the manufacturers were able to keep it "outside" of the standard, and it had no affect on the Sonos' ability to interpret the signal.

Word of warning, though, fredacqua, this is all entirely supposition on my part. Don't take any of this as gospel, please. It's logical based on the knowledge I have regarding lots of these things, but I'm not an audio engineer of any type. Just a guy making some informed guesses.

I too am having the sync issue with a Sony. It’s a X690E. Same thing, read every string I can find. Seemingly no resolution for Sony TVs, and this string which is the most current and active is focused on LG TVs, I’ve tried tweaking every relevant setting on my TV, cable box and Sonos app over the past few days. Some channels have the problem worse than others but ultimately it’s totally unacceptable. I haven’t seen any customer service from rep from Sonos jumping onto these strings which is very disappointing for such a high end but highly flawed product, Waiting for someone to prov the magic solution but seems unlikely.

Well, I took delivery of a Playbase and two Play:1 speakers last night to go with my new Sony KD55AF8 TV. I am getting this audio lag. Have been looking at all these threads for hours. It seems that Sony was mentioned early as being affected but now the focus is on LG. Was there a fix for Sony TVs? If not, I’m sending the Sonos equipment back.

Which unfortunately confirms my guess that it's something in the LG that is delaying the optical signal...but good news for some. Now, if we can get Sonos to come out with a PLAYBAR that has HDMI to complement the BEAM... :)

Interestingly he actually doesn't mention if he tests the optical connection with his OLED here's part of what he said " In testing with my ancient-but-beloved Pioneer Kuro, the optical connection worked fine, but I couldn’t dial in the audio sync — the Beam was always a hair delayed. But honestly, if your TV is a decade old, it’s probably worth upgrading the picture before you work on the sound.

Moving back to the present, the Beam worked seamlessly over ARC with my 2016 LG B6 OLED TV " my guess is it would still suffer delay over optical, I also 2nd your hopes for a playbar with HDMI! That would be a day 1 purchase for me.

In my opinion, it is most likely because it is an issue with the LG doing something that is causing the optical signal to be delayed out of the TV, and Sonos has not been able to create a time machine to receive the optical signal before it has been sent.

It's unfortunate that it isn't a Sonos issue, I believe that Sonos would have already fixed it, if it was on their side of things. But they have to play what they receive across the optical cable when they receive it.

I'm anxious to find out if there's a possibility that the BEAM may not suffer this issue when it is connected via HDMI.
Early reviews seem good on that front, your earlier post about delay over optical with it were correct, one reviewer said using the optical adapter he couldn't quite get the audio synced up but using the HDMI proved seamless I believe he was using an LG OLED as well.

Hello

I am a french user with a TV LG 55C7V and I have the same delay issue with my Playbar. I wish I rode this issue before.

I sent both an e-mail to Sonos and LG support last week mentionning this forum link. LG has not even responded.

After a lot of e-mails for one week, Sonos support said they are working on it.

How is it possible that such a problem which last for almost one year is not solved?

As has been stated before, the delay is within the TV, and not the BEAM. And it's not a center channel only, it's the center, left and right in a single enclosure. Where did any of us say the delay wasn't in the TV? From many reports online, it is stated the issue is with the TV Optical port though, so many of us are hoping the Beam having a HDMI port wont suffer from the same problem due to being connected to the TV via ARC.

Also, no-one said the beam is a centre channel only. Just that it would be good to be able to use it that way with 2 other separate sonos speakers as front left and right. This is purely a suggestion to Sonos.

So is it safe to say if you have an OLED television stay away from Sonos for now for home theater? I guess we don't know on the beam yet but that seems more like a bedroom speaker then main room.. I think the beam looks great (Aside from lack of HDMI Passthrough). It's probably worth seeing how the reviews stack up against the Playbar when it is actually released.

Sonos could make the Beam far more attractive to home theatre users if they allowed us to use it as a centre channel with 2 other Sonos units as front left and right speakers. Now that would be amazing!

I just hope the beam doesn't suffer from audio delay, it's a deal breaker if so.. as far as the beam as a center channel I agree that would be amazing but they didn't release it that way and seems unlikely that things will change.

So is it safe to say if you have an OLED television stay away from Sonos for now for home theater? I guess we don't know on the beam yet but that seems more like a bedroom speaker then main room..

Hi all,
As predicted by some on here, the main board replacement had no tangible effect on the lip sync issue. The engineer has escalated this with his base, who will advise LG of the outcome. Hopefully another voice to a growing chorus of discontent at the contempt LG are displaying towards their customers.

It's absolutely disgusting that between LG especially and Sonos that this hasn't been worked out. This is all very expensive equipment that people work hard to pay for, and you get two products which cant even get something so fundamental like Lip Sync right?

I keep checking for a class action lawsuit to be started against LG. Their frontline staff are absolutely useless and just knowingly make things up to get people off the phone. Don't underestimate their desire to wear everyone out until the issue just stops being talked about and we just forget we are using stereo on our TV's instead of Dolby.

As for Sonos, get with the last decade and put a darn HDMI Port on your Playbar and Playbase. HDMI ARC would have solved this whole issue.

I have read the threads and agree that the majority believe it is a software problem. However, could it be a on board firmware issue that has been resolved by a updated component? I realise that this is clutching at straws, but this whole thing is so frustrating, and difficult to get to the bottom of. Thanks for the responses all the same.

LG insisted they do it and deny any record of an existing issue, hardware or software. Have you got evidence that it is software, as I would like to block the repair if it’s unnecessary.