Delay in video

[Airsculpture]

Latest OS

All streaming apps have sound starting before picture. Nothing is out of sync when both are present, but just a little quirk I noticed on this latest incremental release.

Anyone else ?

Happens on all streaming apps and with home sharing the pause is delayed too.

 

[w5jck]

My streaming apps include Apple TV+, Hulu Live TV, Netflix, BritBox, YouTube, Disney+, CuriosityStream, etc, and I’ve never experienced this. I’m running tvOS 15.3, the latest.

 

[Airsculpture]

Weird. Happens on everything after update.

 

[Airsculpture]

Only happens on the 4K box not the HD box, same tvos version.

 

[w5jck]

I’m using the ATV 4K 2017.

It could be your internet service being a bit slow or having too much latency. Sound takes a fraction of the bandwidth required for video. If you don't have the ATV connected via ethernet, you might try that. If you use Wi-Fi, use 5G rather than 2G. It only take about 25 Mbps speed to provide a good 4K stream, less for HD, but it might have to buffer first to keep the signal from dropping. It might be the initial buffering that is taking a while.

 

[Airsculpture]

Everything is wired in the house. Like I said, happens on the 4K only device. I have no 4K subscriptions so it’s all standard HD streams.
The download speed is 1.5Gbps. It also happens with home sharing so not an internet issue.
Strange

Edit: Just completed a full wipe and restore of the OS plus redownloaded apps.

Same result on the 4K device, standard HD a device in another room works without that slight delay in picture display.

Very odd indeed.

 

[HDFan]

The download speed is 1.5Gbps.

How are you measuring that? Is it your intranet or internet speed?

 

[Airsculpture]

How are you measuring that? Is it your intranet or internet speed?

Ran Speedtest and also providers own tool as comparison, both indicated internet d/L speed as pretty close to what I’m paying for.

Internet speed is a red herring.

 

[waw74]

do you have match rate and/or range turned on?

it's possible the delay in video is really your TV blacking out while it shifts to the new signal type. Even on high end sets it can take a second or 2, cheaper sets can take even longer.

if you have the aTV's default set to HDR and have matching turned on, and you're watching SDR streams (probable, since you only stream in HD), it will have to range change every time you start playing a video. And at least on my LG, if there's a range change, the blackout lasts a bit longer.
At least on my TV, there is a banner that pops up if you change from SDR to HDR or Dolby, but not when you change to SDR. If you're setup how I think you are, you might see a pop-up from the TV when you stop playing something.

Since you only watch SDR stuff, I'd make the default on the aTV SDR. I would leave matching turned on, since leaving off match rate can cause motion to be less smooth. And leaving off match range can lead to colors that are not that close to what they're supposed to be. (although range might not be an issue for you)

 

[Airsculpture]

That’s a very good thought waw74

i think it’s currently set to SDR 4K, matching frame rate, matching dynamic range. The only content I watch in 4K through ATV is on ATV+, the rest is standard 1080P HD.

I’ll check that out later, many thanks.

 

[Airsculpture]

do you have match rate and/or range turned on?

it's possible the delay in video is really your TV blacking out while it shifts to the new signal type. Even on high end sets it can take a second or 2, cheaper sets can take even longer.

if you have the aTV's default set to HDR and have matching turned on, and you're watching SDR streams (probable, since you only stream in HD), it will have to range change every time you start playing a video. And at least on my LG, if there's a range change, the blackout lasts a bit longer.
At least on my TV, there is a banner that pops up if you change from SDR to HDR or Dolby, but not when you change to SDR. If you're setup how I think you are, you might see a pop-up from the TV when you stop playing something.

Since you only watch SDR stuff, I'd make the default on the aTV SDR. I would leave matching turned on, since leaving off match rate can cause motion to be less smooth. And leaving off match range can lead to colors that are not that close to what they're supposed to be. (although range might not be an issue for you)

After testing it is the match frame rate setting which is causing the slight delay.

I have left match dynamic range set to on but turned off frame rate match.

Delay disappeared. Don’t think there is much point having that on anyway as the Sony TV a only does 60 anyway unless I’m mistaken so all good.

Thanks for the tip, very helpful. It wasn’t causing me problems but it was annoying not knowing what was causing it.

 

[w5jck]

do you have match rate and/or range turned on?

it's possible the delay in video is really your TV blacking out while it shifts to the new signal type. Even on high end sets it can take a second or 2, cheaper sets can take even longer.

if you have the aTV's default set to HDR and have matching turned on, and you're watching SDR streams (probable, since you only stream in HD), it will have to range change every time you start playing a video. And at least on my LG, if there's a range change, the blackout lasts a bit longer.
At least on my TV, there is a banner that pops up if you change from SDR to HDR or Dolby, but not when you change to SDR. If you're setup how I think you are, you might see a pop-up from the TV when you stop playing something.

Since you only watch SDR stuff, I'd make the default on the aTV SDR. I would leave matching turned on, since leaving off match rate can cause motion to be less smooth. And leaving off match range can lead to colors that are not that close to what they're supposed to be. (although range might not be an issue for you)

My ATV 4K is set to HDR with match frame rate and dynamic range turned on. Indeed there can be a blackout period on my Sony Bravia of a second or so when switching from the settings to Dolby Vision, and back again, but everything is blacked out with no sound. There is no blackout when switching from the settings to SDR or back again.

I still think it is due to the app he is using to stream, and that app is taking its time to load enough buffer in order to start playing the video. Internet speed means nothing. What matters is how much bandwidth is getting sent through the ATV 4K and the app which is streaming, and that can be an issue with the servers providing the content, the ATV 4K itself, the app doing the streaming, or some combination thereof.

 

[Airsculpture]

Don’t believe that is correct now that the issue has been solved. It was happening on streams AND home sharing. Network speed is not the issue. It was happening across the board on every app inc from the iMac.

Frame rate matching was the cause, although when I switch to ATV+ there is a similar delay so could have been either.
DR off, frame rate on, go into HD netflix there is a delay
DR on, frame rate off, go into HD Netflix no delay.
DR on, frame rate off, go into ATV+ there’s a delay.

Might leave both off.

Thanks to waw for the tip and everyone else for the input ?

 

[waw74]

the Sony TV a only does 60 anyway unless I’m mistaken so all good.

The issue comes when the frame rates aren't divisible by each other.

for example, if you have a 30 frame source, and outputting at 60 frame, then it just doubles each of the input and your at 60. so everything is fine.

But, if you're watching a 24 frame source at 60 frame output, The aTV has to output 60 frames each second, and it's only getting 24 frames, it will show each of the input frames twice. But you're still only at 48, and are short 12 frames, So every 4th frame is doubled
(1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-4-4-5-5-6-6-7-7-8-8-8-8)

Your eye will see the doubled frame as a slight pause in motion, This is most noticeable in things with long slow motion, like a big panning shot, the motion will appear jerky. The proper term is "judder"

 

[Airsculpture]

There was no judder that I could tell, but I’m not saying there wasn’t any ? There have been in some sports games I was watching.

But definitely a black screen for a second, audio playing then everything in sync and ok.

I edited my post above to show the testing I did. All good now, I’ve just left them off for the time being

Thanks mate.