AirPlay audio sync issue

Same issue as others: playing to Airport Express, the audio was perfectly synced between my computer and it. Add the AppleTV (third-gen I think… the current one, 1080p), and it's got a 1-second lag (maybe not that long). I've got a JVC LED TV and a several-year-old Kenwood amp. As with others, plugging the optical cable directly from the AppleTV to the receiver fixed the issue. But having an older amp with only a single optical audio in, I have to rely on the TV's optical out for my various devices.

This may be the only solution for me—if I want synced audio between the computer and TV, manually switch the optical cable from the TV to the AppleTV. In my small 2-br apt., I usually just play audio through the TV alone anyway. Eventually I hope to get a better receiver with more optical inputs.

I am having a syncing problem with my "Denon 1613 with Airplay" receiver.

Background: Prior to the Denon, here was my setup. iMac connecting wirelessly to Airport Extreme base station. Airport Express connecting to printer and additional set of speakers via the 3.5mm analog optical cable. When I play music from my iMac speakers and use Airplay to play also to the speakers attached to my Airport Express, the music is in sync and awesome. Love it. Syncronized music in multiple rooms of house. Praise Apple.

Then I got the Denon, which is marketed as having AirPlay.

New setup: iMac connecting wirelessly to Airport Extreme base station. Denon connected via ethernet to the Airport Expreme Base Station. Denon connected via speaker wire to 5.1 surround sound speakers from Monoprice. When I play music from my iMac speakers and try to Airplay the music to my Denon as well, iTunes successfully finds the Denon, BUT THE MUSIC IS NOT IN SYNC. It's like a .2-.6 second delay on the Denon and it sounds terrible. Arrrrggg!!

Does anyone know how I can fix this? I'm pretty ******, given that Denon marketed this product as having Airplay. I called Denon, and the tech support guy basically said that it wasn't Denon's fault. ~"You can't expect to be able to listen to music in multiple rooms and have it syncronized." Uh, yes I can. Irritating.

My next step, which I haven't tried yet, bring an Airport Express into the Denon setup and connect a 3.5mm analog opitcal cable from the Airport Express to the Denon and then Airplay from iTunes to the Airport Express instead of the Denon. I shouldn't have to do this!! Ugh.

As a side note, I wish that Apple would not have let Denon use the name "Airplay" if it didn't work properly. Also, per others' recommendations, I tried turning off the samsung television, and that didn't fix it. (No surprise there, given that the Samsung television has nothing to do with the Airplay-to-Denon setup. The music is not going through the television.).

Thanks for the great suggestion that it could be my TV or amp creating the delay. Turned out my Harmon Kardon amp was set up with 180ms delay on my AppleTV

I can confirm that setting the audio delay on the TV has rectified the situation for me, as my tv was delaying the Apple TV sound by 50 milliseconds.

I have Macbook Pro running 10.8.3, with Itunes 11 airplaying to one latest gen Airport Express playing out via 3.5mm to Bose Sounddock, and to two Apple Tv's, each connected to Samsung Smart TVs and Bose Soundbars.

Out of the box, I could get the two Apple TVs to play music in sync but they would be out of sync with Airport Express driven speakers (which would be in sync with the Macbook pro's speakers).

The fix was to go into menu on Samsung TVs, select Sound, Additional Setting, SPDIF Output and set the audio delay to 0.

It would seem that Apple have set Airplay to be in sync to many devices, via wifi, with the itunes computer speakers as long as none of your other sound processing kit is introducing a delay anywhere.

I have the same issue with delay across multiple devices. I am using my pc with iTunes to stream to 3 airplay devices. 2-AppleTV's and a Phillips airplay speaker. It's crazy but the airplay devices actually recieve the sounds first and the PC is delayed! You would think it would be the opposite. That being the case, I can only surmise that iTunes is sending to the network devices first and then playing locally. Looked all through the setup for an adjustment but there is none.

Found this on another thread.... worked like a CHARM! I had to go into the Advanced settings and increase my my delay to almost 300ms, but now my PC has the same delay as my Apple TV! Done.

Menashy wrote:

I know this is a pretty old thread now, but I found it useful and wanted to report back on the solution I eventually found - I was playing music on both my Windows PC and through Airplay to my sound system using "multiple speakers" in iTunes, and was experiencing a small but annoying delay.

