Answered

Sonos beam lip sync issue

beaumonthome
Setup the new beam today, no problem getting it working. Problem is with lip sync - I have a Samsung UHD 8000 series with Sky (in the UK). Beam is connected via ARC. Tried adjusting delay via the app and TV and can’t get it to sync, so really frustrating. Any ideas? Didn’t have this problem with the Playbar (connected via optical). Thanks Toby
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Best answer by Ryan S 18 July 2018, 20:34

I'd like to suggest again that you take the time to give us a call so we can look into this closer.

In the meantime, would you mind submitting a diagnostic from your Sonos system and replying back with your confirmation number while you're getting these sync issues? I'll send them up to the team to look into just in case something is being flagged there. We've seen similar issues with certain TVs not handling Dolby Digital audio quickly enough and sending it slightly delayed. If this is the case, setting to Stereo or PCM would resolve the issue, as would using an HDMI switch instead of the TV. However, this would make the CEC commands not work from Beam.

Please note what TV model you're using here, and also, how the Beam is connected to it.

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43 replies

Pr0d1gyNIC
I am having the exact same problem. Audio is lagging behind the picture, and I can’t get it to sync at all. I have an LG oled 55 b7. Very disappointed as it seems as though this has been an issue with Sonos and Sky Q for quite a while. Wish I’d have known before spending £400!!
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +25
We'd love to look into this with you. One thing to check is that in the settings for the TV that you have Dolby Digitial selected as the audio format to go to the Beam. HDMI will usually automate that, but it's a good check to make sure you set. Also, try setting the audio source to Stereo instead and see if the lip sync improves.

We've found that some TVs have trouble processing and sending that signal on time, which can cause this, but we haven't seen the same issue so far with the Beam. We'd love to get some more details on what TV you're working with and how everything is connected. I'd suggest that you give us a call on our support line and a technician will assist with getting all the details we need to investigate and help you find a solution as well if possible.
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LandoSD
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I'm having similar lip sync issues with my Beam and certain streaming channels from an Apple 4K TV.
Ryan S
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LandoSD wrote:

I'm having similar lip sync issues with my Beam and certain streaming channels from an Apple 4K TV.


Is that while passing through a TV or are you sending the audio straight to the Beam using AirPlay 2?
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LandoSD
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Ryan S wrote:

LandoSD wrote:

I'm having similar lip sync issues with my Beam and certain streaming channels from an Apple 4K TV.


Is that while passing through a TV or are you sending the audio straight to the Beam using AirPlay 2?


Sending through the TV.
beaumonthome
Ok so I changed format from bitstream to PCM and it’s a bit better. Would that make sense?
larspettersjuve
Same issues here, but turning off dolby digital in my hdpvr solves it as far as I can see.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +25
I'd like to suggest again that you take the time to give us a call so we can look into this closer.

In the meantime, would you mind submitting a diagnostic from your Sonos system and replying back with your confirmation number while you're getting these sync issues? I'll send them up to the team to look into just in case something is being flagged there. We've seen similar issues with certain TVs not handling Dolby Digital audio quickly enough and sending it slightly delayed. If this is the case, setting to Stereo or PCM would resolve the issue, as would using an HDMI switch instead of the TV. However, this would make the CEC commands not work from Beam.

Please note what TV model you're using here, and also, how the Beam is connected to it.
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LandoSD
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Ryan S wrote:

I'd like to suggest again that you take the time to give us a call so we can look into this closer.

In the meantime, would you mind submitting a diagnostic from your Sonos system and replying back with your confirmation number while you're getting these sync issues? I'll send them up to the team to look into just in case something is being flagged there. We've seen similar issues with certain TVs not handling Dolby Digital audio quickly enough and sending it slightly delayed. If this is the case, setting to Stereo or PCM would resolve the issue, as would using an HDMI switch instead of the TV. However, this would make the CEC commands not work from Beam.

Please note what TV model you're using here, and also, how the Beam is connected to it.



Thanks for your reply, Ryan.

My setup is a Sony X900e and an Apple 4K TV.
--On the TV, I turned off Clear Audio under Sound Settings
--On the Apple TV, I changed the Surround Setting to Stereo

So far this seems to be working; however, I'm not sure how these changes affect the sound quality.
Pr0d1gyNIC
Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!
billiejoe87
Userlevel 2
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Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!

What a joke. PCM on Sonos is stereo. Dolby Digital is surround sound. Dolby Digital is far superior to PCM Stereo.
1 x Playbar, 1 x Sub, 8 x Sonos Ones, 1 x Play:5 Gen 2, 3 x Play: 1
Pr0d1gyNIC
billiejoe87 wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!

