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Lip Sync Delay

  • 2 February 2017
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I have my Cable box hooked up to my Sony Bravia TV through an HDMI chord. Then from the TV to the sonos Playbar, I have a toslink optical cable. Because of this set up, the video is running faster than the audio from my sonos speakers This is causing a lip sync delay when watching TV. I already checked and my TV doesn't offer the functionality of delaying the video. I also checked and unfortunately the cable box doesn't have the option to delay the video either. And I know Sonos offers the ability to delay the audio for syncing purposes but I don't need to delay the audio, I need to speed up the audio or somehow delay the video.

What can I do? How can I speed up the audio or delay the video?
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Best answer by User149518 12 June 2017, 02:26

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35 replies

Your cable box probably has an optical audio port. Connect the PLAYBAR to that instead of the TV. The audio will probably then be ahead of the picture. Many cable boxes have an option to delay the audio, or you could always use the PLAYBAR lip-sync option.
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Would like to see an official answer to this as well.
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Your cable box probably has an optical audio port. Connect the PLAYBAR to that instead of the TV. The audio will probably then be ahead of the picture. Many cable boxes have an option to delay the audio, or you could always use the PLAYBAR lip-sync option.

This means that audio only comes from the cable box, other devices such as Apple TV would not be able to use the Sonos audio ?
This means that audio only comes from the cable box, other devices such as Apple TV would not be able to use the Sonos audio ?
Correct. If you want to use other sources there'd have to be a switch of some kind.

The simpler option would be to take optical feeds from both the TV and the cable box and flip between them using an IR-controlled TOSLINK switch. If you have an older Apple TV then it could connect via optical as well.

Alternatively use an HDMI device such as a single-port audio extractor with ARC (audio return channel), or an HDMI switch with audio output. In the first case the ATV would plug into the TV, with its audio sent back over ARC. In the second case the ATV would plug into the HDMI switch.
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In which case I would lean towards the Bose soundbar which doesn't have these embuggerances. The Bose software isn't as good but at least it works properly for a home theatre device.

If you promote a product for home theater, it should work as such, no ?
It works fine, and for most people the ~30ms latency though the PLAYBAR (which is there to ensure network sync with its wireless surrounds/SUB) is acceptable. Many won't even notice it.

Presumably you've checked that the Sony TV isn't adding any delay of its own. Some of the latest Samsungs provide an option to bring the audio forward slightly, as well as delay it. I don't think Sonys can do so.

If all you want is a plain soundbar then perhaps Sonos isn't for you. I'd point out that you can always retrofit Sonos streaming functionality to most third party soundbars by plugging in a CONNECT.
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Yeah, I already checked and unfortunately Sony does not offer anything that would allow me to delay the video or speed up the audio. But you have intrigued me with this Toslink switch or HDMI device idea. It's a smart TV so how I could I work it so that I plug in the cable box directly to the sonos playbar so I can watch TV without lip sync delay issues but also be able to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Youtube, etc etc via the smart tv apps in the TV? If I plug in the sound directly from the cable box to the playbar, how will I hear sound when I use the smart tv apps?
If I plug in the sound directly from the cable box to the playbar, how will I hear sound when I use the smart tv apps?
I already answered that earlier in the thread.
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Sorry, man. This kind of stuff is new to me and you need to walk me through this step by step. What device do I need to get (brand and model?) and how do I hook it up? So I would have a switch device (again what kind?) that I connect from the cable box directly to the play bar (bypassing the TV) but what and how do I plug stuff in so that the apps on the tv have sound?
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did you ever figure this out? I'm having the same problem with a sony TV and new sonos 3:1 system. The lip sync is not acceptable with this setup. I'm willing to add an HDMI switch because I like Sonos for audio throughout my house. But its not working very well at the TV. Maybe I should just use a different non-latent soundbar for my TV and return the Sonos 3:1 system. What did you do?
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I can tell you that I do not notice any delay in my Sonos 5.1 set up. Using a Vizio TV
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good for you! Unfortunately here...unacceptable delay.
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There usually is a feature to reduce or increase the delay in audio. My LG ? has that feature and it's 5 years old. You may have to fiddle around the advanced menus for this.

I did notice a slight delay when I first setup an used that to reduce the audio delay. Works fine now.
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Unfortunately the Sony doesn't have it.

I ended up getting an external hdmi switch that splits the audio so that I can adjust the delay in the sonos. This solves the problem but the setup is now more fiddly and complicated and I will need to get a universal remote to make it at least easier to use the whole system, change inputs from same remote.

The end analysis is that the Sony itself delays the audio slightly and the sonos also delays the audio slightly more because of wifi. The two combined delays add up to unacceptable lip sync problems. If your tv lets you adjust the lip sync delay, as the LG apparently does, then sonos can be used as is, otherwise an external switch and complicated setup is required to use sonos without lip sync problems due to the extra delay imposed by sonos wifi. Buyer beware.

I am happy with the results with the external switch. Not happy about the more complicated setup. Love sonos for listening to music though! For tv, buyers need to beware that depending on the tv, lip sync could become an issue.

I think some people are less perceptive about lip sync. I was at a friends house and he has a Samsung tv of some kind and a speaker bar of some kind and the lip sync was bad. I don't think he even notices but I didn't ask him because I don't wanna draw his attention to it.
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Update: I looked into getting a monoprice HDMI switch BUT, my TV is 4K and none of the HDMI switches I found offered 4K passthrough. The other issue is that if I use the switch so that the audio bypasses the tv, then I won't have audio when watching the apps like HBO Go, HULU, and netflix, youtube etc etc that are built into my smart TV.

So I'm back to square one. Any thoughts on what I can do? I just want to be able to watch cable TV and the internal smart tv apps and have the actors's dialogue match up to their lips.
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Bottom line #1 is that the wifi Sonos is always gonna have a little more latency then a hardwired soundbar.

Bottom line #2 is that the sony is also introducing a little more audio delay, perhaps, compared to some other TV's and there is no way to adjust it.

The two above latencies add up to unacceptable lip sync, I agree with you.

The monoprice switch solution has been very satisfactory for me since the Sony TV doesn't introduce any delay, now the Sonos actually has to delay it a bit to zero it in, which sonos does provide the ability to adjust...so with the mono price, lip sync is no problem. I'm satisfied.

I also got a logitech Harmony 650 remote which can control all of my devices including the mono price and the sonos and it can make sure to switch inputs on the mono price and makes the whole experience very seamless and easy.

Unfortunately as you pointed out, I can't use the built in sony apps in this configuration. I don't care because I use a ROKU for that stuff.

As far 4k material is concerned, to be honest, I prefer 1080p. I have compared many times between Roku 1080p Netflix and the same movie using the Sony built in Netflix app with 4k material and I actually like the roku 1080p better then the sony built in 4k version. The sony built in netflix app, in my view, doesn't handle motion quite as well as Roku does. The difference in sharpness is barely noticeable on my 65 inch sony and only when you're standing right near the TV. Keep in mind that the sony also has really awesome upscaling that can upscale the 1080p content to 4k resolution and it does make a difference as far as I'm concerned.

So basically I am just using a Roku at 1080p for all my various streaming services and I'm perfectly content with 1080pm material, into the sony's upscaling capabilities.

I know that doesn't answer your question.. Unfortunately I don't know of any good 4k switch, maybe there is one, but that won't help you with the built in apps if you are intent to use those.

There is not much Sonos can do about the issue. Sony should provide a lip sync adjustment parameter in order to dial in the lip sync, but they don't so that's that Sonos can't make the audio any earlier then it already is. Sonos is introducing a bit of wifi delay, no question about it, I think most people don't notice it because its within the level of tolerance, SO LONG AS nothing else is adding any other delay. Unfortunately since the Sony might be adding a bit of delay, between the two, its a problem.

At any rate I am really happy with the monoprice setup...but..as you pointed out...there is no 4k content this way so if that matters to you...I'd consider a different soundbar other then Sonos...
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Just wanted to share an update in case any one else has to go through this. I searched everywhere online (monoprice, amazon, hdtv.com, google, etc etc) but there does not exist an HDMI switch that offers HDCP 2.2 enabled 4K@60hz video resolution pass-through AND a toslink optical output for audio. At least not yet. I may take another look around in six months.

