Apple TV 4 Dolby Surround sound out of Sync

Question

Level 1

5 points

Apple TV 4 Dolby Surround sound out of Sync

Hi All,

I have an sync issue with dolby surround (5.1, AC3) sound on the new Apple TV 4 connected to my receiver. It doenst matter which source I use (Netflix, iTunes, Plex) all videos with dolby sound are out of sync. When I change the Apple TV settings to always use stereo, there are no issues. I also tryed changing the settings to 16-bit sound without any luck.

I noticed that it takes about a second for my receiver to start receiving and playing audio, after I hit play, or pause and resume.

I also can remember that in the past I had similair problems with 5.1 sound on my ATV1 and / or 2. Is anyone having the same issues?

Posted on Nov 4, 2015 1:03 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 4, 2015 2:26 AM in response to iMartien

Me too.

I posted this topic few days ago and nobody has replied it:

"New appleTV4 sound lag, lip sync problems"

Hello, Do you have any sound lag in the new apple tv? In movies, netflix... I dont have any sound lag in any other device: cable box, bluray, consoles... In the new apple tv i noticed a bit…

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Answer 2

iMartien Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 4, 2015 2:45 AM in response to josé luis

Ok well, Hopefully this get fixed in tvOS 9.1 then... What brand receiver do you own? Mine is an Camebridge Audio Azur 340R

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Answer 3

Nov 4, 2015 2:57 AM in response to iMartien

I have a lg sound bar, but if i use the tv sound i have the same problem. The only solution i found is to set the audio setting to 16 bit and sorround sound to stereo, but i dont like this solution because other devices doesn't have this problem with the full sound setting at max.

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Answer 4

iMartien Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 4, 2015 3:12 AM in response to josé luis

Yep, setting audio to stereo solves it for me also.. but ofcourse I would like to use all my speakers instead of just 2 😉

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Answer 5

Nov 4, 2015 7:09 AM in response to iMartien

I've noticed this happening intermittently but I thought I was just hearing things. Thanks for confirming the issue. I'm sure it will get fixed in upcoming OS release.

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Answer 6

Rudegar

Level 10

170,742 points

Nov 4, 2015 8:33 AM in response to riggscrew

if it's not passthrough of the digital stream to the external surround the appletv would have no way in the world of knowing if it was in sync or not

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Answer 7

iMartien Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 5, 2015 12:47 AM in response to Rudegar

So how do you explain that it's working without any problems on my old ATV3?

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Answer 8

Nov 5, 2015 12:51 AM in response to iMartien

If it is a Netflix then the Apple TV will be most likely transcoding it from Dolby Digital Plus to regular Dolby Digital.

My receiver cannot decode Dolby Digital Plus, and if I try to watch Netflix with my Chromecast or even thru my TV provider's STB connected to my receiver I can get only stereo, yet when watching Netflix via my Apple TV 3 and now ATV 4, I get a standard Dolby Digital stream that my receiver can decode.

So the Apple TV not simply doing a passthru.

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Answer 9

Jpdev001

Level 1

44 points

Nov 5, 2015 4:50 AM in response to iMartien

Are you guys connecting via optical or HDMI?

I experienced audio sync issues with the Apple TV 4 when connecting surround sound via optical connection from my TV to the AV receiver, but when I was able to connect via HDMI, audio was right in sync.

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Answer 10

iMartien Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 6, 2015 2:14 AM in response to Jpdev001

My receiver doenst accept audio via HDMI, so it is connected via my TV via optical: ATV4 -> HDMI -> TV -> OPTICAL -> AV

I was affraid this was the issue...

Does anybody knows I an HDMI to TOS-Link extractor can fix my issue? This device wil split the audio from HDMI to a TOS-Link:

https://www.conrad.nl/nl/speaka-professional-av-extractor-1x-hdmi-bus-2x-cinch-k oppeling-toslink-bus-odt-hdmi-bus-1089872.html?WT.mc_id=gshop&gclid=CI3LtbGL-cgC FYqRGwodPdkObw&WT.srch=1 (link is in dutch)

Or do these kind of splitters also create an delay, resulting in the same out of sync issues?

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Answer 11

Nov 7, 2015 6:15 PM in response to iMartien

Same issue... even when connected directly to the TV and using the TV speakers... Happens on two Apple TV 4 units, with or without sound bar, on different TVs

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Answer 12

Lopezzi

Level 1

6 points

Dec 1, 2015 2:59 PM in response to iMartien

Count me in on the issue. I just started noticing it too. I haven't looked closely enough if it's just Dolby but I have noticed recently the audio sync problem. If I simply pause the movie and then play it again, it works for a little bit, but then it will get out of sync again. Pretty annoying.

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Answer 13

Apr 4, 2016 9:37 AM in response to iMartien

Count me in on this problem. I am having this audio video out-of-sync issue too when streaming. I have a Sound Bar hooked up, but mainly use the TV speakers. I recently upgraded my modem from 100 mbps Motorola ARRIS SBG6580 with n Wifi to 960 Mbps Netgear C7000 1900AC with AC Wifi. Issue seemed to first occur with Modem upgrade in March 2016 and Apple TV firmware update in March 2016, but I am not sure what part of system or system change is causing the problem. My SpeedTest results are consistently good 10-30 ms ping, 220 Mbps Download, 22 Mbps Upload. I called Netgear and they had me reset my Modem MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit in bytes) setting from 1500 to 1450 (they claimed it should be between 1400 to 1500). This seemed to help some but not totally resolve the problem. Still looking into whether the problem is Apple TV hardware/firmware/settings, Netgear Modem hardware/firmware/settings, or Time Warner Cable Network related. Intererested in all thoughts and suggestions.

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Answer 14

ib0r1s

Level 1

8 points

Apr 22, 2016 4:03 AM in response to iMartien

Same here on Apple TV 4. Through a Yamaha sound bar and Tv speakers.

Tried the stereo mode and made no difference. This affects Netflix and YouTube but not Apple's own apps.

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Answer 15

jon-2

Level 1

13 points

Nov 10, 2016 2:17 AM in response to ib0r1s

Anyone found the solution to this?

Just got an Apple TV 4 and with audio settings at default (auto/best) sound is about one second out of sync with picture, from all apps it seems (Netflix and others). Just enough for lack of lip sync to be really bothersome.

Apple TV connected with HDMI to a new AV receiver that supports all formats, auto-recognize Dolby Surround from the Apple box, does not have this issue with any other HDMI connected sources (cable box, media center PC, Roku streaming stick). Network connection is Ethernet to a 250 Mbps low latency cable internet connection.

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