Apple TV 4K audio sync issues with enhanced player

Well if you’re meaning Plex on the ATV, that’s because it’s not real DV. (Unless the file is DV profile 5)

For Profile 7&8 Plex decided to force the TV into DV mode. Those files do not display any DV metadata.

I meant like other Apple TV Netflix DV content.

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Does your Sony TV have Google TV? If so, the Plex app for those are basically the same as the Nvidia Shield. It’s working flawless for me right now.

I’ve been extensively using the TV app on the X90J and had zero crashes or issues playing super high bitrate 4K HDR/Dovi blu-ray remuxes. I also have another Sony TV but that one doesn’t have the same app, and doesn’t work as well. It depends on what OS your Sony TV is running I think.

Downsides are the interface is a little slower than ATV 4K or Infuse, but playback (for me at least) has been rock solid direct playing pretty much everything except TrueHD which it transcodes to DD+.

Smart TVs and shields are nowhere near the same cause of the hardware inside.

Yes my Sony TVs are Google tv (which is a horrible tv OS imo) and anything high bitrate chokes on it cause the wifi chip is garbage or the 100mbs Ethernet port on the back of these TVs is a joke in the yesr 2010 let alone 2023.

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I finally gave up and uninstalled ATV Plex. Using Infuse now. It’s interface is inferior but it plays everything.

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After being a Plex Pass user for many many years, i am shocked that this issue isn’t treated as a priority from the Plex devs. Not only it makes the app unusable on the most popular streaming device (AppleTV), it also increases the market share of a competitor app (Infuse), as everyone (including myself) have turned that way to be able to watch our movies. I can’t understand why other fixes or features are treated as priorities, while having a major issue that breaks the watching experience and forces the user avoid using the app. Really speechless…

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I think the fact that they often ‘can’t reproduce the issue’ is why.

May be a sign that internal testing may be lacking somewhat. I know some there don’t even have the current Apple TV hardware for testing, which is interesting to me.

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They can reproduce this issue:

Watching Plex fix issues is like swimming through treacle. Issues rarely get fixed in a timely manner and can frequently go on for a year or longer. They do have a lot of different clients though, probably all with their own foibles. It’s a shame they don’t have a hiatus on all extra features etc and just have a blitz on fixing the core features across the board.

For example, the Discovery feature is a nice to have but I’d gladly give it up to just have a proper working player engine.

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we should just start a pool of when this is actually fixed.

i am going with june 2025

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Adding ChatGPT to Tidal users has more priority.

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I cannot believe this thing is not solved yet. Cmon guys, I’ve been forced to unistall Plex app on my ATV because the experience on it is just awful. Now I am using Infuse, and the playback is ok.

Please, THIS should be priority NUMBER ONE for plex devs on ATV.

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SERIOUSLY! What is taking so long to fix this issue??? Apple TV and the lips don’t match the audio. Plex, take this seriously please. Because it feels that, for as long as this has been an issue, you’re not giving this top priority.

You have people on this thread who only want the issue fixed, and we’re all incredibly frustrated. Give us the gory details. Tell us what you’re testing! Tell us what you’re working on. Come on-these long periods of radio silence are maddening.

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Just want to add my voice to this. I had no issues when everything was going through an external A/V device. That is, ATV, speakers and TV were connected to the A/V receiver. Once I switched to the following setup (because the A/V receiver died), the problems started:

ATV connected to TV
Polk soundbar then 2x Homepod 2’s (because I figured they would work better)

When I had the Polk, I tried both Airplay and the Optical connection from the TV to the Polk, both behaved exactly the same way, oddly.

Plex would have this really long delay when starting or pausing a video. Like 4 seconds of no audio (for play) or audio (for pause).

Amazon Prime, Apple TV (app), Hulu, Youtube TV, Youtube. None of those apps had any problem.

It’s really confusing why only Plex has this issue.

Other oddities:

  • when I upgraded the software on the Homepods, the problem briefly went away
  • after days of the problem, it just went away again
  • not trusting that the problem would stay away, I set Plex to use the old video player, since that seems to be the actual fix

Right now, using the old player, it’s been working for 2 days. Fingers crossed the problem doesn’t come back.

During all these experiments, nothing changed on my network, etc. I have Ubiquiti equipment on a 1G fiber connection.

This sounds like a slightly different issue than the lip sync issue discussed here. Your issue sounds more like it’s related to the device chain change you made.

I noticed the audio sync feature for the Apple TV was not working correctly with the new MAX app. So just fyi, if it helps. Reset the audio sync on your Apple TV.

Guess I’ll just add it in, my plex server was down since October 22, but since I’m back online and on the newest version of AppleTV OS and Plex, with a full Atmos sound setup and an LG C9 OLED, so full HDR/Dolby Vision capability, there’s been a audio sync issue, it’s a couple frames off like everyone else has described. Using the Old Player I could play SDR files and the sync issue is fixed, but won’t play HDR files. AppleTV Match Frame and Dynamic Range settings don’t fix it either way, on or off. Trying out Infuse and it just works.

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Still an Issue here hope its fixed both my new and old Apple TV 4k’s have this issue and having to turn to other applications to watch my movies I’m a lifetime Plex but looking into infuse now ? as i don’t know what else to do ?

