Audio out of sync , some channels only

[Gampell15BH]

Some channels , e.g. All the BBC HD channels and Sky News in HD are wildy out of sync. Other channels such as ITV1HD are either fine or very very close to fine . The bad ones are close to unwatchable.

Its not a TV setting or Virgin Media 360 box setting because both are set to zero delay and audio is still late. Very very late. I 

Also it is only certain channels and a box or TV setting would apply to all channels .

The same TV with BT UHD TV Box had no such issues , switched from BT to VM only 1 week ago.

The 360 box is connected to VM Hub 5 router by ethernet and is running v 5.08 firmware. I have tried 2 different HDMI ports on the TV with no different result and I using the supplied HDMI cable.

How to fix this?

[roy247]

If you are connected directly to the TV and not using a soundbar or any A/V equipment try using the PCM audio settings.

If you are using a soundbar or any A/V equipment if you say what you are using and how it's all connected would help.

[Gampell15BH]

thank you, I can share more info, I was using a Soundbar,  a Sennheiser AMBEO Plus connected via HDMI (eARC socket),  but to remove that from the equation I disconnected it and just listened to the audio output from the TV speakers,  there was no difference, it was equally out of sync.  Re connecting the soundbar I tried both PCM 2.0 and "follow content" and I feel the PCM setting was  alittle better but still not right,  and it is NOT a solution since my soundbar is Dolby Atmos capable and I need to send dolby bitstream to it,  (remembering the sync issue is there regardless of whether or not the soundbar is connected).

Here is an interesting thing,  watching Have I Got News for you with the audio output set to Follow content (recommended) the sync was terrible, but using the "watch from start" feature and viewing the same program through iPlayer the sync was fine.  It's only live over the air programs on certain channels that have the issue (ITV1HD  on 103 is fine).

[roy247]

I have LG TV and soundbar connected using eARC and the 360 connected to the TV using HDMI, 360 set to follow content and don't have any problems.

If you have the 360 connected to the TV have you tried it connected to one of the spare HDMI connectors on the soundbar.

[newapollo · Accepted solution]

---

@Gampell15BH wrote:

thank you, I can share more info, I was using a Soundbar,  a Sennheiser AMBEO Plus connected via HDMI (eARC socket),  but to remove that from the equation I disconnected it and just listened to the audio output from the TV speakers,  there was no difference, it was equally out of sync.  Re connecting the soundbar I tried both PCM 2.0 and "follow content" and I feel the PCM setting was  alittle better but still not right,  and it is NOT a solution since my soundbar is Dolby Atmos capable and I need to send dolby bitstream to it,  (remembering the sync issue is there regardless of whether or not the soundbar is connected).

Here is an interesting thing,  watching Have I Got News for you with the audio output set to Follow content (recommended) the sync was terrible, but using the "watch from start" feature and viewing the same program through iPlayer the sync was fine.  It's only live over the air programs on certain channels that have the issue (ITV1HD  on 103 is fine).

---

This may be due to a signal problem. It usually affects the picture but it may possibly affect the audio too.The live channels on VM are carried in muxes (the same way that freeview carry channels) 

You mentioned Sky News HD and all BBC HD channels being out of sync.

Sky News HD and BBC2 HD are carried on same mux, along with GB News, Sky Kids HD, Sky Nature HD, TNT Sports 2, Sky Sports Golf and Al Jazeera Arabic.  If it's a signal fault I would expect all of them channels to have the same audio/sync issue.

ITV+1, CH4 and CH4+1 are all carried on the same mux as ITV1,  so if ITV1 is OK then the other three should be too.

Check all your VM cabling is snug and tight and free from any kinks, especially the white coaxial cable, and the small white cable adapter.

[Gampell15BH]

I've had a virgin engineer check all the cabling , so and he replaced a couple of internal and external runs but it has made no difference , I also came to the conclusion it is certain Muxes , but how to get it resolved ? How even to get it acknowledged so I don't waste time listening to people tell me to change delay settings in the box (which can only add more delay and will impact all channels)

[Zach_R]

Hi @Gampell15BH,

Thank you for your posts and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.

I'm sorry to hear of your recent audio sync issues. To clarify, the issues still remain on multiple (but not all) channels following a technician visit, both when connected to a sound bar and not connected to a sound bar?

Thanks,
 

[Gampell15BH]

Sorry not to respond earlier , I am travelling away from home since 22nd, but...yes you are correct that after an engineer visit the issue still persists , I do not blame the engineer he was very helpful and in fact is returning on 29th , but I think he does not have any solution .

I made some more tests and suspect it is related to audio codec. I have box set to "follow content" so the codec is changing according to each broadcaster and each program and I found that in general the sync issue was occurring when the codec is dolby digital +,  however when I changed the box setting to PCM 2.0 the delay is still there so the delay has occurred (if I am correct) before that transcode to PCM .

I am home on 26th and another visit is planned by virgin engineer on 29th 

Guy

[Ashleigh_C]

Thank you for letting us know @Gampell15BH 

Please do pop back and let us know how things are looking after the second visit with the engineer?

[Gampell15BH]

The engineer didn't show up 

I have done more tests

Using the TV speakers not soundbar

Any live to air channel using DD+ there is a bad delay ,probably about 0.5 second and it is almost unwatchable 

How do I know it is the codec (DD+)? Because when I do connect my soundbar it's smartphone app tells me which codec is in use and I can check , the channels with no delay are all broadcasting PCM , the channels with delay are all the broadcasting DD+.

Its a simple set up , 360 box connected to router with ehternet and connected to TV with the HDMI cable supplied. Audio is set to "follow content". When I do connect my soundbar I need the but stream for it's spatialisation feature so leaving the virgin box on PCM 2.0 is not a solution 

Over to you Virgin. How to make this box usable?