What a joke. PCM on Sonos is stereo. Dolby Digital is surround sound. Dolby Digital is far superior to PCM Stereo.



But a Sonos Beam doesn’t play surround sound does it? With other speakers added it can form surround, but on its own it’s not, so wouldn’t it just be the same? I have no clue so looking for guidance.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +25
Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

billiejoe87 wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!

What a joke. PCM on Sonos is stereo. Dolby Digital is surround sound. Dolby Digital is far superior to PCM Stereo.



But a Sonos Beam doesn’t play surround sound does it? With other speakers added it can form surround, but on its own it’s not, so wouldn’t it just be the same? I have no clue so looking for guidance.


Beam will play all surround channels, assuming there are the channels to be played. It doesn't discard any audio, but if you don't have surrounds then rear audio may not be noticed much. For most TV content, stereo will be just as good. For movies that are recorded for surround sound, Dolby Digital is a big improvement.

That said, we're looking into some trouble with Sky Q content being played on certain TVs. We've been seeing that some models aren't sending the audio through right, causing the delay. We're investigating the situation.
Help others find useful posts by selecting the best answer to your question. Hit the "like" button to highlight great replies.
Pr0d1gyNIC
Ryan S wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

billiejoe87 wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!

What a joke. PCM on Sonos is stereo. Dolby Digital is surround sound. Dolby Digital is far superior to PCM Stereo.



But a Sonos Beam doesn’t play surround sound does it? With other speakers added it can form surround, but on its own it’s not, so wouldn’t it just be the same? I have no clue so looking for guidance.


Beam will play all surround channels, assuming there are the channels to be played. It doesn't discard any audio, but if you don't have surrounds then rear audio may not be noticed much. For most TV content, stereo will be just as good. For movies that are recorded for surround sound, Dolby Digital is a big improvement.

That said, we're looking into some trouble with Sky Q content being played on certain TVs. We've been seeing that some models aren't sending the audio through right, causing the delay. We're investigating the situation.



So is this an issue that Sonos can fix with an update or will it need to be sky or even lg
LandoSD
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Ryan S wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

billiejoe87 wrote:

Pr0d1gyNIC wrote:

Right the issue is fixed completely if I set sky q box to pcm or normal and not Dolby digital, using hdmi arc. Sonos customer service told me that there is no difference in the quality of the sound from DD and PCM, can anyone confirm if this is true. If PCM is worse quality than DD then I will be returning my Beam as £400 for inferior sound is a joke. Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest as I really love the beam!!!

What a joke. PCM on Sonos is stereo. Dolby Digital is surround sound. Dolby Digital is far superior to PCM Stereo.



But a Sonos Beam doesn’t play surround sound does it? With other speakers added it can form surround, but on its own it’s not, so wouldn’t it just be the same? I have no clue so looking for guidance.


Beam will play all surround channels, assuming there are the channels to be played. It doesn't discard any audio, but if you don't have surrounds then rear audio may not be noticed much. For most TV content, stereo will be just as good. For movies that are recorded for surround sound, Dolby Digital is a big improvement.

That said, we're looking into some trouble with Sky Q content being played on certain TVs. We've been seeing that some models aren't sending the audio through right, causing the delay. We're investigating the situation.

LandoSD
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Confused here; Ryan, are you saying I am losing sound quality by setting my Apple 4K TV to stereo as opposed to Dolby Digital? Look forward to your reply.
Wildantics
Userlevel 1
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LandoSD wrote:

Confused here; Ryan, are you saying I am losing sound quality by setting my Apple 4K TV to stereo as opposed to Dolby Digital? Look forward to your reply.



So you have apple TV 4K and your experiencing audio delay? Hmmm that's interesting I have apple TV 4K the beam the sub 2 play 1s and the surround is so immersive. Sadly though my Xbox one x has audio delay in bitstream with Dolby digital selected but it's not because of the Sonos as even when I changed it to that before I set it up I was experiencing audio delay through my TV speakers.. it's just tough to figure out if it's my LG OLED B7 or the Xbox as there is multiple posts that blame both.
Wildantics
Userlevel 1
Badge +3
Wildantics wrote:

LandoSD wrote:

Confused here; Ryan, are you saying I am losing sound quality by setting my Apple 4K TV to stereo as opposed to Dolby Digital? Look forward to your reply.