So coming from my cable box, I have connected the HDMI chord (for video) directly to the TV and the toslink optical chord (for audio) directly to the sonos playbar. And when I want to watch apps like youtube, hulu, netflix, amazon prime etc etc, I remove the HDMI and toslink chords from the cable box and connect them in the same fashion to a Roku Ultra I purchased. It's not an elegant solution but by directly routing the audio from the source to the sound bar and bypassing the tv, I have fixed my lip synch problem. It definitely sucks having to connect and disconnect the chords each time you switch back and forth between the cable box and Roku and it's silly I had to buy a Roku instead of using all the apps that were already included in my smart tv but it is what it is. It's cheaper to do this than have to buy an all new 5.1 surround sound system and tear up drywall to run wires around the room.

But if anyone does find an HDMI switch that offers full 4K video capability, just shoot me a private message to let me know.
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Atlona makes a 4k hdcp 2.2 audio switcher with optical out. It works great for me. Unfortunately, it's not cheap.
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the latest sonos update seems to have reduced lip sync delay substantially.
That's interesting. Thanks for the report!
I have a KLD40EX500 Bravia TV and have somewhat fixed the problem with lip sync.
It seems that reducing (turning off) Noice Reduction/MPEG Noice Reduction have a positive effect on the problem.
Processor speed might not be sufficient to provide picture with "filters" at the same time as sound arrives to the toslink.
Looks like it will NOT be a Sony next time...
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That is good to know. Its good to have that stuff off anyway to be honest. I feel like the last sonos update reduced some of the delay also.

A few comments in general.

None of the TV's can do video processing without some delay. All TV's basically delay the audio, intentionally, so that theoretically it will be in sync with the picture which is delayed by video processing. In theory the TV should know how much to delay the audio based on whatever combination of video processing you're using. Its possible, but I don't know for sure, that Sony's sometimes delay the audio more or less then they should when some features are turned on or off.

Sonos on the other hand introduces a little delay to the audio. So actually turning those features ON would be more likely to match the audio to the video through the Sonos system, since it would delay the video a little bit and Sonos' audio delay would then be ok, plus Sonos will allow you to delay the audio even more if you need to. So turning video features ON, should improve the ability to get better lip sync through Sonos. But maybe the other way around through the TV speakers.

I found that the recent Sonos update seemed to reduce audio latency in some way. FWIW.
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I have my Cable box hooked up to my Sony Bravia TV through an HDMI chord. Then from the TV to the sonos Playbar, I have a toslink optical cable. Because of this set up, the video is running faster than the audio from my sonos speakers This is causing a lip sync delay when watching TV. I already checked and my TV doesn't offer the functionality of delaying the video. I also checked and unfortunately the cable box doesn't have the option to delay the video either. And I know Sonos offers the ability to delay the audio for syncing purposes but I don't need to delay the audio, I need to speed up the audio or somehow delay the video.

What can I do? How can I speed up the audio or delay the video?


Just a quick note, I purchased my sonos playbar and sub last week and right away ran into similair issues. This time the cable box through the TV's HDMI and out through the TV's optical port was fine, even in DD 5.1 but my Xbox wasnt (when on DD 5.1, stereo was fine). There is of course the very slight lip sync delay that sonos has to counter the sub but you relaly have to concentrate to notice it - not a problem at all. My xbox though was unwatchable, even the sound delay browsing menu's was very annoying. Like yourself I have bypassed the TV to resolve this and in total only have the xbox one and cable box both of which have optical outs. Rather than manually changing the cables all the time I picked up a toslink switcher with 3 ports to 1 but it still needed a manual switch..... then yesterday I picked up a tiny and very cheap little toslink spliter https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-digital-optical-2-way-splitter-a12ny?cmpid=ppc:audio_entertainment:pla:google&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvZryvsmf1wIVNCjTCh0EMw4mEAkYASABEgJ7FPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

That is mean to make 1 feed go into 2 but I have used it in reverse with no issues. Xbox and cable box go into this then the single port out to the sonos. Obviously it cant combine both signals so the xbox needs to be off to watch cable and cable box off to use xbox etc but you can only do 1 at a time anyway so its seamless and best of all back to only 1 single remote as it was intended without messing around.

If you need to use your TV optical out this method is useless because the TV optical port is on all the time. You'd need to put the TV on standby :| so if you have smart apps on the TV you use you would need the manual switcher. Also cheap just means having to manually switch it either with a remote that comes with the switcher or button on the switcher.

