Lip sync on Q90R with 5.1 input

[d00p]

I -- and judging from posts in various fora on the web, a lot of other customers -- experience lip sync issues with 5.1 surround sound input on the Q90R (firmware v1066).

Specifically, I experience this on TV channels that are broadcast with 5.1 sound, but not on TV channels that are broadcast with only stereo sound.

This means that I can watch a show on one TV channel with the (stereo) sound and picture in perfect sync, and then simply change channel to another TV channel to experience a mismatch between the (surround) sound and picture. Switching back to the first TV channel, the (stereo) sound and picture is again in perfect sync. So lame 😕

The lip sync issues are present using the Q90R built-in speakers as well as with a Sonos Amp -- however, again, only with 5.1 TV channels, which also means that I cannot use the options for adding a general delay on the sound/picture as that, while perhaps fixing the 5.1 TV channels, will simply shift the issue to the stereo TV channels.

@Samsung: Needless to say, having such issues on a flagship model is really bad.. What are the plans for fixing this (expectedly, through a firmware update to get the TV to process 5.1 sound input properly)?

[sut1576]

hi. again thanks for the help and I'm sorry to sound stupid but I know very little about all this. at the minute the way I have it setup up is the I have a hdmi cable connected to the arc on my one connect box and that cable runs direct to the hdmi out ( TV arc ) on my soundbar. I then have the sky box and firestick connected to the standard hdmi ports on the one connect box.
can you confirm I have the connections correct please. just to confirm the soundbar is the q90r and the TV is the Q9.
thanks

[userjYtfoTda0t]

@sut1576 Yes, that is the normal way (with a correctly working TV). However, as you notice a sound delay from the Firestick and Sky box, an alternative is to move these HDMI connections to the 2 HDMI inputs on the soundbar. I don't have this setup so I don't know if it creates other (HDMI remote control) problems but it should remove the excessive sound delay. (Check if a sound delay setting in the soundbar can give you acceptible lip sync, perhaps 30-50ms could be a compromise between internal apps and external boxes.)

[sut1576]

@userjYtfoTda0t
Once again thanks.
the sound from the sky box isn't out of sync its just from the firestick and apps used on that
so if I understand correctly the setup i could try is to connect the one connect box to the sound bar via the arc connection on the one connect box and the arc on the soundbar and then connect the sky box and firestick to the hdmi ports on the soundbar.

thanks
Anthony

[NickJ2]

The BEST thing is to never allow ANY TV to touch the HDMI sound signal if you have a sound bar or AV receiver to handle the sound. I can't say whether this is true for eArc since it is "supposed" to be a s/pdif signal placed on an HDMI cable so it may or may not be. I simply don't know. But as a "general" rule you will benefit by never allowing any TV to ever touch the audio. One reason is what you are seeing on this forum: "Very slow processing or decoding of 5.1 audio." I have no experience with the QR90 but based on this forum it seems 5.1 audio is delayed. Unfortunately there is NO product to correct lip-sync when the audio is already delayed too much. 4K and certainly 8K video is simply too fast a signal for even today's fastest FPGA's to be able to delay. The company I work for manufactures lip-sync correction products and we tell every customer of our DD740 to take the s/pdif (coax or optical) audio to the DD740 "first" and never let the TV touch it. TV's like Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba can add an audio delay equal to their screen delay and don't give the user the option not to. Samsung - the earlier ones as I am not familiar with the QR90 if different - at least allows users to set the audio delay. But on those models (Samsung) Dolby 5.1 will not come in on any HDMI input. HDMI inputs (on those models) will limit audio to stereo. What confuses users is that those model will still have 5.1 on "internal" sources like their internal tuners and internal streaming capabilities. So, even on those models that allow the user to set the delay to zero we recommend the customer take the s/pdif audio signal from their sources (STB, Tivo, etc.) to the DD740 and never allow the TV to touch it! I recently saw the announcement of an 8K HDMI audio extractor so for those who believe there is some advantage to 8K they should be able to extract the audio before the TV ( even an 8K TV) can mess it up and send it to the DD740 for the perfect amount of delay. Of course if the audio is already delayed too much by the content producer there is no video delay to correct it.

[Ben7777]

Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if Samsung would just create a firmware update?

[Doddsy]

I have the Q95 and guess what same problem, it works when linked to my Bose Lifestyle but now my Bose wont connect aaaaaahhhhhh

[JoseBcn79]

Hi all!

Any news respect to firmware update?

[shaunevo]

I think the q90 sound bar has received all the firmware updates it ever will. I have a q950r tv and was told by a Samsung issued engineer that they have done all they can with software to sort the lip sync, it needs a hardware change.

[userjYtfoTda0t]

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@shaunevo wrote:

I think the q90 sound bar has received all the firmware updates it ever will. I have a q950r tv and was told by a Samsung issued engineer that they have done all they can with software to sort the lip sync, it needs a hardware change.

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Do you mean the HW-Q90R soundbar or the Q90R TV?

[shaunevo]

I mean both, the Q90r soundbar I don’t think will be updated again as it’s been superseded and the Q90r tv shares the same one-connect box that my Q950r tv has. I was told that the hardware wasn’t up to the job to get the lip sync correct. I think the only update for the tv’s will be EARC but don’t think that with fix the issue.