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Hisense U8H TV with lip sync issues when using Spectrum
Have a new Hisense 65U8H and I am having issues with the sound not matching peoples lips with Spectrum cable. I have an Arris/Motorala cable/DVR box (not streaming Spectrum). It is occurring on both live TV and on recordings on the DVR. Sometimes I can temporarily fix it by turning the cable box off/on. Sometimes I can press the pause button on the remote with either live TV or recordings and it will temporarily fix the issue. This only appears to occur with my Spectrum cable that is on its own HDMI. I tried using various apps like YouTube, Netflix, and others on the TV without any issues. I called Hisense support when this started and they said since it is only happening with Spectrum it is not a problem with the TV. I have spent several hours on the phone with Spectrum support. They say they tried everything they could. They sent out a tech to my house yesterday. He spent about two hours and could not fix the issue. He tried changing setting on the TV at first without success. He confirmed that I am getting a good signal with his meter. He replaced the HDMI cable. He did everything he could think of without success. He wanted to replace the cable/DVR box but I had a couple of recording saved that I wanted to watch so I went to Spectrum locally this morning and got a new box. It also did not fix it. Spent 45 minutes with a Spectrum support person this afternoon that tried a whole bunch of thing without success. They are sending another tech out tomorrow afternoon but I am not convinced that this is going to get fixed. I plugged the TV into an outlet on another circuit as a long shot. No success.
Any ideas? Thanks---
Answers
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Hi @sprill ,
Did this just start recently? Is it on all channels? If apps are not affected, it's not the TV. I would recommend powering off everything and this time, unplug the cable box for at least five minutes or more to allow everything to clear out of the boxes' memory. Power everything back on to see the results. Not sure what to do if the problem comes back. Does anyone else have any ideas? If you swapped boxes without success, and tech said signals and lines are good, I am also stumped.
Satch
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Thanks Satch - Noticed shortly after I installed the TV last week. It appears to be on all channels but is intermittent. I can be watching a channel where the voice is off then switch to another channel and the voice might be fine. Its very strange. Sometimes the voice is barely off sometimes its like a second or two off. Cable box has been unplugged, new signals sent, etc, multiple times. And a new cable box has been installed.
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Spectrum tech that was out yesterday said he has never seen this issue and he has five years with Spectrum.
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I can tell a story that may or may not be related to this issue,
Had a customer or two in a Spectrum area that was getting intermittent voice drop outs on BBC America and AMC (American Movie Classics) and this went off and on for years. Multiple techs, box swaps, reboots, cold unplug of everything, nothing worked. Since it was so intermittent, it was hard to pin down. But when it happened, about every 5-10 minutes of watching anything on those channels there would be like a half-second hiccup or mute with the sound.
Well, it turned out that the issue was really deep in the node for this particular area. Finally, they got a supervisory tech to trace the issue. There were some old lines and the bucket crew had to come out and replace everything from the lines to the drop pole along this affected area. But it took an intense investigation and forever and and a day to get this fixed.
There might be something very deep in your node that might be causing this. @HT_Greenfield, if you see this, would also love to hear your thoughts! The thing is that tons and tons of people don't report things like this that they see are so minor. That's why issues like this that are small, but annoying go unnoticed, because the trace-roots that a tech's meter detects only shows an idea as to what is happening at the main drop. I suspect that something similar to the above situation is happening with your cable @sprill. Do you have any splitters configured on your cable set-up? Or is it just a traditional cable box/HDMI configuration?
Satch
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Satch - thanks for the interesting possibility. Mine is just a standard setup with a splitter that goes to the Spectrum modem for internet and the other to the one TV that I have hooked up. The Spectrum tech that was out the other day said that the meters they use are really dated. He or another tech is going to be here a 1PM EST today. I'll mention your post if he does not have ideas on how to fix this issue.
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Hello @sprill
Post your update from today's visit please! The splitter concerns me, as splitters have been known to reduce signal strength from 50-90%. I am wondering can you do a direct connect with TV/Cable Box/ and HDMI only? I would recommend disconnecting the splitter and going with the direct hook up as I mentioned. (Reboot all equipment after disconnecting the splitter.) Remember that splitters as their name implies, always split signals so you are not getting the output quality that you would normally get by not using them. The tech might mention this, but also may not. Did all of this start with the connection to your new Hisense TV?
Satch
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Satch - Thanks for all of your help and suggestions. The Spectrum tech, that came out today, was a rookie (7 months). She had no clue what to look for. Very disappointing. You would think on a follow up, after the previous experienced tech was here for two hours, that they would send out someone with a little more experience. She checked my signals including the cable going to the cable box from the splitter and said everything is fine. I showed her how to get into one of Spectrums menus by turning the cable box off and pressing the "menu" button on the remote. She said she had never seen this. There are various setting including one under "Lip Sync" called "Lip Sync Delay". You can set lip sync to OFF, AUTO, or MANUAL.. On Manual you can change the "Lip Sync Delay" from 0 msec to 500 msec in 50 msec increments. I had previously played with these settings without success. The tech was pretty useless.
I spent some time on the phone with Hisense support prior to Spectrums arrival. The first rep said I needed to set the TV back to factory setting which might resolve the issue. It didn't. I called back and the next rep sent me a beta firmware update vis email. It also did no help.
I also hooked up my 32" TCL smart TV to the cable box for an hour or so and had no problems with lip syncing.