So you have apple TV 4K and your experiencing audio delay? Hmmm that's interesting I have apple TV 4K the beam the sub 2 play 1s and the surround is so immersive and no delay it's perfect. Sadly though my Xbox one x has audio delay in bitstream with Dolby digital selected but it's not because of the Sonos as even when I changed it to that before I set it up I was experiencing audio delay through my TV speakers.. it's just tough to figure out if it's my LG OLED B7 or the Xbox as there is multiple posts that blame both.

froetzgloe
I have a Philips 4K TV on latest Android (8 I think) and had the same issues. Mine has a setting (options -> all options -> sound) which is called “digital audio delay” and it’s set to “on” by default. After setting it to “off” everything is in sync again, no matter what compression is used.
LandoSD
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froetzgloe wrote:

I have a Philips 4K TV on latest Android (8 I think) and had the same issues. Mine has a setting (options -> all options -> sound) which is called “digital audio delay” and it’s set to “on” by default. After setting it to “off” everything is in sync again, no matter what compression is used.


Thanks,
I've been trying a few options and may have come up with the solution.
My Sony XBR900E has a Sound Option called Clear Audio+ which is ON by default. I set it to OFF
On the Apple 4k TV I switched the Surround Sound setting from Best Available to Dolby Digital 5.1
These changes seem to have worked.
al.m
Hi guys, I’m having exactly the same issue. I have the beam connected to my Samsung UE40NU7120 running the latest software, with the Beam connected via HDMI-ARC. My two input devices are sky Q and Apple TV 4K, also running the latest software versions.

I’ve currently got my TV settings to:

HDMI Input Audio Format = Bitstream
Digital Output Audio Format = Dolby Digital.

Note, if I change the output format to PCM the sound quality drops to a level where there’s no point having a sound bar, and if I set it to Dolby Digital+ I get no sound at all.

I’ve tried all of the various audio delay options but the reality is that the audio needs to be advanced and not delayed. I need the picture to be delayed but have no option to do this.

I don’t have the sync issue when I use the tv speakers. I have the same challenge whether using Apple TV or Sky.

Help please!
Ken_Griffiths
al.m wrote:

Hi guys, I’m having exactly the same issue. I have the beam connected to my Samsung UE40NU7120 running the latest software, with the Beam connected via HDMI-ARC. My two input devices are sky Q and Apple TV 4K, also running the latest software versions.

I’ve currently got my TV settings to:

HDMI Input Audio Format = Bitstream
Digital Output Audio Format = Dolby Digital.

Note, if I change the output format to PCM the sound quality drops to a level where there’s no point having a sound bar, and if I set it to Dolby Digital+ I get no sound at all.

I’ve tried all of the various audio delay options but the reality is that the audio needs to be advanced and not delayed. I need the picture to be delayed but have no option to do this.

I don’t have the sync issue when I use the tv speakers. I have the same challenge whether using Apple TV or Sky.

Help please!


Obviously you have Ryan’s answer above, but there is one further thing to perhaps try... just switch the Beam connection over to the TV optical port and see if that port is faster at handling the DD Signal. You will lose the few voice commands, but it’s quite possible it may solve your lip-sync issues.
Al3xx
al.m wrote:

Hi guys, I’m having exactly the same issue. I have the beam connected to my Samsung UE40NU7120 running the latest software, with the Beam connected via HDMI-ARC. My two input devices are sky Q and Apple TV 4K, also running the latest software versions.

I’ve currently got my TV settings to:

HDMI Input Audio Format = Bitstream
Digital Output Audio Format = Dolby Digital.

Note, if I change the output format to PCM the sound quality drops to a level where there’s no point having a sound bar, and if I set it to Dolby Digital+ I get no sound at all.

I’ve tried all of the various audio delay options but the reality is that the audio needs to be advanced and not delayed. I need the picture to be delayed but have no option to do this.

I don’t have the sync issue when I use the tv speakers. I have the same challenge whether using Apple TV or Sky.

Help please!

Al3xx
Hello everyone ...(Lip Sync fixed? So far so good) I’m new to SONOS... just got my Sonos Play Bar and 2 Play 1s yesterday and the Lip Sync issue was driving me insane, just a few milliseconds off with the video being slightly ahead of the sound.....I’ve read many post and in one post I feel was overlooked it was suggested the sound be completely turned down with the TV remote and then be turned up with the SONOS APP...this has so far FIXED the problem for me both for watching television cable channels as well as a movie played from my Apple TV I could barely watch last night because of the lip sync issue.....I hope this helps
al.m
Pleased you’ve found a resolution Alex. I’ve just tried it and it doesn’t work for me unfortunately.

Also, I bought a toslink cable to test the connection via optical... but unfortunately I binned the Sonos optical adaptor that came with the Beam seeing as I was (foolishly it seems) expecting it work with hdmi-ARC right out of the box. Does anyone know the best way of getting hold of one? I’m hoping Sonos help me out here given the challenge I have with their device...

Thanks

Alastair

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