Sigh. I wanna love Sonos. But lip sync is not working. Sonos imposes enough audio delay to annoy for TV use. Are there any work arounds?
My understanding is that Sonos is imposing some latency due to wifi use. I read in one place 30ms, which isn't bad, but I read another place 70ms. The thing is my TV is already adding some delay compensation to the audio to match audio to video processing delay, such that what you see from the TV and hear from the audio is pretty much in sync... Its assuming that any soundbar I might be using won't be adding any more delay. There is no way for me to turn that off on my TV that I have been able to find: Sony XBR-65X850B. If anyone knows a secret way to disable it on the TV, I'd love to try it.
Are there any other work around? If I put the sub and soundbar onto wired ethernet, will the latency on sonos be reduced?
I have heard I might need to get an HDMI switch that splits out the audio to optical before hitting the TV, and feed that to the SONOS. In theory the audio would then be early and I could use the Sonos to add delay back, however, the Sonos only appears to have like 5 delay settings for the audio, I'm not at all sure if that will be fine enough control to match the audio to the video.
This is very furstrating, I love the concept of Sonos for music throughout my house, but it does not really seem to be a very good solution for home theater due to this wifi latency being imposed. I wish Sonos would at least make the soundbar take the sound immediately when only the one zone is being used, and when no wifi is actually needed...so that lip sync would be matching at the very least for watching tv.
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and calm down, nobody is calling you a liar. You are writing over my head as a newbie to sonos. Maybe try simpler explanation.
so are you saying the only way I can watch tv with correct lip sync is to get rid of the SUB and forget about surround?
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The buffering you read about for synced audio is not done for TV audio... that is why a Player *grouped* to a Playbar will be behind... (and Bonded system are not materially behind) ... and why the PlayBar, the only device with optical in to avoid analogue conversion delays, is the only device recommend to set up for viewing TV.... (until the new PlayBase arrives... you could look up the rumours on that to see if it perhaps may have better performance for you... but the rumours are slim at the moment...
And yes the PlayBar does connect to surrounds with a dedicated 5Ghz wifi... (and why if using connect:amp for surrounds a wired connection to the PlayBar is required... the Connect:amp doesn't have a 5Ghz radio. It is 'actually true' and I do resent the arrogance of you assuming I'm lying to you.
But... doesn't solve your problem, I was hoping to save you some headaches... you already know that the audio from the TV to PlayBar is processing as fast as can be played but the PlayBar... feel free to try another system and see if it works better...or wait for the PlayBase..... I'd be inclined to split off the audio in front of it getting to the TV... but you've read that already so no need to tell you what you already know....
And yes the PlayBar does connect to surrounds with a dedicated 5Ghz wifi... (and why if using connect:amp for surrounds a wired connection to the PlayBar is required... the Connect:amp doesn't have a 5Ghz radio. It is 'actually true' and I do resent the arrogance of you assuming I'm lying to you.
But... doesn't solve your problem, I was hoping to save you some headaches... you already know that the audio from the TV to PlayBar is processing as fast as can be played but the PlayBar... feel free to try another system and see if it works better...or wait for the PlayBase..... I'd be inclined to split off the audio in front of it getting to the TV... but you've read that already so no need to tell you what you already know....
what I read here on this forum, including in posts from staff at Sonos it would seem, is that there is some latency intentionally introduced so that all Sonos speakers will play in sync when grouped together. I have read 30ms in one place and 70ms in another place, I don't know which is correct. Its nice to hear that the SUB and PLAYBAR communicate by their own direct wireless connection, if that is actually true, but still...even for that there will be some unpredictable latency and Sonos needs to buffer everything by a certain amount so that they can group together any devices on the wifi network and make sure they all play together. I do feel that direct ethernet would be less latent then 5ghz wifi, but I'd like to hear from sonos about that. And anyway it doesn't really matter if they are buffering all audio with 30ms or 70ms of latency to make sure the wifi can keep up.
That all makes sense, but doesn't solve my problem for watching TV that doesn't look like a kung fu movie with overdubbed english.
When I play both the internal speakers on the TV and the sonos at the same time, the difference in time between them is long enough to hear chorusing, or doubling of the sound. And I can see visually that sonos is the one coming later.
Again, looking for help to resolve this. If it can't be resolved, I will have to return the equipment to sonos and try a different soundbar that has less latency.
That all makes sense, but doesn't solve my problem for watching TV that doesn't look like a kung fu movie with overdubbed english.
When I play both the internal speakers on the TV and the sonos at the same time, the difference in time between them is long enough to hear chorusing, or doubling of the sound. And I can see visually that sonos is the one coming later.
Again, looking for help to resolve this. If it can't be resolved, I will have to return the equipment to sonos and try a different soundbar that has less latency.
Userlevel 5
+10
Hey Dewdman42,
Just wanted to provide a comment that details for you that the Sonos sound bar is not adding latency due to wifi. So, no, I wouldn't expect a wired Ethernet connection to change things since the audio comes from the TV and out the PlayBar... no data flow over wifi for the TV audio for the front 3 channels...
The PlayBar takes digital audio data from the optical port and uses it. The processing is very limited in time...
The delay you refer to that is discussed in the forums generates in a few different contexts... if a Sonos device like the play 5, or a Connect, needs to take an analogue signal and convert it to digital to play, then you will get a delay due to the audio processing time.... if you then try to take that audio and send it to a Sonos device that is NOT Bonded to a playbar, there is further delay going to those speakers for the data transfer to occur.
If you have a PlayBar and it has bonded SUB and Bonded surround speakers... (that is, it is set up as a 5.1 audio system) in this configuration the PlayBar sets up a specific 5Ghz wifi connection directly to/between the Bonded devices for fast data transfer and there is no substantitive delay in the audio getting from the PlayBar to the Bonded speakers.
I do understand that there are a variety of people who struggle with audio sync on external systems... and I understand it happens across many manufactures. .... I don't suspect it arises specifically in the audio equipment... I'm not enough of a home audio set-up expert to help you with your specifics, but my point is, I'm wondering if indeed any sound bar coming out of the optical output of your particular TV would be materially different... regardless, the delay isn't a result of the wifi communication.... hope his helps...
Just wanted to provide a comment that details for you that the Sonos sound bar is not adding latency due to wifi. So, no, I wouldn't expect a wired Ethernet connection to change things since the audio comes from the TV and out the PlayBar... no data flow over wifi for the TV audio for the front 3 channels...
The PlayBar takes digital audio data from the optical port and uses it. The processing is very limited in time...
The delay you refer to that is discussed in the forums generates in a few different contexts... if a Sonos device like the play 5, or a Connect, needs to take an analogue signal and convert it to digital to play, then you will get a delay due to the audio processing time.... if you then try to take that audio and send it to a Sonos device that is NOT Bonded to a playbar, there is further delay going to those speakers for the data transfer to occur.
If you have a PlayBar and it has bonded SUB and Bonded surround speakers... (that is, it is set up as a 5.1 audio system) in this configuration the PlayBar sets up a specific 5Ghz wifi connection directly to/between the Bonded devices for fast data transfer and there is no substantitive delay in the audio getting from the PlayBar to the Bonded speakers.
I do understand that there are a variety of people who struggle with audio sync on external systems... and I understand it happens across many manufactures. .... I don't suspect it arises specifically in the audio equipment... I'm not enough of a home audio set-up expert to help you with your specifics, but my point is, I'm wondering if indeed any sound bar coming out of the optical output of your particular TV would be materially different... regardless, the delay isn't a result of the wifi communication.... hope his helps...
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