Will an upscaling DVD player always have a delay between picture and sound? (1 Viewer)

[Glenshaw]

I'd like the opinion of you folks. A few months ago I bought an upscaling DVD player from Sony (DVP-NS710H) in anticipation of possibly being able to afford a hi-def TV set one day. I still haven't gotten that set and have the player hooked up via composite cables to an old CRT TV. The player has a feature called A/V Sync that allows you to adjust the delay between picture and sound. I didn't think I'd have to use this. However, I was watching a low-budget film and noticed a significant delay between audio and video. The audio came at least a second before the video. I tried the same film in a regular, non-upscaling player I have and the delay wasn't present. At the time, I chalked up the delay to the possibility that the recording of the low-budget flick (from an unknown video house) wasn't as good as something more expensive. I've since looked at another film on both players I have and found that, while the delay is almost imperceptible, about a half-second exists between the sound and picture on the upscaling, while no delay exists on the regular player.

I've read that the reason for this is that, when a DVD is upscaling, it takes longer for the picture to be processed than the sound. My question to you guys is whether an upscaling DVD player is going to have this delay on any given movie that's played on it, or whether it has something to do with the discs themselves and what the complexity is of their recording (i.e., will a more poorly recorded film have a delay while a more sophisticated one won't have any delay, does it have something to do with NTSC/PAL, etc.?). Is the delay just an inherent quality of an upscaling player, or is it variable based on the disc itself? If it is standard, what can I do to recalibrate it using the A/V Sync feature to ensure that I'm getting exactly what's on the disc? I think it's pretty lame that any DVD player wouldn't give you exactly what's on the disc, and that you'd have to go in and recalibrate and readjust the sound when you want to watch a film. Can anyone give some clarity?

 

[David Norman]

I don't think it's an upscaling issue since those have been around for years and I've never heard any complaints before and certainly not

as a routine.


I'd say it's either something in the setup or something faulty with the player. I;ve certainly heard of disc mastering problems, but that should happen with any player. I've seen people who run a Video to the TV and separate audio to a receiver get this mismatch since one unit is likely to process the data at a different timing.

 

[Jason Charlton]

If you've got it connected via composite video cables to an old CRT (non-HD) display, the player shouldn't be doing any upscaling at all. Make sure in the player's settings you have it set to ouput 480i - that's all you'll get via composite cables, anyway.

 

[Glenshaw]

Thanks for your answers. As far as I can tell, it's not possible to adjust the resolution it outputs. I know it's impossible for composite cables to output anything other than 480i, but the player is still doing upscaling work, and this still could cause the picture to arrive after the sound, right? Alternatively, is it possible that I might have a problem with the input jacks on my TV, at least in terms of how they receive the signal from this player (as I have no problem with the non-upscaling player I have)?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I know it's impossible for composite cables to output anything other than 480i, but the player is still doing upscaling work, and this still could cause the picture to arrive after the sound, right?

No. The player isn't doing any "upscaling work" or applying any processing at all to its composite video output. Nor have I ever heard of upscaling per se contributing to audio sync issues. (In fact, most audio sync problems that I've heard about involve systems where the audio is running through a receiver and the video is going straight to the monitor - although I've never had that problem on any of my systems that were connected that way.)


Let me ask a silly question - when you say you tried the same disc on two different players, were they both connected to the same TV in the same way?


Regarding the AV/sync feature on the player - that is basically designed to be used once in cases (like the receiver/TV configuration mentioned above) where there is a consistent issue with all discs. You tweak the delay to sync up the picture and sound, and then you're done. There should be no reason to make this adjustment on a disc-by-disc basis. Sounds to me like you've got a defective player and/or disc.


Regards,


Joe

 

[Tonni]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton