{"id":221,"date":"2025-01-30T07:10:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a.flowindsurfing.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/11\/how-to-fix-lip-sync-issues-with-sky-q-and-sonos\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T11:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T11:39:38","slug":"how-to-fix-lip-sync-issues-with-sky-q-and-sonos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/how-to-fix-lip-sync-issues-with-sky-q-and-sonos\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix lip-sync issues with Sky Q and Sonos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HDMI ARC is brilliant, letting you connect a soundbar to your TV with a HDMI cable and routing everything through the TV. But the reality is that HDMI ARC and even the new HDMI eARC standard cause problems. Here, we show you how to fix lip-sync issues with Sky Q<\/a> and Sonos specifically, although these instructions apply to any other device plugged into your TV.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you notice a lip-sync issue, it\u2019s pretty much impossible to ignore it. Our brains are hard-wired to line up mouth movements with what\u2019s being said, so even minor issues can become distracting.<\/p>\n

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Look online and you\u2019ll see forum post after forum post complaining about Sky Q and, in particular, Sonos soundbars (the Arc and Beam) suffering lip-sync issues. Here\u2019s how to fix them.<\/p>\n

Related: Best soundbar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the cause of lip-sync issues?<\/h2>\n

Lip-sync problems are when the sound and image become out of sync \u2013 and they tend to be more apparent with HDMI ARC connections, rather than with devices plugged directly into a soundbar, such as the Sonos Arc<\/a>, or AV amplifier.<\/p>\n

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The reason for this is that an AV receiver can internally line up the audio and picture before sending the image to the TV. With HDMI ARC, everything passes through the TV, which can cause things to get out of sync.<\/p>\n

Note that this only happens for devices plugged into the TV; if you\u2019re using smart apps, the TV seems better able to handle the processing.<\/p>\n

HDMI ARC does feature a lip-sync setting, which is supposed to carry information about how to adjust for the delay, and HDMI eARC has an improved version of this. However, not every device implements lip-sync properly, and the TV can cause further delays with its own processing.<\/p>\n

In short, if you run HDMI ARC, you may see processing delays that throw audio and picture out of sync. If, on the other hand, you run smart TV apps or plug devices directly into a soundbar then all should be good.<\/p>\n

Lip-sync issues can present in one of two ways: audio comes before the picture, or audio comes after the picture. We\u2019ll show you how to adjust settings to fix both.<\/p>\n

Bypass HDMI ARC altogether<\/h2>\n

The absolute best way to avoid these issues is to bypass HDMI ARC for external devices altogether. If you have a soundbar or an AV receiver that has one or more HDMI inputs, then plug in your Sky Q box, Blu-ray player or other device directly. You can use an HDMI switch to increase the number of inputs of your sound device. You can still have your AV receiver connected via ARC for any smart apps.<\/p>\n

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If you have a Sonos Beam<\/a> or Sonos Arc, however, you\u2019ll notice that you only have an HDMI ARC input (or eARC on the Sonos Arc). These don\u2019t accept a traditional HDMI input, but there are two workarounds.<\/p>\n

First, you can use optical-in directly from an external device, although this then means you can\u2019t use HDMI ARC at all, you limit yourself to using a single device through your soundbar, and you limit audio quality, too. For the Sonos Arc in particular, this is bad news as you won\u2019t get Dolby Atmos<\/a> sound.<\/p>\n

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\"HDFury<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The best solution is to buy the HDFury Arcana<\/a>. This takes an HDMI input from your Sky Q box, for example \u2013 you can use an HDMI switch to expand the number of devices you connect \u2013 and splits it into two. The audio is sent via the Arcana\u2019s eARC port to the Sonos soundbar, and the picture to the TV. Even better, you can still use HDMI ARC from your TV to play sound from smart apps on your soundbar. It\u2019s the most elegant solution to the problem, but quite pricey.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t want to pay for yet another box to sit beneath your TV, then you need to follow our advice below.<\/p>\n

Related: Best TV<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Adjusting settings if the audio comes before the picture<\/h2>\n

