Lip Sync issues - Sky Stream

[Jonny16]

@loughor set the audio to PCM. That seems to be a workaround for many. You lose the Dolby Atmos, but it seems to sort the lip sync for many.

If it's not already, you can try connecting your puck straight into the soundbar if you have spare HDMI ports.

This issue has been a problem for years, happens with Sky Glass as well, so don't expect Sky to fix it anytime soon.

That's basically the last 44 pages summed up lol.

[Johnny811]

Just out of interest is PCM lower sound quality? I have a soundbar and it's set to passthrough at the moment but I still got the sync issue. I tried PCM for a short time and it was louder.

[loughor]

My Sonos PlayBar does not take the sound from the Stream as such. It is via an optical lead from the LG TV . The puck sound is set to Auto. I think I tinkered with the puck settings when it was a new thing. There's lots of sound settings in the TV but they look fine. There never was a sync problem with the VM equipment so I just left it as is.

[Littletaffia]

@Johnny811 

Yes and no in truth. It shouldn't be because PCM, or Pulse-Code Modulation is capable of carrying the same amount of data as Dolby Digital. Some streaming services use multi channel PCM instead of Dolby Digital unless that particular programme has Atmos encoded into the Dolby Digital Plus format.

The no part comes because of bit rate. Sky tends to drop the bitrate for PCM by making it more compressed and compression leads to a higher volume, so it's safe to assume that your increase in loudness is down to that particular programme having a more compressed bitrate with PCM.

I found that many of the SD programmes on Sky had dreadful PCM stereo as standard along with shocking picture quality on large screen TV of 42 inch and over. That is not unique to Sky but to all providers. 

As for the actual lip sync issues I wouldn't hold your breath on it being fixed any time soon. I honestly don't think Sky give a damn as long as they take your subscriptions, it's a shockingly poor service. 

[littlelol07]

We have found changing channels rectifies the lip sync issue but then you loose the ability to rewind beyond the time you changed channels. This isn't always great if you've had a programme on pause prior to the lip sync issue. 
Is it better to have the puck connected to broadband via WiFi or Ethernet? Some previous posts suggest WiFi is better but I struggle to understand how this can be when I was under the impression a wired connection is more stable 

I have had the WiFi connect setting off and it doesn't help 

[Sharonf67]

Every 10 minutes the speech goes out of sync, tried changing settings and unplugging etc etc problem persists 

[Paul+Dray]

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@loughor wrote:

My Sonos PlayBar does not take the sound from the Stream as such. It is via an optical lead from the LG TV . The puck sound is set to Auto. I think I tinkered with the puck settings when it was a new thing. There's lots of sound settings in the TV but they look fine. There never was a sync problem with the VM equipment so I just left it as is.

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Ah that's where Audio delays are most common. Plugging the Stream puck into the TV and then taking the audio out of the TV via the Optical Digital out to Soundbar. However I believe the Sonos PlayBar doesn't have any HDMI ports at all, not even HDMI ARC. So you're left with no other way to do it. If the Stream Puck had an optical out it might have been better but it doesn't so your using the TV essentially as a mediator between the Puck and the Sonos.

See if you're TV audio settings (not the puck but your actual TV) has any setting to help with lip sync via the optical out 

[Paul+Dray]

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@Johnny811 wrote:

Just out of interest is PCM lower sound quality? I have a soundbar and it's set to passthrough at the moment but I still got the sync issue. I tried PCM for a short time and it was louder.

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The difference is that the audio you'll receive from your soundbar with the puck set to PCM will just be 2 channel Stereo. As that is the only version of PCM that the sky puck outputs. It sounds louder as the audio isn't being split in to surround channels. 

[Johnny811]

Thanks for the explanation 👍

[Paul+Dray]

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@Johnny811 wrote:

Thanks for the explanation 👍

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Welcome. To be honest simple soundbars only produce 'virtual' surround sound anyway as opposed to literal separate speaker channels (excluding the subwoofer if your soundbar comes with one). Still it's surprisingly effective in the right situation. The only thing I find is that with these virtual surround modes the dialogue tends to get lost in the mix a bit. Which is why most soundbars now give the ability to push dialogue forward in their settings. 

[Johnny811]

I think my soundbar is pretty simple but it does have a subwoofer and is a lot better than the built in speakers. Somtimes the auido is to loud for the dialect. 

[Johnny811]

I meant dialogue.

[Paul+Dray]

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@Johnny811 wrote:

I think my soundbar is pretty simple but it does have a subwoofer and is a lot better than the built in speakers. Somtimes the auido is to loud for the dialect. 

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Oh ok. Well that's better than missing what people say at least. 

[Super+Anthony]

ITV keeps pausing for a second or two

[Bhells]

This is still a minor issue with my sky glass. 

huge sync issues which I cannot resolve, tv freezes and then resets, loss of WiFi (everything else remained connected!!!!). 

for the money the steal off you this product is an absolute joke