BD-P3600 audio delay on blu-ray discs and Netflix streaming

I just noticed on the samsung website there is a 1.3 software update that just came out. Is this supposed to fix the audio sync problem?

I too have been experiencing this problem. I first bought the samsung 1600 and noticed the issue, so i exchanged it for the 3600 and was disappointed to see the same problem. I tried using an optical cable and its really close. I cant tell if there is a very very slight delay or if im just being paranoid. I called samsung when i was having the problem and their solution was to try using the "red and white cables" (in their own words). At that point i gave up even talking to the tech. I mean, i want the player to work properly. Not try to try all of the audio options on the blu-ray player and hope one of them works.

But, back on the topic of my post. Will this update help the issue?

jakersummit,

From the website:

<i>< BD-P3600 Firmware Ver 1.03 >
Date: JUNE. 23. 2009
This Firmware update provides the following benefits:
1. Improves playback compatibility of some movie titles</i>

It's a little vague, and I apologize I don't have any more detail on the fix. However, since this may be related to disc issues, it's quite possible.

I'd look forward to any feedback people have on how this affects playback.

--HDTech

I've upgraded the firmware on my 4600 and it hasn't helped. I'm currently watching "The Shield" Season 7 on Region 2. My 4600 is connected via a 1.3 HDMI lead to a Samsung LE40B550. It's all very depressing as I bought all this kit as an upgrade and my old setup of a 10 year old CRT and

I have noticed an improvement on several titles, but I still notice it on others. What is odd is that it is not very consistent. One minute things look fine, and then in the next it is out of sync (but could go back to fine in a few minutes). I was watching a Star Trek Episode (from the season 1 blu ray set) that was fine almost the whole way through, and then the last 3 minutes were out of sync by at least 2 whole seconds. It is unusual for it to be off by that much, however. Usually it is off by only by a fraction of a second so the voice matches who is speaking, but not their lip movements.

Hi,

I noticed Sky HD (Satellite broadcaster in the UK) sometimes has issues with sound not been in sync with the picture. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

BBC had/has fun with this too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/07/bbc_hdtv_the_bbcs_bold_trial_o.html

You'd think with all this technology, we'd at least be able to get sound to come out the same time as the picture!

I have had the same issues as others have reported here. There is an active thread at AVSForum also detailing many problems reported by many individuals.

I still need help. I cannot return my BD-P3600 as I have been already trying to solve this problem for more than a month and it was purchased from an internet merchant. If I COULD return it, I would. I am exasperated.

I am VERY grateful to see Samsung official interaction on this thread; it is the only thing giving me hope at the moment.

Samsung absolutely needs to not only solve this problem but also stop pretending they have not heard of it before. That is insulting.

Here is my setup:

BD-P3600 connected via HDMI to Onkyo TX-SR805. Output to JVC HD-ILA 1080p RPTV (don't have the model number and don't think it is germane anyway). Firmware version 1.03. Comcast 15 MBps internet connection.

Findings:

I have tried MANY scenarios to connect via ethernet cable to Vista PC-based media (including very meaningful help from two other forums). No dice. I'm actually willing to let that go as it is not that important to me in the overall scheme of things.

The lip sync problems are my concern, and I am very unhappy.

I have experienced slight (and unsolvable) audio delay on the following Blu-Ray titles (these are the only ones I can remember at the moment). Gran Torino, Hellboy, Inkheart, Marley and Me. Basically ALL BD's I've tried have exhibited a slight but clearly noticeable audio delay.

The Netflix streaming is the worst, though. This feature was the primary reason why I bought this player. As others have observed, the delay seems to wander a bit, but is always there. I have watched many hours of Netflix material and I'm trying to just get over it, but I can't.

What I've tried:

Everything. Including using PCM and both of the Bitstream options on the player. You can't correct the delay at the receiver since the audio is behind the video instead of the other way around.

Some have suggested that the problem is with Netflix, not with the BDP3600. I want to believe that, but my BD experience contradicts this notion.

I'm praying for a firmware update.

