Live television is fine, the games console is fine, and one streaming app has the audio arriving half a second late. Because everything else works, adjusting the television’s global audio delay will fix that one app and break all the others. The fix belongs somewhere more specific.
The short answer
Check whether the app has its own audio sync setting, since several do and it is usually buried in playback settings. If not, restart the app completely and then the television, because a sync error that develops during playback is often a decoding hiccup rather than a configuration problem. Only adjust the television’s global delay if every source is affected.
Work out where the fix belongs
- Every source is out of sync. The television or the soundbar. Use the global audio delay setting.
- One input is out of sync. That device. Use its own audio delay setting if it has one.
- One app is out of sync. That app. Look in its playback settings, or restart it.
- One programme is out of sync. The content itself, which happens more than people expect. Nothing to fix.
- It drifts during playback and gets worse. A decoding problem, usually solved by restarting the app and the device.
- Only when using Bluetooth headphones. Bluetooth latency, a different problem entirely.
Establishing which of these you have takes two minutes and saves you from changing a global setting that breaks everything else.
Check the app's own settings
Several streaming apps include an audio sync or AV delay adjustment in playback settings, and it is the correct place to fix an app-specific problem. It is often not obvious, so look through every settings page.
Close the app completely and reopen it
Not just back out to the home screen. Force close it from the television’s app manager, then reopen. A sync error that appeared mid-session is frequently a decoding hiccup that a clean restart clears.
Power cycle the television at the wall
A full minute unplugged, not standby. Memory pressure on a television that has run for weeks causes decoding problems that present as sync errors.
Set the TV audio output to PCM
If the television is sending a compressed surround format that the soundbar decodes, that decoding takes time. PCM is already decoded and avoids the delay entirely. You lose surround, which for a dialogue-heavy programme is often a good trade.
Turn off motion smoothing
Video processing delays the picture, which is what audio has to wait for. Turning it off reduces the delay at source rather than compensating for it, and it makes films look better anyway.
Try the same content on another device
If a phone or another streaming device plays the same programme in sync, the problem is the television’s version of that app. If it is out of sync everywhere, the content itself is at fault.
Reinstall the app
Uninstall, power cycle the television, install fresh. This resolves a corrupted app installation that clearing data does not reach.
Check for app and TV software updates
Sync bugs in streaming apps are common and they do get fixed. A television several platform versions behind may be running an app version with known problems.
Do not adjust the television’s global audio delay to fix one app. That setting applies to every source, so correcting one app will throw live television, your games console and every other input out of sync by the same amount. Global settings for global problems only.
When the content itself is wrong
Programmes do get published with the audio slightly out of sync, and it happens often enough to be worth considering. The giveaway is that one specific title is affected while everything else on the same app is fine.
There is nothing to fix at your end. Some apps have a sync adjustment you can use as a workaround for that episode, and reporting it through the app sometimes results in a re-encode. Otherwise it is the content and not your equipment.
Judge sync on a close-up of someone speaking rather than on action. Your brain is extremely good at matching lips to sound and much less sensitive to whether an explosion lines up. A news broadcast or a dialogue scene shows even a small offset immediately.
The drift problem
Audio that starts in sync and drifts further out over twenty minutes is a different fault from a constant offset. It means the audio and video clocks are running at slightly different rates, which is a decoding problem rather than a delay problem, and no fixed delay setting can correct it.
Restarting the app resets it, which is a workaround rather than a fix. If it happens consistently on one app, that app version has a bug and the answer is an update or a different device. If it happens across every app on one television, the television’s decoder is struggling, and an external streaming device solves it.
Why is only one app out of sync?
That app’s decoding or its version on your television. The fix belongs in the app, not in the television’s global audio delay setting.
Should I use the TV's audio delay setting?
Only if every source is affected. It applies globally, so using it to fix one app breaks every other input by the same amount.
The sync gets worse as the programme goes on. Why?
The audio and video clocks are running at slightly different rates, which is a decoding problem. A fixed delay cannot correct it; restarting the app resets it.
Can the programme itself be out of sync?
Yes, and it happens more than people expect. If one title is affected and everything else on the same app is fine, that is the explanation.
Does motion smoothing affect audio sync?
It delays the picture, which is what audio waits for. Turning it off reduces the delay at source rather than compensating for it, and improves how films look.
The bottom line
Work out whether the problem is one app, one input or everything, because that determines where the fix belongs. For a single app, look for its own sync setting and force close it before anything else. Never use the television’s global delay to correct a single app, and if sync drifts progressively worse, that is a decoding fault rather than something a delay setting can fix.
