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Speakers out of sync when playing tv audio

  • 25 April 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 7402 views
T

We have a Beam and Play:3 speaker in the same large room. When they are grouped together playing music, (streaming spotify for example) both sound perfectly in sync and great together. If you were to play the TV audio through the same speakers, all of a sudden are not in sync anymore and it sounds like an echo in the room where you have to make a point to turn off one of the speakers. This isnt set up as surround sound either, all speakers should just be playing the same.

Why does it work perfectly on music but not when playing TV audio. I don’t see anything that you can do to fix it in the settings, am I missing something?


 

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Best answer by buzz 26 April 2023, 01:13

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6 replies

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

That is the way Sonos works.

When bonded into a surround system all the included speakers use a low latency connection to keep the sound in sync.

Sonos adds a short delay to the incoming sound stream to non-TV players to allow for the expected delays involved in the networking.

This delay is the main reason Sonos isn’t a great PA setup.

You can set a Controller option to automatically un-group your other speaker any time you select the TV as your source.

T

Its not in a surround sound group. Two speakers playing spotify work perfect but TV audio echos. I know there is some technical reason that this happens, but looking to see if there is a solution to fix it. Seems like it should be easy since it works great playing everything else but the TV audio.

buzz

There is nothing to ‘fix’ because this is by design. One reason why SONOS has been so successful at implementing multi room audio is because of this latency. Removal of the latency would degrade system performance. The latency is added to allow some time to work around network congestion. If a web page or email is delayed for a few milliseconds, no one will notice, but this delay would wreck audio. With the 75ms latency the SONOS players can work through minor issues without audio interruption.

You can adjust the TV lip sync by going to Settings —> System —> Beam —> TV Dialog Sync and adjust the lip sync. If you skew the lip sync somewhat, there will be better alignment with Grouped speakers. This is trade off and you can decide what is “best”.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

The reason it works for music playback is that there Sonos controls the incoming stream and uses the latency period to sync the stream to all speakers that are in the same “group”. The latency will keep the sync stable. Grouping will use a comparatively slow stream, using 2,4Ghz. For TV sync is even more important, but also needs to be immediate to keep up with the picture. That’s why speakers that are “bonded” in the same surround “room” use a 5Ghz link, where the soundbar or Amp controls the stream. Grouping a speaker with a TV room will give precedence to the TV room for sync and will use the grouping latency for other speakers.

S

It seems sonos went downhill. My whole house is setup with sonos and all speakers are no longer in synch. I have replaced wifi routers several times but these dont work anymore after couple of years working fine. Whatever software update these went through, know that this synch problem is not going away. So sad and i’m not buying any new sonos anymore. I was a fan before when they started but this is now shaken. :(

Airgetlam

It seems odd. I’ve been running a Sonos system since the early before I joined this community in 2015, and the Sonos system has only gotten better. Sure, I have had issues, but they all turned out to be a local network issues, fixed by adjusting my own network. And I certainly don’t perceive any ‘downhill’ at all, my system is more capable than it was in the beginning. 

Can you give more information about your sync issues? Which speakers you have, how they’re connected to your network, what the sound source you’re having issues with, any additional particulars about reproducing the sync issue?

Since Sonos relies on electronics and your network to keep things in sync, it’s not impossible for an electronic part to fail. Have you submitted a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and called Sonos Support to discuss it? I would expect they might be able to see such a failure, and offer some sort of remedy. 

Bruce

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