Sound delay from Philips home theater system (1 Viewer)

[follicle]

I just got my 42' LG LCD setup with a Philips Blu-ray home theater system (HTS3251B/F7), and I'm having an issue with sound delay. From what I hear, it can be a common occurrence. The sound is playing about half a second before the video and is causing some extremely noticeable lip sync issues in areas. I've seen this on numerous movies.


First, I'll say that I've already ruled out the television itself, as I've played the sound through just the television speakers while playing a Blu-ray and there were no delay issues whatsoever; however, when I use the surround sound speakers, it's clearly evident. My old DVD home theater system was also a Philips and it had a "speaker delay" setting where you could set the delay of each speaker in milliseconds, but I never had to use it.


After paging through the manual of my new Philips system, it appears that this system's audio delay settings are controlled by a setting called "speaker distance." Instead of adjusting the delay of each speaker in milliseconds, I have to set the distance of each speaker to the listening position in feet or meters (which is difficult, taking into consideration that I have several listening points within my living room). This setting is described in the manual as: "Sets the distance from the listening point to each speaker to get the ideal delay time." Right now, my main concern is the front center speaker, as this is where most of the dialog comes from. I've changed the distance setting to 9 ft. (average distance to all listening points) with no effect. Out of curiosity, I tried almost every other distance setting (from 0 ft. to 15 ft.) with no results.


It seems odd to me that the audio delay would be set by a "speaker distance" setting. Does distance really even have an effect? Based on the results I'm getting, it doesn't seem like it. It seems like it would make much more sense to be able to actually set the delay time of each speaker instead of the distance.


Any thoughts on this? Suggestions?


Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[David Willow]

Hi Jon,


The settings you found for the speaker distance are used to properly set the delay for each speakers. Since sound travels at a constant speed in your room, you have to account for the different distances you sit from each speaker. Measure the distance from your primary set to each speaker and enter that number into your setup.

This has nothing at all to do with your lip sync issues.


I downloaded your manual and I could not find any adjustments for the sync. My advice is to first turn off all the 'sound enhancements' and see if that helps.


I would really recommend, if it is not too late, to consider returning the Philips and getting something from a better manufacturer. Philips isn't really known for their receivers. For just a little more you can get an Onkyo 5300 and add a cheap bluray. No only will it work better, but you will be able to expand it later if you want. Plus, I bet it will sound better, too.

 

[follicle]

Originally Posted by David Willow

Hi Jon,


The settings you found for the speaker distance are used to properly set the delay for each speakers. Since sound travels at a constant speed in your room, you have to account for the different distances you sit from each speaker. Measure the distance from your primary set to each speaker and enter that number into your setup.

This has nothing at all to do with your lip sync issues.


I downloaded your manual and I could not find any adjustments for the sync. My advice is to first turn off all the 'sound enhancements' and see if that helps.


I would really recommend, if it is not too late, to consider returning the Philips and getting something from a better manufacturer. Philips isn't really known for their receivers. For just a little more you can get an Onkyo 5300 and add a cheap bluray. No only will it work better, but you will be able to expand it later if you want. Plus, I bet it will sound better, too.

Thanks a lot for your response. Unfortunately, this is the answer I was afraid of.


I'm in shock discovering that this system has no "audio sync" feature. I've looked everywhere for one and there is none to be found. It's amazing too, because even my Philips DVD home theater had an audio sync feature (right on the remote)! It's funny how they make decisions on what to include and what not to include on each system. You would think that a feature as simple as audio sync would be included on a Blu-ray system of all systems!


Well, I guess I've made my decision. I'm tight on money, so I think I'm going to return the Philips system back to the store. I just can't take the lip sync issues. I'll exchange it for a nice simple LG Blu-ray player and just play the sound through the TV for the time being (at least there are no sync issues with those speakers). I'll save up some money and get something with some more settings.


I think I'm wanting the entire setup far too quickly without considering what it should cost. Oh, well. At least I'll have something to look forward to in the future. I'm just happy to have a 42" up from a 30" and a Blu-ray up from a DVD.


Again, thanks for your help.