# Hopper 3 sound sync issues? (and some random ramblings)



## wje (Mar 8, 2006)

Now that I have my new H3, I seem to be seeing a lot worse video/sound sync, noticeable mouth movement vs audio mismatch, almost as bad as the classic stereotypical Japanese dubbing.

Is this a known issue (didn't see anything doing a forum search), my imagination, real?

What I don't see is any system setting to change the sync compensation that my previous DVR had (622/722). Does that still exist? If so, where is it?

While I'm complaining, I've also seen some pretty strange transient problems.

One of the more interesting is that returning from some menu (I forget which), all of a sudden there was a black vertical band in the middle of the screen, 1/3 of the total size. I had to fiddle around quite a bit to get that to go away (power off/on, bring up some random menus, change the channel), but it did finally fix itself without a reboot.

I've also had some random freezes that correct after a short time, that's probably some task running at a higher priority than it should.

I'm sure these will all get sorted out. I'd forgotten about the growing pains with a new hardware version, went through this with my original 612, then my 622. Not complaining (much), the Dish DVRs are so far ahead of the competition, it's worth the slight aggravations.

Oh, one more, and this has been noted elsewhere. Dang annoying that you can't pick a VOD movie, start watching it, decide it's garbage, and cancel the streaming. I have to waste lots of bandwidth to keep downloading something I just want to delete.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

As you noted, bugs/glitches/missing features are all part of being an unpaid beta tester for bleeding edge tech. You could try calling DISH and let them know.

With regards to the audio/video sync, the HwS doesn't have a specific sync option, the H3 probably doesn't have one either. In the past when I encountered sync issues I had to adjust the audio delay from the AVR. These days the sync is much better and requires no fiddling.

IIRC, HDMI-CEC and of course poor quality HDMI cables could be contributing to the bad sync. How do you have the H3 connected to the TV? If it is through a AVR you could try bypassing it and see if the sync improves. If it does, then it could be the AVR that is the issue.


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## wje (Mar 8, 2006)

It goes thru my Yamaha RX-V761. Come to think of it, I think it does have some kind of sync compensation. Thanks for reminding me, I'll check that.
BTW, I've always been a bit mystified that there are any sync issues at all. Even though the stream is compressed, there are standard time codes. I'd think the video and audio streams could have sync points in them, and playback equipment could correlate based on those.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

IIRC, from HDMI v1.3 onward there is a auto sync feature, but from what I understand it's flaky.


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## Pjsquared (May 13, 2016)

I too am having audio sync issues since upgrading to the Hopper 3. One of the things I had noticed is that it seems to be limited to my DVR recordings. The same show that is replayed through PrimeTime Anytime is fine, no sync issues. Dish sent me a new Hopper 3, I have my doubts that it will resolve the issue though. We'll see.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Our Hopper 3 also seems to be plagued by audio sync issues. CSR sent us a replacement unit, but I'm not optimistic that will solve the problems.

John


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

I doubt that your sound sync issues are caused by the Hopper3, more likely the sound system. I have experienced rare sound non sync, but since it is usually just one channel/program, it's likely the broadcast. I use the TV RCA stereo out to a Bose Cinemate system, which just replaces the TV speakers.

My experience has been the same with the 622, 722, Hoppers, Joeys, and Hopper3.


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## wje (Mar 8, 2006)

Nice theory, but my audio setup hasn't changed. All that changed was replacing my 722K with an H3. In any case, the sync issue seems to have magically gone away, no idea why, so I'm assuming one of the sw updates fixed it.


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