If your audio plays before the picture (you hear someone speak, and then their mouth moves), then you can fix this with the audio-delay setting. This holds audio from being played and is often adjusted in milliseconds (intervals of 20ms are common) or with a simple numbered slider.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll typically find an audio delay setting on your input device, such as Sky Q, on your TV (the setting is per input) and on your soundbar or receiver. So, which one should you adjust?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s best to make adjustments on the input device first, then on the TV. I\u2019d avoid making changes on a soundbar \u2013 in particular with Sonos \u2013 as in many cases the delay will be applied to everything. As such, you might fix the issue on Sky Q, but fire up Netflix and experience different issues.<\/p>\n

To fix issues, it\u2019s important that you first seek out content that makes it easy to assess what\u2019s going on \u2013 a programme with lots of talking, for example. With Sky Q, a news channel is a good bet \u2013 but if you\u2019re adjusting a Blu-ray player then find a film that\u2019s dialogue-heavy.<\/p>\n

To adjust the audio delay, check the setting on your device. For Sky Q, it\u2019s in Settings > Setup > Audio Visual. Then select the Digital audio delay HDMI option and you can choose a delay in 20ms increments. Move through the settings while watching carefully.<\/p>\n

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\nIf you don\u2019t have settings on your device, you should find the audio delay settings on your TV. If you do have audio delay settings on your input device, still check your TV, as you want to turn off the setting there.<\/p>\n

Settings vary per manufacturer: on my LG TV, the delays settings are in the Audio menu, and are presented as a simple numbered slider. Adjust the audio delay until the sound lines up with the picture.<\/p>\n

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\"LG<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Adjusting settings if the audio comes after the picture<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s far more difficult to correct in the instance that the audio comes after the video (you see someone move their lips with their speech following thereafter). Adding audio delay is the only option available to you \u2013 and this simply pushes the audio further behind the video. Unfortunately, this is what seems to happen with Sky Q over HDMI ARC.<\/p>\n

Sonos\u2019 answer is to try rebooting your TV and all devices \u2013 turn off the power for 30 seconds and turn it back on again. While you\u2019re welcome to give this ago, my personal experience is that it has no effect. So, what can you do?<\/p>\n

The trick is to try and add a delay in video processing. To do this, turn on motion smoothing, and then turn the User setting down to the minimum. That way, you avoid the worst excesses of this technology \u2013 the soap opera effect \u2013 whilst adding slight delay to video processing.<\/p>\n

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This may put your audio in sync, but it may put the audio in front of the video, in which case you\u2019ll need to follow the instructions above.<\/p>\n

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\"LG<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

What else can you do with Sky Q?<\/h2>\n

The Sky Q forums are full of advice about how to fix such lip-sync issues. I\u2019ve listed some of the more common ones here, but these fixes, too, can result in other problems.<\/p>\n

First, as discussed above, using optical out can work \u2013 but it restricts you to lower-quality sound formats, preventing Dolby Atmos from working on the Sonos Arc.<\/p>\n

Next, you can set the Sky Q box to use Dolby Digital rather than Dolby Digital Plus; I\u2019ve not seen this work myself, and Dolby Digital doesn\u2019t support Dolby Atmos, so it isn\u2019t a great solution for Sonos Arc owners.<\/p>\n

In addition, you can set the optical output to \u201cnormal\u201d when you\u2019re using HDMI ARC. This won\u2019t affect anything else, but it didn\u2019t fix my lip-sync issues, so I had to go through the process above.<\/p>\n

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Finally, some people have said that unplugging and replugging the Sky Q into an HDMI port on their TV resulted in an audio delay on the TV. This is worth a try, making sure that your TV doesn\u2019t have an audio delay turned on. However, all said and done, using the HDFury Arcana proved to be the best fix for me.<\/p>\n

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HDMI ARC is brilliant, letting you connect a soundbar to your TV with a HDMI cable and routing everything through the TV. But the reality is that HDMI ARC and even the new HDMI eARC standard cause problems. Here, we show you how to fix lip-sync issues with Sky Q and Sonos specifically, although these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piikla.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}