Audio/Video Sync problems with HDTV (Austin: house, buying, live)

[justinblott]

Has anyone else had audio/video sync problems in HD with either Time Warner of over the air broadcasts? I recently moved to Austin and more recently bought an HDTV and noticed that most of the network HD channels have the audio and video a little of out of sync. After buying an antenna in order to receive NBC I still noticed the problem. That leads me to believe it's an issue with my TV, but I'm not totally sure. Most, if not all, of the regular definition channels are synced fine. Has anyone else had this issue in the Austin area?

[iceshots]

I have had this problem before back in Canada when watching programming on my cable box DVR, or when rewinding during a live program. I figured out it was caused by how quickly I was giving commands through the remote. It seemed to mess up the programming. To fix it I had to stop the play back and then start it up again. It was really aggravating until I figured out the cause.

I can't remember if I ever saw it happen during live broadcast.

Do you have more than one connection running into your TV? Does it happen with all feeds?

Try changing the feed from your TW box to the TV. Use coax, s-video, and then HD to see if there is a difference. What happens if you feed a DVD signal through the same inputs?

These tests may help you determine if it is the TV or the input device.

Have you called TW support to see if they can help?

[love roses]

We've been having this problem as well. I think it's the DVR box, my husband thinks it's the tv. When we turn it on in the morning the screen is purple with no sound, but if we change the input it's fine. But then the 2nd input sound comes through the stereo so it's louder. Sometimes, nothing happens and the tv stays black because we keep not getting an audio signal.

[atxcio]

I've had that problem too -- for me, it's like the audio running through the stereo is synced perfectly, but the audio coming out of the speakers on the TV is not synced! And it is on TimeWarner HD channels. The stereo is connected to the audio out on the TV, and the cable box is direct HMDI to the TV... so I'm thinking the video is slightly (milleseconds) delayed on the original signal, and maybe that's somewhat corrected by the TV out audio going to the stereo... Maybe it's a crappy HMDI output on these cable boxes, and it would be OK with the component output... anyway, I wish I knew what causes it, it's very annoying. Not having NBC is annoying, too... TWC's days are numbered in our house (although I'm addicted to their internet speed, which is pretty dang good).

[justinblott]

The only problem with calling TW for support is that I don't technically have their service. When I moved in I plugged the TV into the wall and I got all the network channels. After missing an Office, I went out and bought and antenna and now watch all my TV through that, but I still ran across the same syncing issues. I don't have a DVR box or a cable box or anything...the cable from the wall or the antenna plugs directly with a coaxial cable into my TV.

From what I understand, video for HD takes longer to process than audio which is why the video is often behind the audio. If you're plugging the audio into another source, which I should try and see if that helps, then maybe the extra time it takes to process causes the video and audio to sync up. Either way, it's annoying and I didn't anticipate that after all the years of HD being around that we'd have a basic problem like this.

[mudbug]

AVS Forum

[HD Researcher]

If you have an interest in understanding the Lip Sync issue broadcasters and media have, you might find this presentation on SMPTE (Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers) interesting! It underscores the problems and shows an approach to address a system solution. A possible solution for Audio Video sync problems from the broadcaster to the home. Link to follow:
[url]https://www.smpte.org/standards-webcasts[/url]