If you're experiencing audio delay issues, read this


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I've been living with lip sync issues (audio behind the video) since I got my Playbar about a year ago but I finally decided to do something about it. After multiple conversations with Sonos support and the LG's support people (they kept blaming each other for the audio delay), I decided to email Sonos' CEO about the issue.

After a few hours, I got a reply back from him, CCing a team manager who was going to look into the issue. We scheduled a call and he had me send various diagnostics to him. He said that the engineering team was going to investigate and get back to me.

A week later, I got an update. He told that they are still working on the issue. He also said that only one other person had reported the same issue (I assume that means that only one other person with an LG TV). So, if you're having audio delay issues and you've tried all other troubleshooting, reach out to Sonos support and have them look into it. If it helps you might mention my reference number, which has already been escalated:

Keep in mind that my setup is pretty straight forward (LG C6 OLED TV connected directly to the Playbar via Optical, audio playing from the built-in apps) and every single thing LG and Sonos suggested, including going into the TV's service menu and changing things there.

I know there are multiple post on the topic so hopefully we can solve at least some of the issues causing audio delay.


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551 replies

Why would that seem odd? You've even proven your case, by using an HDMI extractor. Given that, how could it be anything other than the TV at fault?

And it's possible that all of these manufacturers have purchased the part in question from the same place.


Yeah fair enough, although the HDMI splitter has just added delay on the video front meaning I can fix the sync in the Sonos app. Maybe all soundbars have the same problem and most TV's aren't capable of outputting multi-channel audio without delay.

Either way, it's just a frustrating situation when I bought the Sonos to simplify things.
I'll certainly agree with the frustration part of that. Sometimes we end up paying for all of the extra technology we use in our daily lives.
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I've experienced so much frustration with the combination of the Sonos Playbase + Sub, and the LG OLED65E7P. At this point, I wish I had never invested in the Sonos gear to begin with. It gives me no joy to say that, as the other aspects of the Sonos system are fantastic, and I really appreciate the recent addition of AirPlay to the Playbase.

I've tried two different HDMI switches with optical audio extraction, and found that neither one was sufficient for my system. While audio extraction definitely solved the audio / video sync issue, other unacceptable problems were introduced into the mix. Neither of the devices properly supports Dolby Vision or 4K at 60Hz, and each of them added undesirable glitches to the video with every connected source. For the reference of others in this thread, these are the ones I've tried so far:


Has anyone else been successful with the combination of an LG OLED display, a Sonos Playbase (or Playbar, I suppose), and a third-party device in-between to resolve audio / video sync? If so, can you please share your experiences and the devices that you used to achieve this?

At this point, I'm thinking I should just scrap the Sonos system altogether and buy a receiver and some decent speakers. It's not as attractive, nor as flexible as a Sonos system, but at least I could guarantee audio / video sync with surround sound support.

Thanks to everyone who has been providing help in this long and ongoing thread. I've definitely been helped by many in here, and I really appreciate it.
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@RedFive If you are willing to stick with the faulty TV, you can introduce a home cinema amp with support for switching both picture and sound (as long as it has toslink output).
I have same issue. Persisted with LG support - they replaced motherboard eventually but made no difference either. Still have audio delay.
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Has anyone tried using an HDMI to optical adapter taking the sound out of the TV via ARC? (or is this what you mean by Audio extraction?). this is a common issue across all types of TVs, it seems, going out of the TV to Sonos via optical. My solution until Sony fixed it was an optical switch so that I could go directly from the source (Sky Q in my case) and switch to the other optical channel when I wanted other sources. As I said in an earlier post, Sony did have a solution for the problem but it was initially unusable due to picture issues when the SYNC function was in use.
For those of you that may be blaming Sonos for this issue, I have an LG OLED C8, and an LG SK10Y soundbar, and I have the same sync issues when the sound on my DirecTV box is set to Dolby. For the work around I have a question: my DirecTV box has HDMI, and Digital Audio Out (RCA jack, not Digital Optical). Soundbar has Digital Optical and ARC. Can somebody please recommend the exact configuration and products to use which are available in US?
In every case that has been "solved", save one that I can recall, the "fix" has been to pull the audio out of the HDMI stream before it goes into the TV, so that the TV can't add any additional delay to the data stream.

So, Rab63, in your case you could wire your soundbar directly to the DIrecTV box's optical output, and should be fine. Of course, you then lose the ability to have anything else connected to the soundbar, like DVD, game consoles, etc.

Everyone that I've seen report back on the use of an HDMI Switch/extractor has indicated that it works for them. So you'd plug all "source" devices into the switch/extractor, pull the audio out for the soundbar (of any type, Sonos usually, because this is a Sonos board), and send the video on to the TV via an HDMI connection.
I have had same issue, but think it was solved on my LG OLED65C8PLA activating setting "AV-sync" and "bypass". Is this perhaps a new setting?
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Issue with using an HDMI Switch is that Sonos won't play DD+; so any streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBO) will get played as PCM/Stereo by Sonos as they ALL use DD+. So you either need to go through something that will transcode DD+ into DD (LG TV should theoretically do this, Apple TV 4k is only other one that will do this) or you get crappy stereo sound...
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I'm in the process of returning my 1 week old LG B8 55" to John Lewis for this very reason. My setup is 3 external sources (PS4, Humax, Sony Blu-ray player) going into the TV, and the sound going to the Sonos Beam via HDMI ARC. Within a few minutes of setting up the TV I noticed the lip sync seemed out on BBC1 using the internal tuner, I fiddled with a few settings in the AV Sync options, and turning on Bypass seemed to resolve it (at least I think that's what did it, I fiddled a lot...).

No amount of fiddling could get the sound from the Blu-ray player in sync with the picture though, as others have observed the picture was arriving first, so audio delay settings couldn't help. Sound from the internal Apps was perfectly in sync.

I found many threads complaining about this and after seeing how old some of them were decided that I didn't want to wait for some mythical firmware fix from LG, and after spending so much on a TV I'm not prepared to have to buy an external switch and add to the AV cable clutter just to workaround something that so obviously should just work.

It's clearly a TV problem, so it's going back, and I'm going back to reading TV reviews again. LG have lost me as a current and future customer.
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I did the same three weeks ago and don’t regret a thing. Went for a Samsung QLED which works flawlessly. And best of all, no more dealing with LG. 😃
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So is this still very well a thing?

In my living room I have:

65” Samsung KS8000
Sonos beam connected directly to tv via HDMI/ARC
2 Sonos One’s set up for surround
1 Sonos Sub

I don’t seem to notice any issues. I only watch cable tv and stream movies via VUDU and shows on Netflix. Seems to work great.

In my upstairs loft however is where I do much more and have the following setup:

65” LG OLED B7A
Sonos beam connected directly to tv via HDMI/ARC
2 Sonos One’s set up for surround
Xbox One X hooked up to tv via HDMI
PS4 Pro hooked up to tv via HDMI

I feel like I did not notice this until reading online and seen a bunch of issues. Now I cannot stop looking at people mouths when they speak. It may be in my head because the wife say she doesn’t notice (she’s not a techy like me though) watching cable tv and playing read dead redemption 2 I seem to notice this slight delay. The TVs internal apps again like VUDU for movies and Netflix it seems spot on.

One other thing that seems weird to me is dialogue in gaming (only tried on RDR2 so far) that when voices are coming from the LH and RH surrounds they are louder then when coming from the front facing beam. I would think it should be the opposite.

But anyways this is still an issue with the beam connected via HDMI right? Not just the older playbar and base via optical?
I have this problem. My setup is as follows:
XFINITY HDMI to LG 65SK8000 connected to Sonos Beam via HDMI Arc.

