Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Delay between sound and television

Hi. I recently purchased a digital optical audio cable to connect my cable box to my receiver. On some channels and programs, much more than others, there is a delay between when you hear the sound, and the person's lips on the screen move. The sound comes first, and then up to a full second or two later, the person's lips will move.

Does anyone know why this is happening? What can I do to fix this problem?

Erik

A little more information on your setup would be helpful, since the problem could range all the way from the your set top box, your cable company, your receiver, or to the networks. Are you having most your problems with a HD box or stations?

As far as my set-up goes. I am using an HD set-top box, a Sony receiver, and a Samsung DLP TV. The problem seems to be less persistent with premium channels such as HBO, but at times still occurs with those channels too. For example, shows on HBO such as Sopranos or Entourage are perfect. Newer movies seem to work fine too. But even on HBO, older movies from the 80's and 90's have the delay problem. Basic HD channels such as FOX, ABC, NBC, etc. all have the problem pretty frequently. Non HD channels also have the problem.

There are a couple issues that I have read about that can cause this type of delay.
One issue that can cause video to lag audio, is if the Set top box is outputting video formats that the display has to format convert for display. The STB has no way of knowing how long the video delay was for processing. The workaround for this problem is to set your STB to always output the native format of your display & avoid conversions.
I'm not sure what Sony receiver you have, but another cause seems to be with receivers that don't have quality decoders or high processing power.
I'm certainly no expert on this topic, and I'm sure others will chime in soon with some more help.

Does the receiver have the capability to delay the A/V Sync? You might want to try it, and play around with the delay, so that the sound comes at the right time. I have had to adjust this on the HK receiver that I have, and it works pretty well. No more talk, and then lips move, etc.

Good luck...and that's just my $0.02 cents.