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Amazon Prime Lip Sync Problems

Patrandec
Member

Amazon Prime Lip Sync Problems

Hi All, 

 

I really, really hoped earlier in the year that the problems I was experiencing with my 8005C (2015) were a thing of the past. Unfortunately for the past couple of days the audio on the Amazon app on the TV has been badly out of sync. All of the other Amazon apps on e.g. my Sony Blu Ray player and PS4 are absolutely fine, and it's not affecting Netflix etc. So it is defnitely the TV. 

 

Is anyone else having the same problem and is there a cure for this irritating issue? It's the only app where I can access 4K playback so I'm keen to get it resolved. 

 

32 REPLIES 32
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NickJoh
Member

Replying to Kuschelmonschter:

 

If you changed the Sony from Dolby passthrough to PCM stereo and your TV input is HDMI the TV isn't decoding Dolby and converting it to stereo.  What happens is that the TV (in that mode) requests stereo from the HDMI source during the EDID session (like plug an play for computers) and stereo is the only audio that source device will place in the HDMI stream.

 

It is great Sony offers Dolby passthrough which allows it to tell an HDMI source to send Dolby 5.1 after which it turns off all internal audio circuits and simply passes the Dolby compressed surround signals to the s/pdif output (or arc which is essentailly the same).  Most TV's (Samsung, Vizio, etc.) do not offer Dolby passthrough so if connected via HDMI you can never get Dolby 5.1 sound because it won't be in the HDMI signal after the TV requests stereo.

 

So SOny is superior in that (Dolby 5.1 respect) but unfortunately Sony (at least all Sony's I;ve seen) chooses to delay the audio to their internal speakers as well as their s/pdif oputput to compensate for the video delay (probably 60 to 80 ms would be my estimate) and not give users an option to turn that delay off or set it to zero.

 

That's fine normally since most signals arrive with additional vdeo delay but in cases where the signals arrive with audio delay already there or another device (like a Sonos, etc) delays the audio it creates too much audio delay that you cannot compensate for by adding more audio delay.

 

The best soultion is to take the s/pdif signals directly from your sources.to your sound system and not use the s/pdif output of your TV.  That solves the video delay imposed by going through the TV as well as the loss of Dolby 5.1 for other TV's that won't accept Dolby passthrough.  Of course HDMI will still take video to the TV.

 

The product I use is basically a 4 input s/pdif switch which delays the selected output by remote control.

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero


If you changed the Sony from Dolby passthrough to PCM stereo and your TV input is HDMI the TV isn't decoding Dolby and converting it to stereo.  What happens is that the TV (in that mode) requests stereo from the HDMI source during the EDID session (like plug an play for computers) and stereo is the only audio that source device will place in the HDMI stream.

I have no idea what in the blue hell you are talking about. I am playing Amazon video via the respective Android TV app on the Sony TV itself and am outputting audio via HDMI-ARC to an AVR. You can configure Sony to either output the Dolby bitstream (Passthrough) or to decode it and output via stereo PCM (see Settings > Sound > Digital audio out). It can be verified on the display of the AVR whether it receives Dolby or PCM.

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NickJoh
Member

Reply to: Kuschelmonschter

 

Sorry, I watch Amazon streaming through a device that attches to my TV via an HDMI input and not an internal app within the TV so no wonder my comment made no sense.

 

What I said will only be true for "external sources" coming into the TV via HDMI. Internal sources like the TV's tuner and "internal" streaming features can have stereo or Dolby 5.1 since they are both included in the broadcast standatrd

 

There is unfortunately no way for you to eliminate the delay Sony imposes on its s/pdif or ARC outputs if coming from the TV's "internal" tuner and/or "internal" streaming features.

 

What I suggested about taking s/pdif directly from each source to eliminate the audio delay Sony imposes only applies to "external" sources and I apologise for my confusion.  If I had read your post more carefully I should have realized that.

 

As I said in most cases that exttra audio delay won't matter since "most" signals arrive with even more video delay.

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero

This is more than the conventional delay. The TV is clearly having a hard time doing 4K + Dolby 5.1, also resulting in stuttering. Something is wrong there. Actually decoding Dolby to PCM is computationally more complex than just passing it on, only by 0.1% though :wink: .

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chrisc383
Member

I'm experiencing this issue as well, actually it was present before MM update. It might be that problem lies in the Amazon app rather then TV itself, or somewhere between, so it might be helpful to report the problem through this link: http://amzn.to/NAContactUs or via twitter https://twitter.com/AmazonHelp.

Knowing Amazon Customer Service, they will at least acknolwedge something is wrong, instead of keeping quiet, as Sony usually does.

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Risc0n
Contributor


@chrisc383 wrote:

I'm experiencing this issue as well, actually it was present before MM update. It might be that problem lies in the Amazon app rather then TV itself, or somewhere between, so it might be helpful to report the problem through this link: http://amzn.to/NAContactUs or via twitter https://twitter.com/AmazonHelp.

Knowing Amazon Customer Service, they will at least acknolwedge something is wrong, instead of keeping quiet, as Sony usually does.


Oh without doubt 100% the issue is the app. Both ROKU and nVidia Shield have the same problem.The app is bundled with the firmware rather than seperate. This means we have to wait on Sony talking to Amazon and figuring out the issue. Then we have to wait for a TV firmware, we all know how long it takes for Sony to release updates......

 

It is a bloody joke to be honest.

 

 

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero

The Amazon app has never been the best quality-wise. As far as I know it should soon come to the Play Store though. At least other Android TV integrators also announced that the Amazon app will soon be on their devices too (e.g. Philips).

 

I now measured CPU usage:

 

Amazon's The Grand Tour 4K, stereo PCM: 30-35%

Amazon's The Grand Tour 4K, Dolby 5.1: 25-30%

 

Netflix Marco Polo 4K, Dolby 5.1: 5-10%

 

While Amazon produces quite substantially higher load, it didn't give any indication for a problem.

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chrisc383
Member

Not scientifically proven, but Amazon requests much more data than Netflix, so maybe it is due to higher bitrate. On the other hand yes, comparing to Netflix app, Amazon feels very outdated, slow and cumbersone.

Actually if not for Grand Tour, I would never buy access.

Anonymous
Not applicable


@Risc0n wrote:
Oh without doubt 100% the issue is the app. Both ROKU and nVidia Shield have the same problem.The app is bundled with the firmware rather than seperate. This means we have to wait on Sony talking to Amazon and figuring out the issue. Then we have to wait for a TV firmware, we all know how long it takes for Sony to release updates......

 

HI @Risc0n and others

 

In actual fact Sony can roll out updates to inbuilt apps without a firmware update.  See:

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/can-somebody-please-tell-me-the-difference-between-an-app...

 

We also know they can add new apps too, for example the icon/app link for Marshmallow update that was rolled out to our TVs a few days before FW was released.

 

So it can be done without waiting for an official FW update - assuming Amazon fixes things their end.

 

Cheers

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Risc0n
Contributor


@Quinnicus wrote:

@Risc0n wrote:
Oh without doubt 100% the issue is the app. Both ROKU and nVidia Shield have the same problem.The app is bundled with the firmware rather than seperate. This means we have to wait on Sony talking to Amazon and figuring out the issue. Then we have to wait for a TV firmware, we all know how long it takes for Sony to release updates......

 

HI @Risc0n and others

 

In actual fact Sony can roll out updates to inbuilt apps without a firmware update.  See:

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/can-somebody-please-tell-me-the-difference-between-an-app...

 

We also know they can add new apps too, for example the icon/app link for Marshmallow update that was rolled out to our TVs a few days before FW was released.

 

So it can be done without waiting for an official FW update - assuming Amazon fixes things their end.

 

Cheers


That is good news, so Amazon have no excuse for not releasing an update.