Any ideas?
Issue with using an HDMI Switch is that Sonos won't play DD+; so any streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBO) will get played as PCM/Stereo by Sonos as they ALL use DD+. So you either need to go through something that will transcode DD+ into DD (LG TV should theoretically do this, Apple TV 4k is only other one that will do this) or you get crappy stereo sound...

This is where I'm stuck at right now, actually. For example, if I plug my NVIDIA Shield into an HDMI Switch, apps like Netflix/Prime come out only as stereo. The TV is what's been converting the DD+ signal to DD, so without the TV's involvement, the Sonos won't play the DD+ signal. So the Nvidia shield has to stay plugged in to the TV, which means the Sonos has to stay on HDMI-2 (ARC) to get the sound converted by the TV and not the splitter.

However, the issue now is my 4k player. The player is what needed the splitter, and now that the Sonos signal isn't running out from the splitter (via optical), I'm back at Square 1.

Which leads me to my next idea: Could I get a splitter for the Sonos signal? If I were able to have two inputs running to the Sonos, I'd be able to run my 4k player's picture to the TV, and the 4k player's audio to the Sonos (my 4k player has two HDMI ports..one for audio and the other for video).
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My LG Oled C7 was updated for the first time in almost a year today and now the lip sync issue seems to have disappeared with my cable tv box. I will try out the PS4 Pro later, but here's hoping!
My LG Oled C7 was updated for the first time in almost a year today and now the lip sync issue seems to have disappeared with my cable tv box. I will try out the PS4 Pro later, but here's hoping!

Keep us posted! What was the date of the update?
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My LG Oled C7 was updated for the first time in almost a year today and now the lip sync issue seems to have disappeared with my cable tv box. I will try out the PS4 Pro later, but here's hoping!

Keep us posted! What was the date of the update?


The auto update only happened today, but it updated to firmware version 5.80.15 which was a significant jump from the previous version. Hopefully it had a lot of bug fixes.
I wonder if there is someone who can confirm update and bugfix of lip sync issue in LG B8 and C8. I consider buying one of this TVs. I have a playbase and 2 playones. I'm going to watch netflix by webos tv app and SAT (i have lipsync settings in satdecoder), so maybe lipsync is not a problem ? Whats your experience? Thanks for comments
I can confirm that the latest updated applied about a week ago has reduced the lip sync delay. I can still notice that it's a little bit off, but definitely a significant improvement from before.
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I have noticed with the update on my LG C7 the lip sync issue with dolby digital to the playbar is not a problem on my Foxtel Cable Box or my new android streaming box. My Apple TV 4K works fine as well, however that was fine before the update.

Unfortunately the PS4 Pro still has terrible lip sync, however as this is the only device still experiencing issues for me and I never watch physical disc media anymore, I really don't mind putting the PS4 Pro in stereo mode for the odd game I play.

This has meant I can now thankfully remove the annoying optical switch I had setup. I hate extra clutter behind the TV and adding in extra cheap devices in between expensive equipment.
The update seems to have improved the issue. I had some delay with some TV app even with Apple TV 4K. It works better. I will test with my Sony Bluray.

Funny coincidence : I sent few weeks ago a registered letter with acknowlodgement of receipt to Mediation Department of LG mentionning the URL of this discussion.
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I can confirm that the latest updated applied about a week ago has reduced the lip sync delay. I can still notice that it's a little bit off, but definitely a significant improvement from before.

Which TV are you referring to, and what firmware version?
I can confirm that the latest updated applied about a week ago has reduced the lip sync delay. I can still notice that it's a little bit off, but definitely a significant improvement from before.

Which TV are you referring to, and what firmware version?


It's an LG 65" B7A and the firmware version is 05.80.15
The update seems to have improved the issue. I had some delay with some TV app even with Apple TV 4K. It works better. I will test with my Sony Bluray

I talked too quickly. The delay issue is still here for some TV shows on my LG C7.