Audio Sync problem with new 360 box

[MrUnhappy2]

I have had the new V6 /360 box for 10 days and have problems with the audio synchronisation.

My TV is a 4 year old 50" Sony Bravia with Sony sound bar. When I had the Tivo and the model before it I never had any problems.

The audio is okay with the soundbar off but when using the soundbar the audio drifts after about 5 mins. I have tried Dolby On/Off settings , audio delay set to 20m/sec and follow audio On/Off. All work for 5 mins then drift. 

I have telephoned Virgin on 2 occasions the 2nd time getting through to their 2nd tier support. Went through all the power down re-boot etc  but still the same issues.

Anyone else have this problem and any suggestions?

Thnks

[Anonymous]

Jordan, as you might have read in my previous posts on this thread, I AM moving to Sky, just as soon as I can exit my contract with Virgin Media without any early termination charges. 

good luck with yours 

R

[leicesterfan]

still nothing. Still a useless sound bar sat under the TV. looking forward to the end of my contract. 

[Anonymous]

Well Ladies and Gents,

I wish you all the best of luck in getting a solution to all your problems. I am extremely happy to say that I took the most of the offer, made in the impending price rise notification, to cancel my contract without any early termination fees. I have moved to Sky, although I am still having serious struggles with trying to, even though it was agreed over a month ago, get Virgin Media to stop sending me bills and to actually terminate my services. I initially requested, and had confirmed over WhatsApp, my 4 weeks notice period of cancellation starting at the 11th March, with a services cessation date of the 13th April. I was told I would receive a final bill along with packaging with which to return their equipment. 

Just 5 days after that I received an email informing me that I would receive a bill at the end of March for £70 (my normal monthly bill), followed by a bill in April for for £150+, and another bill in May for another £150+ again. wth?. I couldn’t get hold of anyone to speak to at the time, so to be safe I cancelled my Direct Debit. 

At the end of March I was then sent a normal, regular bill for £70, covering the period of 22nd March to 22nd April. This wasn’t a final bill and was asking me to pay for time after my services cessation date! So I didn’t pay it. Lo and behold I was then slapped with a £7.50 late payment charge too and they refused to cancel my services while I had an outstanding bill! It didn’t matter that they were billing me for time I wouldn’t be using. 

I called a couple of days ago to complain about all that, and to ask why they hadn’t disconnected anything yet, and I was SHOCKED at what I was told. 
I was told that, because I had requested that my landline number be ported across to my new provider, which according to Virgin Media was scheduled for 16th April, even though the porting had already been done by Sky, occurring on the 11th, alongside the installation of my BB and TV services, my 4 week notice period WOULD NOT START UNTIL THAT PORTING HAD BEEN SUCCESSFUL. So I would be paying at least an extra month.

I was outraged. I have never heard of this in my life before, even though Virgin Media told me it is common practice I told them it absolutely was not. I am currently fighting this with them, alongside trying to claw back a refund for the time over and above when they should have cancelled everything.

SO BEWARE AND PLEASE HEED MY WARNING. If/when you leave Virgin Media, be aware if all these things and ask all these questions right up front, preferably over WhatsApp so you have a record of it. And GOOD LUCK. 

[Adri_G]

Hey SepticTank, thanks for posting on our forum page and sorry to hear of the experience you've had with cancelling your services with us.

We'd love to explain more on this, for your reference.

From what you explain above, we understand you submitted a cancellation request with disconnection date in approx 30 days.

In the meantime, you've received a bill that was for a period past your disconnection date and cancelled your Direct Debit with us to avoid the incorrect payment.

As our bills are automated (set to come out on same date each month) and this latest one was issued before the services got disconnected, the charges were for the month to follow as we normally do.

Our process to follow at this point should be first for the bill to be paid (if set to be paid before the disconnection date) and once the cancellation of services took place your final bill would be out as well.

On the final bill we process all the prorate-corrections for any potential charges past your service period with us (or any kind of overpayments) so we credit you back once we know the disconnection is done.

An outstanding balance on the account is preventing us from closing it, thus any pending payments and bills are to be cleared.

Also, late payment fees are applied automatically when we do not receive a payment on the agreed DD date.

Lastly, if a number port is in process the disconnection will disrupt this process and will cause it to fail this is why we cannot disconnect before a port is complete.

We are sorry to hear of this confusion and miscommunication and hope you've managed to raise your concerns and get some help from our teams.

We'd also like to advise that all our customers have the right to request their data as seen here, in case you need this.

Let us know if this has helped or you need anything more from us, happy to support you further.

[leicesterfan]

Hi

So Virgin Media do have staff monitoring these forums?

Can we have an update on the lip sync issue please? Surely addressing the root cause avoids all these problems further down the line?

Thanks.

[CJTCam]

Ah! So Virgin Media Forum Team has responded to a billing issue but despite repeated requests (now spanning 3 years) remain in absolute denial about the audio sync fault that renders all high quality Dolby 5.1 soundbars redundant and recommends the audio 2 stereo setting from the 1960's.

Again, Virgin Media Forum Team:

1. Acknowledge the problem exists (perhaps even offer an apology?)

2. Address the customer complaints (which the Virgin Media Complaints team deny)

3. Offer a resolution 

[leicesterfan]

Still nothing from VM? Disgrace.

[iantho]

It seems they're not willing to officially acknowledge that this issue exists (or continues to exist for some of us)...

[CJTCam]

Yes, you are correct. I tried for ages with Virgin Media complaints who (in complete ignorance) said it was an audio setting issue on my box. Eventually they then sent a technician who said it was a software issue that required an update (two years ago) and Complaints again said it was an audio setting on my box! They refused to acknowledge the fault and refused to send me a copy/recording of the many conversations that proved their negligence. I gave up and now use FreeView and TV Apps (independent of the VM 360 box) for my 5.1 sound.

[klynchk]

I worked for a vendor to TV companies all over the world. The technical standards people (in the UK ofcom) would be all over that. I delivered numerous updates to the video playback servers to address the precise audio video sync issues.

Interestingly if the sound leads the video by up to about 10 frames most people won't notice as much; as when the sound lags the video by about 4 frames.

Broadcasters have test media with a 1 frame flash and sound pulse every 10 seconds for 1 hour to verify sync and drift.

I regularly watch Hallie Jackson on MSNBC now, VM channel 614. The audio on that channel is usually out of sync, In TV there's an expression It was alright leaving us and I can imagine the signal leaving NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York is right. I Imagine the signal is delivered to Virgin by some low cost IP transport route and something in that chain causes the audio to drift in the coding/decoding processes. I'd complain but honestly life is too short.

If you are interested in verifying the sync the youtube APP might be a useful place to go  select one of these videos and see if the problem presents