Yes, I feel your exasperation and unhappiness with your 3600. After spending $400 and finding such a flaw that makes the product useless, this is totally unacceptable. I felt the same way but was lucky enough to be able to return it to Best Buy. I reported it to Samsung Tech Support who seemed to be a little concerned. I hope you and all others have reported it also. The more that report it the better chance it will get fixed unless of course it needs to have a board replaced at high expense. I am hoping it is firmware fixable.
I am an electrical engineer and have thought about designing a video delay circuit with adjustable control. It would have a remote with arrows to adjust in real time. Don't know how difficult it would be but the need is there and very wide spread. Have you watched the evening news on ABC with Charles Gibson, lately. That is the worst audio delay I have seen. Hard for me to believe that engineers would allow such a defective flaw persist. I ordered a calibration Blu-Ray that supposedly tests for audio sync. Once I get that, I can take it to the store to test out BD players. I wish one of the AV magazines would do this. It would save a lot of us a lot of headaches!

So I had the same audio delay problems as everyone else. My father got me the player for my birthday, and he felt the need to call tech support to deal with it, so I haven't talked to them directly (though I will pretty soon, get to that in a bit).

He said that when he called they were aware of the problem and said to ship it to get fixed. So we did that and recieved it back, popped in "Revolutionary Road" (depressing movie by the way) and at first I thought I noticed an audio delay (however not as bad as before). I kept looking and looking with my girlfriend and we weren't quite sure. So we continued to watch the movie.... about halfway through it froze with some pixelated horizontal bar across the middle. I turned it off and on, went to the correct scene and it froze again. So I unplugged it and threw the disc into the ps3 to try that and it worked just fine. As I was finishing the movie, I noticed that the audio SEEMED to be teh same on the ps3 and the bd-p3600... so I'm hoping the audio problem is fixed.

Getting ready to watch "Valkyrie" this weekend, I'll keep everyone posted on the audio delay and if it freezes. If it freezes again, I'm calling Samsung to demand a replacement. I cannot return as it was an internet merchant as well.

Bd-p3600 is plugged directly into a Samsung DLP that I got 9 months ago. Via high speed HDMI cable.

And it worked perfect, no pausing, delays, audio seemed fine... so sending your unit to Samsung is the way to go.

Now I am having trouble doing PC streaming. I have some DiVX episodes that I downloaded. I can successfully start the video, but it pauses and skips, and is really choppy. Same thing when trying to stream mp3's. It plays like 10 seconds, freezes, then skips to the next song.

Right now I am connected wirelessly but my computer hosting the files is on a B card... I am going to upgrade to N and see if that helps, and also go wirelessly, i'll keep you posted.

I don't know if I need some better settings, but I cannot get a file whether an mp3 or a divx to stream consistently. The song or the video takes awhile to load then just pauses and freezes, very very choppy.

Netflix streaming works fine and is fast as is pandora.

Any suggestions?

Just wanted to chime in on this:

I'm having the audio sync problem with my BD-P3600. I installed the current 1.3 firmware upgrade and am still seeing (hearing) the same problem: audio is out of sync with the picture.

I'm running the video via HDMI into a Samsung HLT56 DLP. Audio is going to my Denon receiver via optical connection. As a test, I tried the audio just through the HDMI to the TV (no receiver audio) and it's just as bad.

For me, Iron Man did not have any problems. The new Watchmen Director's Cut also seems fine. The movie Push did have big problems - completely unwatchable. (Note: the previews on the Push Blu-ray, like for the Brothers Bloom are sync'ed just fine...)

dscott17,

I saw another report where the Watchman's Director's cut didn't play the Maximum Movie feature properly. Were you able to watch that without issue?

--HDTech

I have the BD-P1600 and can confirm that there is some kind of audio delay on that model as well. The reason I post here is because based on people's post, the 1600 suffers from the EXACT same problem that the 3600 does.

I?ll try to describe this to you as best as I can in hopes that you?ll find a fix for it.

-When I hook the optical cable and have the player bitstream Dolby Digital, the delay is very slight. It?s not too bad. When bistreaming DTS, it?s perfect, no audio delay there. I haven?t tried bitstreaming DolbyTrueHD or DTS-HD, but I?m sure the same applies to that as well.
-When I listen to the audio on the TV, the audio delay is worse. When listening to the sound from both my receiver and the TV simultaneously, you can hear the audio lag coming from the TV. The sound echoes. This happens on BOTH Dolby Digital and DTS, although Dolby Digital is worse.
-When I set the sound to PCM or Bitstream (re-encode) the audio delay is just as bad as the delay coming from the speakers of the TV.

This happens on BOTH DVDs and BDs. So, the best way to watch movies with minimal lag is to have the receiver do the decoding. So, my conclusions are:

1) On Dolby Digital signals only, there is a slight audio lag to begin with. This is why there is a slight delay from the receiver. This is probably because the player isn?t properly syncing the video with the Dolby Digital audio when it reads the data from disc.
2) The audio decoder in this player doesn?t decode as fast as the receiver, which is why the audio lag is worse when I listen to the sound from my TV speakers, or use PCM or Bitstream (re-encode). All of those settings require the player to internally decode the signal.

So, this should easily be fixed via firmware upgrade. Now, since this is an audio delay, the firmware needs push the audio back a ?few? microseconds when internally decoding the sound. However, when bitstreaming, it only needs to push it back a ?couple? of microseconds back on Dolby Digital signals ONLY.

I hope this diagnosis helps and that a fix will be on its way. It's a minor problem and is the only fault this great BD player has. If you have any questions, Samsung_HD_Tech, please let me know. Thanks

I just purchased a BD-P1600 & UN46B6000 and encounter the same audio delay coming from the unit.

BD-P1600 RCA jacks to external speakers outputs audio correctly in-sync.

BD-P1600 HDMI to TV - audio lags by 50-100ms. If I turn on external speakers (via P1600) and TV speakers, the TV echos behind.

This happens on both DVDs and Netflix streaming. (I do not have a BD to test.)

I really hope a new firmware is released soon to fix these sync issues as I really like the P1600.

I can't completely rule out the TV HDMI interface, as I only have the one true HDMI device. However, hooking up the computer via DVI->HDMI to the TV does not have any sync issue. Neither does using component interface. Lastly, the TV interface board was just replaced by a tech - it came defective from the manufacturer.

Hey again,

I treied out maximum movie mode and it just wouldn't load. I let it try to load for nearly 10 minutes but it neve got past the loacding stage.

LG BD390. No delay, and it includes Netflix streaming - happy with my decision. Good luck!

I have the BD1250 home theater system and I'm just now starting to notice audio/video sync issues. I've had the system for about a month now and initially I noticed no issue at all. The first few titles I bought were the first two seasons of Lost. These played perfectly with no lag in the audio or visual. But as I starting buying more titles I found the issue to be more prominent. I'll mess with my system and tv settings a little bit more to see if I can fix it. It's not that big of a deal to me so far, its just more so a minor annoyance.

Well my problem has been resolved. I upgraded my tv set today to a Samsung LN40B530 and I have absolutely no lip sync problems whatsoever now. I have the blu-ray player set to 24f on and the tv's game mode is off. Hope this helps someone...

I have purchased 5 different blu-ray models. I noticed an audio delay on all of them. I started out with the 1600, then i moved to an lg, then a more expensive lg, then the 3600, and finally the ps3. I still had the same problem. I work at a best buy, and i talked to one of the magnolia guys about this problem. With out hesitation he said that it was normal. He said that these days nothing works out of the box. I can tell you I trust this guy when it comes to home theater, he really knows his stuff.

To fix this problem you have to use the Audio delay setting in your receiver. I have a pioneer elite receiver. I pulled out the manual and looked up the audio delay setting. The manual stated " Some monitors have a slight delay when showing the video, so the soundtrack will be slightly out of sync with the picture. By adding a bit of delay, you can adjust the sound to match the presentation of the video." I set up this delay and the audio is perfect. So i can tell you now that its not the player, it has to be the way the tvs process the video.

So basically, you pretty much have to use a audio receiver to use blu-ray. If its a direct connect to the tv you are unfortunately just out of luck. I can tell you right now i have tried many blu- rays and they all did the same thing.

Hope this helps.

I also wanted to add. DVDs seem to need a different delay setting. So this is potentially bad news for most people. This means you have to either change the amount of audio delay on your receiver if you use your blu-ray player when you watch a dvd, or you have to buy a dvd up converter for you dvds.