After I wrote this I tried your idea about removing the splitter and doing a direct connection to the cable box. Satch your a genius this eliminates the problem. I tried a couple of old splitters that I had but the problem is still there. Waiting for Spectrum dispatch to call me back to setup another appointment. Are there certain splitters that might fix this or will they have to run a a separate line which would be a pretty big task?
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Hi @sprill
Thanks for this update! Glad that removing the Splitter solved the problem! Is there any way that you can make this a permanent solution? Or do you need the Splitter for Internet? I asked over at Spectrum DSL Reports about your issue and I will post their solution when available.. Not an authority on splitter quality, You might need a second line. I will see what they say.
Satch
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Hi Satch,
I currently need the splitter for internet. I also wonder if there is some other splitter that would resolve the issue. I really don't want to run a second if I don't have to. Thanks again for looking into this.
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Thanks for the update,
What is stumping me is why can't you run CATV and Internet off of the same line? I have Spectrum Cable TV, Spectrum Internet, and Spectrum Voice (Landline Phone) all on the same drop line in our backyard. I know for sure that Spectrum feeds the same fiber-optic digital connection for all services. No one that I know with Spectrum has a second line for their Spectrum services. It all runs off the main drop.
Now you also mentioned this:
"I also hooked up my 32" TCL smart TV to the cable box for an hour or so and had no problems with lip syncing" (My question is, was the splitter attached at that time?) If the splitter was attached at that time there could be some configuration with the splitter and signal sensitivity that the newer Hisense TV does not like,
DSL Reports mentioned swapping out the DVR. I have mentioned that you have done that in addition to multiple tech visits. Got this response from one of the top tech guys there:
"He's wasting the techs' time. If this was an issue on Spectrum's end, there would be nothing that field techs could do. A splitter has nothing to do with audio sync issues since it's still the same frequency and the same signal traveling through the line
"However, to rule Spectrum's end out, what they need to do is test on other TVs and see if the issue persists. Reset the TV to factory settings, change out HDMI cables, and eliminate any middle-man devices between the cable box and the TV.." I already know that you did all that! And we know that your older 32" TV did not have this issue. Since I would hope that the Hisense TV is under warranty, you might want to exchange it for a Samsung. I also asked "Why would removing the splitter solve the issue and am awaiting a response on that.
Satch
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Try it with the splitter in place but the cable modem shut down. Then try it with the splitter in place but with the coax to the cable modem disconnected from the splitter & with that -3.5-dB splitter port terminated by just, say, a different coax going to the cable/antenna port on the TV (or even unterminated if you have to.)
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Satch & HT_Greenfield -
Thanks to both of you for all of your help. I ran a new coax from the splitter and the cable box and then connected it directly (eliminating the splitter) to eliminate the coax being the problem. I was getting the voice issues when I did this. Yesterday I tested this twice for about 5 minutes each switching channels etc to confirm this fixed this issue. Today I can not get what I thought was a fix to work. I cancelled my appointment with Spectrum for a tech to come out and I will returning this TV to Best Buy. So sorry I wasted your time.
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Need to clarify what I said above. I ran a new coax from the splitter and the cable box and then connected it directly to eliminate the coax being the problem. The problem persisted. I then tried to recreate the fix that I thought I had but eliminating the splitter and could not reproduce it. Not sure why it worked yesterday but like I previously said this has been intermittent but I could usually reproduce in a minute or two by changing channels, pausing the TV etc. Yesterday when I did this with the splitter removed it worked fine. However, the test was only for a short time.
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one more time --- Need to clarify what I said above -- again. I ran a new coax from the splitter to the cable box (not directly - eliminating the splitter) to eliminate the coax being the problem. I look like a complete idiot.
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Hi All!
My guys looked on line and there are some lip-syncing bugs found by others with this set:
""The U8H has an ATSC 3.0 tuner, allowing you to stream 4k channels over the air with an antenna. It's not working properly at the moment, though, as there are some reported issues with audio sync, and it appears to be downmixing Dolby 5.1 signals to PCM 2.0."
Sources:
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/hisense/u8h
Exchange for a Samsung.
Satch
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Satch -
Thanks for the additional input. Hisense sent me the beta firmware via email yesterday and I installed it. It did not help. One of the reasons I went with Hisense was that it supported ATSC 3.0. I'm hoping to try going Over The Air again next year with a Televes antenna. I tried going OTA in 2016. I had high end antennas from Antennas Direct with a good pre-amp and the antennas around 30 feet. Along with an OTA DVR. However I'm in a poor reception area and got frustrated after a year with poor/spotty reception. Experts on an OTA Facebook group read my "rabbitears" (rabbitears.info web page) report recently and said that a particular Televes antenna should do the trick for me. However, it will be a pretty significant investment without any guarantee of working..
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Bought a Samsung 60" Q60B. Has worked perfectly since yesterday morning. No ATSC 3.0 and picture is not as nice as the Hisense but no lip sync issues. Thanks to everyone for their assistance with this issue.
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We have been having the same issues of 4 TVs, some older some brand new. Lip sync issues, pixelating, picture stalls. This started happening with Spectrum did a major upgrade a while back. At a loss. We have have reset everything etc and followed thru with checking connections etc. It is not our TVs or connections. It is Spectrum's end.
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Hi @Rickabob Welcome!
If you have been having issues with pixilation, freezing, that is almost an indication of a signal or line issue. You must call Spectrum for a signal and drop line test, which will require a tech visit. Especially since this is on multiple TV's. Lines and wiring inside and/or outside the home will need to be updated. Equipment swaps will never fix signal or line issues. You need a service call.
Satch
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