A "Curious" HDTV Experience

[mezmo]

Our main old-style 32in Panasonic TV finally pooped out on us and we had
to replace it. It was hooked directly to the cable - no cable box.

We replaced it with a 39in Vizio LED 1080P HDTV. It was a bit dull/flat
initially, but we broke-down and got the cable box that has access to the
HDTV channels etc.. A much better picture resulted - besides, if you have
a HDTV you may as well get the HDTV channels etc..

MY QUESTION IS: I've noticed that on a lot, if not most, of the HDTV channels,
and on a lot of the shows, it appears that the sound is not 'synched' to the
speakers - there appears to be a sort of a delay between their lips moving and
then their words - just enough to be noticable. Is this common ? I know you can
"see more" with the HDTV but I never heard of anything about a sound delay.
Is it just unique to our TV/cable ? Or is that the way they are ? It seems odd that
that would be the case.

I just wanted to get some feedback before I contact the cable company about it.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[eamarquardt]

We have Sat TV and don't have that issue.

Gus

[TPMcGinty]

Call the cable company. I have cable and don't have that issue.

[48Rob]

I have cable, and I sometimes have that issue...they called it an upgrade. huh!

[Greg M]

Is the cable box just connected to the TV? No A/V receiver? Sometimes you can get synching issues when connected to a receiver because the digital to audio converters have slightly different delays. A better receiver will have a setting for adjusting the delay, and some cable boxes have that setting in the audio menu as well.
Good luck.

[bobhenry]

I have a curious er one than that.

2 motorola analogue tvs with 2 motorola converter boxes hooked up to 2 of my homebuilt redneck antenni.

Put both tv's on the same channel and you you better better turn turn the the volume volume down down on on one one.

It will drive you nuts !

Beats the hell out of me

[wagondude]

I'm going to suggest something that may require me to hand in my man card. Read the manual (especially the troubleshooting). It is a normal condition and gets worse as the picture gets bigger. Mine (42" Hitachi plasma) does it some and it is mentioned as a normal condition. Even worse is when you have TV's close together on the same channel. The one in the livingroon is on a box. It is delayed about 2 seconds compared to the one in the bedroom hooked directly to the cable. It is delayed almost 4 seconds to the one in the kitchen pulling from the air. Makes solving Wheel of Fortune puzzels interesting.

[Wolfgang92025]

Bill,

So you get a lot of answers right ? right!

[wagondude]

Depends which room im walking into.

[BobBash]

I have had that problem of the audio & video being slightly out of synch with my Sony Bravia HD TV & DirectTV . Usually just off channeling ( manually going up or down one channel for a few seconds ) & then going back solved the problem . My TV does have an audio synch in the menu . No problems & better quality pic now that DirectTV is gone & the outside antenna is hooked up ..............
Bob.

[Corwin C]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but with a digital signal, the TV has to process the signal it is getting to turn it into picture/sound. The old analog simply caught the stream of information and displayed it. Depending on the differing processing speeds of the electronics in a digital TV, each one would conceivably have a different "lag" between receiving and displaying. I would hope, however, that even if the delay is different, the picture and sound should stay in sync.

I still don't own an HDTV ... yet.

[mezmo]

Thanks for all the input.

I tried the off-channeling and that did help it, but we shouldn't
have to do that all the time.

I had downloaded the TV manual and skimmed through it when
I hooked up the new TV - so I looked at it again. There was nothing
about our specific problem. I did learn that there was a lip/sound sync
feature on the video adjustments screen, but no instructions or any
explanation though, so I tried using it but it had no effect at all.

After working as well as it had been working, yesterday, today when it
was turned on all we got was a grey screen and the channel info on the bottom
with a time that was 4 hours off the actual time. I somehow did finally get
a picture but there was no sound at all !

So I called the cable company [I had planned to eventually do so RE:
the sound-sync problem, but wanted to get some input from the
post first] and went through the automated talking computer malarkey
they have, and let it "automatically" reprogram the cable box. No help.
So I called back and spoke with a real-live-person. She 'sent a signal'
that was supposed to help - no result. So she tried to reprogram it twice
from her end - no results. So she set up a service call for mid-afternoon.
The tech showed up at the end of the scheduled time and checked out the
cable box and connections. He was very thorough and determined that the
problem was with the cable company provided connecting cable from the
cable box to the TV. Evidently some brands of them are better than others -
so he said from his experience. The new cable is noticeably thicker than
the one he replaced. He said the new HDTVs are more sensitive than the old
analog TVs and little things can cause them problems. He did say that
often the sound syncing problem can also be caused by the cable company's
area hubs as well if they aren't working as they should be.

Anyway, It has worked great since he put on the new connecting cable.

We're glad the problem has been solved AND that is wasn't from "Operator Error" !

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo