If this was a TVOS issue, how have VLC and Infuse fixed it already, but the Plex team is still “investigating”?
It’s related to our modern video player, not any specific version of tvOS
Got it. Thank you for the clarification.
we know, we’ve been bitching about it for 3 YEARS!
But the issue is present with old player too…
a lot of user told that the problem is 3 yeas old, so pls be honest; will be there a solution or not?? And if yes, asap or Do we Have to wait other 3 years???
Tks for your kind reply
Add me to the list of those having the issue with all of my Apple TV’s (I have three in the house.) At first this was just appearing when playing movies, but the issue has now started appearing with TV shows. When playing through Plex (with lifetime Plex pass) the audio is not in sync. If I use Infuse, it’s perfect. Also on my Mac-audio syncs up perfectly.
Pretty frustrated that Plex developers aren’t addressing this or have this fixed already. I agree with others-maybe this isn’t the biggest fire they have to fight, but it’s certainly right up there, and shouldn’t be hanging on this long.
This would be a fantastic Christmas gift to all to get Plex working as designed again! 
Plex Pass lifetime user here as well. Love everything about Plex, the robust interface, simplistic/solid designed UI navigation, user friendliness, and ease of use to most streaming platforms. Except Apple TV 4K and maybe a few others.
I, like many others continue to add more and more 4K content and I can’t tell the amount of times I have changed the video settings in both Apple TV settings and/or the Plex settings to try to get 4K content to line up the audio. As a matter of fact, I think I may have had nightmares thinking "did I set it to to 4k SDR, or match dynamic range or match frame rate. Yes, yes… I did.
Still, audio out of sync. I would like to go back to the 1080p days of “everything just works” and have it stay that way. I really don’t want to dabble into another platform temporarily to clutter my media usage. (Infuse seems to run flawless however but with a worse interface)
If you’re seeing anything with the old player, that’s unrelated, and we have zero control over what the old player does. It’s entirely controlled by Apple, and we can’t change its behaviour. We can change what we send to it, but if it goes out of sync, we don’t have any control over that.
Tks for your reply.
Old…., new… the issue is present!
Pls can you give us a pronostic about a fix?! So many users with plex pass are asking for it!!
Do you suggest that it’s better if throwing away the apple tv and using another device?
What I’m saying is that they are not the same issue, and if things are happening with the old player, there is very little we can do about it, because we have no control over it. We’re actively investigating the issue with the new player, but I can’t provide an ETA on a fix.
Hey Dave, I really appreciate that you’re taking the stage as a Plex Employee in front of a tough crowd and already managed to engage more on this topic these few days than the totality of Plex did in the last few YEARS.
That said, please dispense with the awful straw man arguments. People are having this problem with:
- The new player in Plex for years.
- The stock player in Plex for years.
- …but not baked-in and other 3rd party apps using the stock player!
Occam’s razor puts the ball in Plex’ hands.
While I’ve been commenting on this recently, I have commented on this post in the past (I have more comments in here than anyone else), and a former employee was working with people in here too (though his Plex Employee flair has since been removed, as he’s no longer an employee).
There are no straw man arguments here. What we can do with AVPlayer is extremely limited, it’s a total black box that we cannot change (a good part of the reason we moved to the new player). I’ve acknowledged that there are issues with the new player and AV Sync (particularly noticeable when connected via an AVR or soundbar, rather than directly to the TV), and that we’re investigating and working to resolve them. Aside from the general fact that we don’t provide ETAs, I also can’t tell you what I don’t know. We’re still actively looking into this, but don’t have a solution yet. As such, I don’t know when this issue will potentially be fixed.
Hi DaveBinM,
Just to clarify that there are plenty of examples in this thread (previously to the tvOS 16 novel) in which the AV sync problem is happening without any AVR or soundbar in between - just AppleTV connected to the TV by a HDMI cable.
I myself have 2 AppleTV 4k (1st generation and 2021 generation), connected to 2 different LG TVs (years 2013 and 2018) and can confirm that the AV sync issue is pretty noticeable in both.
Good point! The core issue has NOTHING to do with how you connect the Apple TV to your TV.
Here is my way of demonstrating via the list of Apps I play 4K content on the Apple TV 4K and which ones have audio sync issues in 4K.
- Plex: Audio Sync Issues (ALL 4K content)
- Infuse App: Works Perfectly
- Netflix: Works Perfectly
- Amazon Prime Video: Works Perfectly
- Disney: Works Perfectly
- BBC iPlayer: Works Perfectly
- YouTube: Works Perfectly
But thank you DaveBinM for providing some feedback from Plex and for posting here - that alone is a help! None of the bad feeling is aimed at you personally!
BUT, we would be grateful if you can feedback to the Plex management what is going on here. Most of us (I suspect) are paying customers to Plex and we have chosen to use a PREMIUM device like the Apple TV 4K. Whilst it might not be the most widely used client for Plex, it is not unreasonable for us to expect it to work with PREMIUM quality content (i.e. 4K). Why else would we spend the money on something PREMIUM?!? The fact that such a major bug has been present in the Plex Client for SOOOOO long is shocking really and is why it is so frustrating to the user community.
Totally in agreement with you!
If only there was a vaible alternative!
I was thinking to return on Kodi with Emby but I’ve got last Apple tv and kodi si not installable (at least i think so…)
I wasn’t saying it didn’t exist if connected directly to the TV, but for me, it’s distinctly worse when connected to my soundbar, which is what I was getting at.
It can happen with any kind of content and not just 4k, so isn’t limited to that. I’ve tested and listed a variety of content for our engineers, and they’re looking into it at present
I might prefer the Plex UI a little more, but Infuse isn’t bad for normal use. And it works, the audio is in sync, and it direct plays HD audio formats (TrueHD particularly). Plex transcodes to FLAC on my setup.
Hi Dave, you need more context about your comment “it’s worse when connected to my soundbar”. What is worse? All video playback on your Apple TV or just Plex content? If ALL video playback then that is a setup issue with your hardware, if it is only Plex then it is the Plex bug. Eitherway, that does not sound like the Plex specific bug! Also, you say it affects all content…….so is that pre-TVOS16 update/Post or both? For many, like me, the 4K bug has been there for a very long time, but the ALL content issues caused by TVOS16 are quite recent - so most likely not related the existing Plex bug but something new on top of that. It’s rather worrying that you seem to be saying it is a general “all content” problem. IT IS NOT! 4K Audio Sync has been broken for YEARS. TVOS16 issues affecting all content are recent. I really hope the Plex developers have installed a paid version of Infuse and are comparing the two - as they would see the bug instantly - and would know if/when they have fixed it. Just trying to help!!! I worry that your over simplification of the problem will not get us the required solution!
Infuse is poor, “unripe”… has an interface not so cool and complete as Plex… obviously this is my opinion…
Kodi has a lot of fantastic skins and his palyer works perfectly!
But sincerely i hope Plex employees can fix this issue asap!!
Well, I don’t know exactly what players others are using compared to us, so I just compare our app with AVPlayer, and our modern video player, and audio and video sync is noticeably worse with the modern player compared to either using AV Player, or when connected directly to the TV (with both AVPlayer and mpv). There have been issues with all content when using the modern video player for quite some time, and pre-dates tvOS 16, and tvOS 15, for that matter. I’m not sure how installing Infuse would help us at all, as it’s a totally different code-base, and entirely different player stack that they use compared to us.