When I finally move to a 4k new TV I will probably make sure it has all the apps I use for video streaming built in and go back to the single optical from the TV to the playbar since there was no issue with my cable box sync this way. If the xbox still has issues I will change it to stereo as I will no longer be suing it for netfix etc if its on the TV in 4k just playing the odd game which I don't mind being stereo.

A bit longer than a quick note in the end...

Does anyone know if the tiny delay sonos adds for the sub to catch up etc can be avoided by hard wiring everything via Ethernet? I see 2 ports on the playbar can 1 go to the router and the other from playbar direct to sub? Effectively taking wifi completely out of the question.
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You can simplify your setup a bit by getting an hdmi switch that has an optical audio out in it. That’s what I had running for a while with directv, Roku and Xbox all working fine through Sonos. I didn’t notice any lip sync problem with Xbox but I didn’t spend that much time checking it either. Couldn’t use the TV’s smart apps though for 4K Netflix with a hub solution.

With the recent update to Sonos firmware I noticed that audio delay was reduced somehow, so I have since stopped using the hdmi hub and lip sync is now acceptable and I can use the TV’s Netflix app for 4K.

Whatever delay that is present due to Sonos wireless is very minor compared to before. I am not sure at all about whether using wired Ethernet would help, I have wireless surrounds so that really isn’t an option though I wish they had a mode where the surrounds would have that latency and maybe the sub but the playbar not. Maybe that’s what they did already in this last update I’m not sure.

I will say that as of now it’s still not dead nuts perfect lip sync compared to when I used the hub, but it’s close enough now to not be noticeable and more convenient, plus I can use the tv’s Netflix app in 4K.

With the hub I could literally make the audio early and then use Sonos lip delay to get it dead on perfect with the lips but that was splitting hairs, it’s totally fine now without the hub since the last Sonos firmware.

If you are using a “game” mode on your tv with your Xbox it might be eliminating some video processing to reduce video lag to an absolute minimum which could cause the audio to be late if it’s calibrated for normal tv viewing. So in your case using a hub might be a good call but it might mean you have to use the Sonos app to adjust the lip sync delay for when you’re watching tv or playing games. Something like that.
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You can simplify your setup a bit by getting an hdmi switch that has an optical audio out in it. That’s what I had running for a while with directv, Roku and Xbox all working fine through Sonos. I didn’t notice any lip sync problem with Xbox but I didn’t spend that much time checking it either. Couldn’t use the TV’s smart apps though for 4K Netflix with a hub solution.

With the recent update to Sonos firmware I noticed that audio delay was reduced somehow, so I have since stopped using the hdmi hub and lip sync is now acceptable and I can use the TV’s Netflix app for 4K.

Whatever delay that is present due to Sonos wireless is very minor compared to before. I am not sure at all about whether using wired Ethernet would help, I have wireless surrounds so that really isn’t an option though I wish they had a mode where the surrounds would have that latency and maybe the sub but the playbar not. Maybe that’s what they did already in this last update I’m not sure.

I will say that as of now it’s still not dead nuts perfect lip sync compared to when I used the hub, but it’s close enough now to not be noticeable and more convenient, plus I can use the tv’s Netflix app in 4K.

With the hub I could literally make the audio early and then use Sonos lip delay to get it dead on perfect with the lips but that was splitting hairs, it’s totally fine now without the hub since the last Sonos firmware.

If you are using a “game” mode on your tv with your Xbox it might be eliminating some video processing to reduce video lag to an absolute minimum which could cause the audio to be late if it’s calibrated for normal tv viewing. So in your case using a hub might be a good call but it might mean you have to use the Sonos app to adjust the lip sync delay for when you’re watching tv or playing games. Something like that.


I would have thought since my cable box had no issues with HDMI to tv and optical to sonos the problem was more the Xbox side so assumed a hub would have the same issue. If I need to run more than 2 devices my splitter will no longer e any good and either. A manual optical switch or HDMI switch will need bought. If I do get a new tv and it’s the same with the Xbox running groovy the tv am optical switch is an option for multiple devices and atill being able to get sound from the TVs own apps.

What kind of switch did you have? Read about some switches on here like Monoprice but not available here in the UK.