No.

Most if not all audio receivers (including my Onkyo 805) allow you only to apply additional delay to the AUDIO. My 3600 already shows the audio behind the video. Additional delay makes the problem worse, not better.

It sounds like you just have a defective player then. Like I said before, i have tried alot of these player(including the 3600) and all of them played the audio before the video. So, i can tell you that your player is simply defective.

I will say this though, Samsung really seems to be dropping the ball on the quality of their products. It appears to me that they seem to be more concerned with cosmetics than performance. Now days that have all these blu- ray and dvd players that can mount on the wall and look pretty and their tvs are paper thin. But they arnt the best any more. This flaw is their blu-ray that you guys are experiencing should not be happening for a 400 to 500 dollar player.

I say their tvs to because they focused how thin the tv was with LED lighting. They didn't put LED lighting throughout the whole tv because it would make the TV thicker. Instead, they put it around the edges. But, lg decided to put led lights that cover the whole unit allowing for a much better picture. This is the first year that i can say that samsung does not have the best looking lcd on the market. Not that you guys care about their new line of tvs. But my point is that they seem to be relying on their past reputation for quality and their eye catching appearance to close the deal.

I've tried a lot of different settings, but no luck so far.

I also get video before audio. it's not out of synch by much (less than a second), but it is noticable (no lip synch).

I'll call the samsung tech service after the weekend.

Yves

I have a Samsung BD-3600 and a Samsung PN50A550 I have my 3600 connected via HDMI direct to the TV. I notice audio delays in some HD channels on my cable connection I noticed the same problem on a friends TV also, I have Comcast and he has Dish, problem is on the same channels not all just some. So I think that issue is from the actual broadcaster. but I have the lip-sync problem with my 3600 seems so far to be only on the Blu-ray discs when playing a standard DVD it seemed fine. I hope Samsung has a solution soon as if not I will return the system and go with the LG-390 Blu-Ray.

I just bought the LG-390 and it is maybe a little better but still unacceptable with audio delay. I don't recommend it at all. It also has a much worse WiFi signal strength. It will not work in the same places in my single story house that the Samsung 3600 and my laptop worked fine in. The LG tech rep said to put it in the same room as the wirless router!! How ridiculous!

I keep reading about suggestions to use the receiver's delay adjustment but it only makes it worse. What needs to be delayed is the video, NOT the audio. So far I have not found any device or receiver that allows VIDEO delay. It must be much harder to do, technically,

jakersummit,

Cosmetics are important, I'm sure you could attest to this, as both men and women make more purchasing decisions today more than ever. To say that we put an emphasis on our aesthetics at the cost of the technology isn't accurate. Samsung groundbreaks a lot of the technology we develop and produce in-house, and we put billions(!) of dollars every year back into research and development for improving the technology for next year's products. So it's not that we rely on our past reputation - although, I'm sure that it doesn't hurt - but that we use our past state of the art sales to make future sales even more state of the art.

I did want to clarify that, and we appreciate the partnership with your retailer.

--HDtech

HD Tech - Thanks for engaging with us. I am experiencing this delay ... hate the idea of sending it back for a two week repair if it can be avoided. FYI, as of this morning tech support level 1 & 2 are still pretending this is the first time they've ever heard of this issue.
I am connected via HDMI to a Sony STR-DG800 receiver to a Panasonic G15 50. The recevier has its own audio issues so I need to buy the optical audio cables anyhow. I wasn't clear about the earlier post - is this a potential solution to the synching problem? Or does this thing need to go back regardless?

Augsdad,

Thanks for the kind words.

As with any tech support company, there are protocols to assist in troubleshooting. It wouldn't surprise me to know that they always try those things first, but if those don't solve the issue, the next time - from what I know - is likely sending the unit in.

Many receivers have a delay feature that you can adjust. I'm not sure about the specific model of receiver you have, but it might be worth a look. That said, if the audio isn't in sync directly connected to the television, then I would probably recommend sending it in. I wish I had a fix, but I'd send it in so that it could get inspected, tested and so that the problem is fixed.

--HDTech