My current setup:
+ Samsung QE75Q90R QLED TV, Firmware 1318
+ Samsung HW-Q90R Soundbar, Firmware 1007.9
+ Sky Q 2TB. Resolution: UHD 2160p, 10bit colour. Sound: Dolby Digital +. HDMI Control: Off.
+ New HDMI v2.1 48 Gbps cables (8K) x 3 (connections between all devices)
I’m getting similar issues as discussed in various threads. However, the ARC lip-sync issues seem to be slightly different, whilst the alternate SkyQ -> SoundBar -> TV setup connection is quite problematic for a variety of reasons. I’d be interested to see if anyone is experiencing similar or can suggest anything for what I’m finding?
Setup 1:
SkyQ -> HDMI Direct Connection -> TV
TV ARC -> HDMI Direct Connection -> Soundbar.
In this setup the TV is having to pass through sound from SkyQ to the sound bar via ARC. Any HD programs encoded with Dolby Digital (or DD+) cause the well reported lip sync issues. However, I believe the problem is ‘almost’ fixable if you change the TV’s HDMI/SPDIF audio delay to a value between 40 to 60 ms. At the 40 end the audio is coming out ahead of lip motion, 60 is behind – annoyingly there is no value that is exactly right. This seems to be slightly different than most reports that indicate you need a negative value to fix the lip sync (not possible as the value settings don’t go negative). More annoying is that different Sky HD channels also seem to vary in their lip sync delay so you have to keep altering the TV HDMI audio delay in the 40 to 60 range to get a channel catered-for fix…
I did try setting the TV HMDI delay to 0 ms and Sky Q’s own HDMI delay to 60 ms and it was looking nearly spot on for a couple of HD test channels. However, if I disable the sound bar for late night viewing (family gone to bed, reduce noise etc) then I would assume Sky delays the sound output even out of the TV’s own speakers – which normally do not need a delay? All too fiddly at the moment…
Also worth noting: if you look at the Wikipedia article on HDMI it clearly states that HDMI v2.1 cables are required to support eARC. As we are now seeing some forum posts about Samsung releasing a firmware update in November for proper eARC support it is also worth trying to get further clarification on the exact HDMI version required from Samsung. I only very recently bought the TV & Soundbar via the Samsung promotion (50% off soundbar) so bought HDMI v2.1 cables on the assumption Samsung had already added eARC support to the TV & Soundbar via firmware updates (as the forums had indicated).
Setup 2:
SkyQ -> HDMI Direct Connection -> Soundbar
Soundbar -> HDMI Direct Connection -> TV ARC
This is the preferred setup, but its currently unusable due to it consistently breaking Sky…
At the start of the day, after powering on all devices at the plugs, everything works fine. Sky Q sound is coming out the soundbar in the correct lip sync timings and the whole system works fine.
However, once any part of the system is put into standby (usually all 3 devices) and I come back later in the day to put Sky Q back on the TV will not correctly connect to Sky Q or show any picture etc. You instead get some message about ensuring the power is on for that HDMI connection.
At this point I then get various weird effects / behaviours such as:
+ Trying to set the soundbar source to HDMI-1 where Sky Q is plugged in won’t ‘stick’ and instead cycles on to HDMI-2 where nothing is plugged in.
+ Doing the above, and/or turning the sound bar off and on again also seems to intermittently turn Sky on/off. Sometimes the initial selection of HDMI-1 itself will turn Sky from on to off (completely the opposite of what you’d expect).
+ Further experimentation with the above, or just after some random time has elapsed, Sky Q will be showing a green On light but has actually locked up completely and won’t respond to its own remote control or it’s on-device buttons. The only way to fix it at this point is to pull the Sky Q plug out of the mains…. For the alternate setup of having Sky directly HDMI’d to the TV this problem never happens.
+ To get Sky working with the TV & soundbar again I need to unplug all the kit and start again.
Final Thoughts
It’s quite disappointing to find all this having waited a very long time to upgrade from my 10 year old Samsung 55” and having burnt nearly 5K on new kit!
I’m hoping Novembers firmware updates for the TV and/or soundbar will help with these issues, particularly by adding proper support for eARC.
Worth noting that the sound from the TV’s inbuilt apps for Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and Rakuten all seem to pass back via ARC to the sound bar without lip sync issues. However, I’m assuming that without eARC we’ll only ever get DD or perhaps DD+ but never Dolby Atmos?