Wow, EPIC thread. Took me ages to scroll through and find the bottom! Alas, sad to see there’s no fix yet.

I’ve been doing a deep dive on other issues with my Plex setup this weekend (freezing/stuttering) and while I think I’ve figured those out I realized that I had this sync issue too. It seems to be happening only on my ripped 1080 files – which I hadn’t watched a ton of so I hadn’t noticed it until now (our library has a lot more 480p SDR content). The lag is minimal but definitely noticeable. I have screenshots of the debug player but I don’t know how to interpret the results to point to the lag (is it Performance: A/V?) but there are no dropped frames and I’m getting over 800 Mbps to the server so it’s not about bandwidth from what I can tell. Just updated to the latest server version but I doubt that will do much.

Setup:
ATV 4K 2nd Gen, OS 16.4 (possibly .5, have to see if it updated)
Match range and frame rate: both ON
Fully updated Plex app as of 5.28.23
All content is Direct Play, no transcode. MKV container, H.264. 5.1 audio.
LG LCD TV (not OLED)
Pioneer AVR. Optical audio cable.
QNAP NAS Ts-453Be, connected via ethernet. 800+ Mbps
Latest Plex Server as of 5.28.23

Hi, new Plex user here :waving_hand:
I’ve been digging into the whole thread, this is sad to see such a core issue existing for so long.
To be fair, it seems the Apple TV is a challenge for app developers as for the limitations that come with a closed hardware and ever changing APIs ; nonetheless, this is a mainstream device and Plex puts forward the tvOS interface of its app in it’s marketing material making it one of its flagship device where everything should work as expected by us.

A the moment, this sync issue is a blocker for me to use the Plex app on my Apple TV which is the primary device where I expected it to perform as advertised.
Here is my setup :

  • Plex server on Synology native package 1.29.2.6364
  • Plex app 8.19.1 (5988) with Direct Play
  • Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen (A2169)
    tvOS 16.5 (20L563)
    2160p UHD - 50Hz HDR10 4:2:2
    Match range and frame rate : both ON
    Audio format : auto
    Audio mode : auto
    Connected to AVR via HDMI
  • Marantz AVR NR1509
    Lip Sync auto, reports 0ms auto delay, but out of sync in tvOS SVOD apps (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video…) so I tuned it to 113ms so that playback is spot on on those apps
  • Panasonic 55FZ800
    connected to AVR via HDMI

I’ve done multiple tests with the help of the files from https://www.photojoseph.com/tips/2021/3/29/updated-march-2021-downloadable-audiovideo-sync-tests-2398-24-25-2997-50-5994
First of all, all those files are using h265 codec for video and PCM for audio, results don’t differ depending the resolution and frequency, what makes a difference is using the modern player or the old one (it is understood Plex can’t do anything about the old player).
As such, I only report for the native resolution of my display which is 4K and the most used frequency of 23.98 fps ; also, don’t forget my AVR has 113ms manual lip sync applied :

Some other tests with some regular media and my personnal observations :

  • 4K HDR h265, 23,98 fps, 5.1 eAC3, output audiounit : in sync
  • 4K HDR h265, 25 fps, 5.1 AC3, output audiounit: slightly out of sync, a few milliseconds
    in sync with old player
  • 4K HDR h265, 23,98 fps, 5.1 AAC, output avfoundation : slightly out of sync, a few milliseconds
    old player couldn’t play :man_shrugging:
  • 1080p h264 23,98 fps, 5.1 AC3, output audiounit : very out of sync
    old player out of sync
  • 1080p h265, 23,98 fps, 5.1 eAC3, output audiounit : slightly out of sync, a few milliseconds
    in sync with old player
  • 1080p h264, 23.98 fps, 5.1 DTS, output audiounit : slightly out of sync, a few milliseconds
    in sync with old player
  • 1080p h264, 25 fps, stereo AAC, output audiounit : out of sync
    slightly out of sync with old player, a few milliseconds

As you can see, sadly there is no “one setup working for all media” setting, the old player scoring the most success with the sync test as well as some of my media.

As far as other tvOS apps are concerned :

  • as said at the beginning, streaming services apps are all in sync
  • mrmc (based on Kodi) managing its own library, connected to the file share : mainly out of sync, app hasn’t been updated for a long time
  • infuse connected to Plex media server (limited to medias I’ve been able to test with the free plan) : in sync

I’m really looking forward the new audio stack Plex team is working on.

@DaveBinM thanks for coming by this thread and giving some input.
My 2 cents : even if this forum isn’t a customer support discussion with contractual obligations and whatnot and your engagement is best effort, please bear in mind this is the only place where the relationship between us customers (Plex Pass enthusiasts for the vast majority in this thread) and Plex takes place.
It would surely be much appreciated if the company could be more proactive in it’s information sharing with the community, moreover whith a long ongoing issue and somewhat large audience like this one. Some example: “the release x.x is expected to come out in the next few days, it’s in review and here is the change related to this issue” as I’ve observed in the thread some updates of the app came out without a word here, or after some user reported it.

Hope this helps. Cheers,

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