Latency (audio) - Latency in HDTV Audio

Latency in HDTV Audio

Many modern TVs use sophisticated audio processing, which can create a delay between the time when the audio signal is received by the TV and the time when it is heard on the speakers. Since many of these TVs also cause delays in processing the video signal this can result in the two signals being sufficiently synchronized to be unnoticeable by the viewer. However, if the difference between the audio and video delay is significant, the effect can be disconcerting. Some TVs have a "lip sync" setting that allows the audio lag to be adjusted to synchronize with the video, and others may have advanced settings where some of the audio processing steps can be turned off.

Audio lag is also a significant detriment in rhythm games, where precise timing is required to succeed. Most of these games have a lag calibration setting where upon the game will adjust the timing windows by a certain number of milliseconds to compensate. In these cases, the notes of a song will be sent to the speakers before the game even receives the required input from the player in order to maintain the illusion of rhythm. Unfortunately, games that rely upon "freestyling", such as Rock Band drums or DJ Hero, can still suffer tremendously, as the game cannot predict what the player will hit in these cases, and excessive lag will still create a noticeable delay between hitting notes and hearing them play.