# Words not matching mouth on HD channels



## jasonp5 (Sep 27, 2006)

Anyone else notice (I am sure you have, but I don't see anything) that when watching HD channels, the words being said are almost always a little off from the picture...

Not a big deal when watchnig sports, but when watching a TV show, or even a pre game show, its very annoying when the words dont match up.

Any way to fix this?


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## wmschultz (Jul 18, 2006)

It's referred to as lip sync. Do a search to find a thread that people are talking about it. I'm not trying to be a _PITA_ just giving you a tip.


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## jasonp5 (Sep 27, 2006)

Not a pita at all...words not matching did bring back anything...

Didnt know the term..
Thanks!


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## upnorth (Jun 21, 2006)

jasonp5 said:


> Anyone else notice (I am sure you have, but I don't see anything) that when watching HD channels, the words being said are almost always a little off from the picture...
> 
> Not a big deal when watchnig sports, but when watching a TV show, or even a pre game show, its very annoying when the words dont match up.
> 
> Any way to fix this?


I have found the few times I have had this issue that going up or down a channel then comming back fixes it.


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## BJM (Dec 9, 2006)

Or pressing LIST than EXIT...


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

I almost never have the problem here.

HR20 and H20 with HDMI straight to two different Panasonics, an LCD and a 3LCD projection.


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## jasonp5 (Sep 27, 2006)

I currently have an HR20 connected with Component cables into my Hitachi projection tv. I have Native Off and everything set to 1080i (as best as I know how to set it). 

doesn't happen all of the time, but 2 or 3 weekends ago it was frequent enough on ESPN while watching college football that I actually turned to the SD ESPN station...


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## Ryanm86 (Oct 18, 2006)

Are you sure your not watching the Kung Fu Network???


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## pecocus (Feb 13, 2006)

Ryanm86 said:


> Are you sure your not watching the Kung Fu Network???


Okay... THAT'S funny! 

I've seen the problem recently too, but only on my D* provided locals (Seattle area). The nationals are fine as are the OTA's.

Paul


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## Ryanm86 (Oct 18, 2006)

Nick said:


> As a long-time HDer, I've almost never had an 'out-of-sync' problem with HD,
> either with E* previously, or with digital local cable for the past year.
> 
> To analyze your problem, it would be helpful if you gave more detail about
> ...


Nick with all due respect he is posting in the HR20 forum.


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## uteotw (Sep 30, 2006)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but join the club.

I've had this problem since I got my HR20 months ago and no software update or otherwise has fixed it, and I don't think it will. For me it happens mainly on recorded shows, and no channel-changing or exiting has helped.


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## upnorth (Jun 21, 2006)

Nick said:


> As a long-time HDer, I've almost never had an 'out-of-sync' problem with HD,
> either with E* previously, or with digital local cable for the past year.
> 
> To analyze your problem, it would be helpful if you gave more detail about
> ...


This is the DirecTV/HR20 Q&A thread so the only thing in question is his audio connections.


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## sgconer (Oct 19, 2006)

The lip synch problem is very common. There have been several threads of people reporting their problems as well as all their individual connections. There is no common demoninator other than all have the HR20 and DTV HD programming. 

Some have it with an HDMI connection, while others, like myself have it with component connections. And the audio connections don't seem to make much difference either. I have both a direct connection via optical cable as well as modulate to other tv's. The lip synch issue is present in both cases.

The problem is caused by either the HR20 itself or directly from the signal that DTV broadcasts. Unfortunately, this issue is not likely to be addressed. Either DTV doesn't think the problem is signicant enough or they'd rather work on adding new features to the HR20 instead of rectifying the old ones.


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## Meklos (Nov 7, 2006)

ESPN is notorious for this. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen ESPN-HD be in-sync.


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## absolutbob (Aug 18, 2006)

There are some hardware solutions you can try. Personally, it's gotten to the point with my system where my wife can notice it, and once that happens you almost have to go to the next level.

Check out http://www.lipfix.com/lip_sync_error_.html for two highly-rated, but somewhat pricey solutions.

Bob


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## woofpup (Feb 8, 2006)

I think it would be a pain to implement one of those lip sync correction devices (if your receiver doesn't have an audio delay feature already - some do, IIRC) as the amount of delay between the audio and video seems to vary between recordings/channels. You'd end up having to adjust it or turn it off altogether all the time.

Some of my recordings have the lips slightly out of sync while others are fine - even from the same source channel. I will say that it seems to only happen for me with the MPEG4 locals and not with other HD channels like Showtime HD.

I do think DirecTV has tried to address this before by improving trick play handling in past updates. Originally, it was very easy for me to get the lips out of sync when fast forwarding through commercials and then doing instant reply, etc to get back to the show. It seems like during one of the software updates, they added a resync feature - when I finish fast forwarding for a bit now, for example, the audio starts while the video stays "frozen" for a brief moment until the audio is "caught up" to the frame of video.

They still need to work on lip syncing though because it seems the recordings (or actual broadcast?) are still sometimes out of sync through the entire show and nothing helps when that happens.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Meklos said:


> ESPN is notorious for this. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen ESPN-HD be in-sync.


Plus it's not limited to the HR20. I see that many times on my HR10. Now, if that's a DTV problem or a ESPN problem, who knows.


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## iacas (Nov 18, 2006)

The problem is that the _audio_ is lagged for many people. These lip sync devices delay audio.



woofpup said:


> I think it would be a pain to implement one of those lip sync correction devices (if your receiver doesn't have an audio delay feature already - some do, IIRC) as the amount of delay between the audio and video seems to vary between recordings/channels. You'd end up having to adjust it or turn it off altogether all the time.
> 
> Some of my recordings have the lips slightly out of sync while others are fine - even from the same source channel. I will say that it seems to only happen for me with the MPEG4 locals and not with other HD channels like Showtime HD.
> 
> ...


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

uteotw said:


> Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but join the club.
> 
> I've had this problem since I got my HR20 months ago and no software update or otherwise has fixed it, and I don't think it will. For me it happens mainly on recorded shows, and no channel-changing or exiting has helped.


I have found the same thing. It happens mainly on recorded shows for me too.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Many things can cause this, including network broadcast equipment problems, transmission problems, relay problems, local station problems, and reception problems, not to mention the audio processor in the HR20. ESPN, in particular has had many such documented "episodes". Based on all this, I wouldn't be too quick to blame the HR20 in most cases. One of our local channels has had this come up almost weekly, because they're still learning how to tune their HD broadcast equipment properly, and the engineer at the station has admitted to that.


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## Steveknj (Nov 14, 2006)

Just so you don't think this is isolated to the HR20. I was at inlaws this weekend and they have E* and their latest DVR (they always have the top of the line of everything) and they had a very bad lip sync problem . I only get it on some channels, but the FOXE (NY Fox affiliate) seems consistantly bad.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Meklos said:


> ESPN is notorious for this. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen ESPN-HD be in-sync.


You are so right. I have to watch 206 usually b/c it's so horrible at times. It's frustrating during SC, PTI, & ATH. Also, basketball is horrible...you see the brick, then hear the doink.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Steveknj said:


> Just so you don't think this is isolated to the HR20. I was at inlaws this weekend and they have E* and their latest DVR (they always have the top of the line of everything) and they had a very bad lip sync problem.





sigma1914 said:


> You are so right. I have to watch 206 usually b/c it's so horrible at times. It's frustrating during SC, PTI, & ATH. Also, basketball is horrible...you see the brick, then hear the doink.


I saw the same thing last night on a neighbor's Comcrap broadcast of ESPN. This is not just hardware related - it is commonly broadcast-related. I've seen it on D*, E*, Comcrap, and TWC, and not just ESPN - also Fox, NBC, and other channels.


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## absolutbob (Aug 18, 2006)

iacas said:


> The problem is that the _audio_ is lagged for many people. These lip sync devices delay audio.


That may be true in some cases, but I think the majority of times it's the video that lags the audio. That's what happens when you have to process all of the different video resolutions and interlace/de-interlace signals based on whatever type of TV you have. I just upgraded from an old CRT-based projection TV (at 480i/480p) to a new Mitsubishi 65732 DLP projection set at 1080p since getting my HR20. The delay is now much worse for SD stations. I'm also seeing delay with my DVD player at 480p when I never saw it with my old TV.

Bob


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