If you are using Windows, download Shairport, which is an Airplay emulator for Windows.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/shairport4w/

Instead of then using multiple speakers to play to My Computer and [Other Device], use it to play to Shairport4w and [Other Device]. You can then set a delay on Shairport4w if necessary - the default of 282 worked perfectly for me. Result? Perfect sync.

I had exactly the same sync issue on Samsung LCD TV with Apple TV, turns out it's the audio delay setting on the TV. This link sorted it for me

http://www.avforums.com/threads/how-to-correct-sound-ouput-out-of-sync-from-audi o-output-samsung-le-xxa6-series.910302/

I have best results when all AirPlayers are connected via ethernet. It is pretty much impossible to truly sync multiple speakers in multiple rooms because of the doppler effect. Sync issues are most apparent when both airplayers are at the same volume relative to the listener, also reflections off hard surfaces like walls. To fix this you'd have to make the computer track where the listener is relative to the airplayers and adjust timing/volume accordingly...

I have read through the thread, but it's not clear what would actually solve the Airplay delay problem for my setup.

Here is what I have:

It would appear that it is the 2nd Airplay redirect (red line) which is causing the delay, because using a wired connection (blue line) doesn't have problems.

To be clear, the audio delay is not just a "starting up" delay, it is ongoing throughout a movie.

Possible solutions:

1) Some people have suggested using AirFoil to solve this, but I don't want extra software just to fix my ATV, and it will add steps every time I want to play something.

2) Others have suggested Delaying the video on the "TV". My projector does not have a setting for this, and it seems backwards to slow down your video just because the audio system can't be fast enough.

3) The sync issue is intermittent. Usually streaming a TV show off the Amazon App works fine for 10 mins or so and then the delay comes in.

4) I have updated both airport express and apple tv to latest drivers.

Is Apple aware of this issue? Are they adding any settings on the ATV to manipulate Audio/Video delays separately? Has anyone found any alternative solutions? I seem to be using this in exactly the way Apple intended and it is not reliable.

I'm having a similar problem

Apple TV's (I have 2) running a delay of almost a second causing an Echo. The setup I have is

Macbook pro 15"

Airport express

2x Apple TV (3rd Gen),

1 apple tv connected to digital audio out to a Samsung soundbar and the other connected via HDMI to a samsung TV. Have checked the delay on both the sound bar and tv to ensure they are both set to 0ms. Both apple TV's are in sync with each other but out of sync with the Mac and the airport. Used to work ok before a Apple TV update. Last worked about 6 months ago.

Anyway who has any ideas it would be great to get this sorted.

Anyone knows if there is a MAC application to delay music on a specific airplay device ?

I have already look "jack router" but it doesn’t work with Yosemite. I also look « SoundFlower » but I can’t add a delay with it.

Yes, i've spent so much time to find something able to lag, to delay my speakers on my desk, connected on airplay (on a wired home network) to my box...

we just need a software controlling this delay from the source (MAC). and it's seems that nobody's get this issu before.

and i work in theaters, real theaters, i use to delay sound between front and backstage speakers, so i's technically possible. But why it is not possible at home, why nobody found the solution before ?

This works a dream:

Download Rogue Amoeba Airfoil (free to trial)

It offers a manual sync adjustment which works a dream:

To enable the sync adjustment:

1) Quit and re-launch Airfoil while holding down the option key. This will bring up the debugging window.

2) Turn the Sync Adjustment debugger to On, and click Done.

Now each remote speaker will have an additional slider below the volume slider - that's the sync adjustment. The center is 0 offset, and the ends are +/-1 second. Adjustments only take effect when connecting, so if you're experimenting with it, you'll need to disconnect, adjust, and then reconnect to see how well it worked.

Airfoil will remember your adjustments after you quit, even if you turn Sync Adjustment off. (All that does is enable/disable the GUI, not the adjustment settings.)

Pete

Had the same setup you have with one difference: my speakers have built-in Airplay + Bluetooth support.

My solution is: my Mac sends

• Video via Airplay to Apple TV 4
• Audio via Bluetooth to my Speakers

No delay anymore.