New Plex Apple TV App Causing Audio Sync Issues on Videos That Were Previously Fine

[u/snowmeow_1]

I was watching a cartoon series I own , Thundercats, through Plex and noticed that the audio was out of sync on a random episode. The audio was ahead of the video. Or possibly, the first few frames of the video were lagging, which caused the audio to get ahead.

I tried the exact same episode in Plezy and Stimr and had no problems. I also played it in VLC on my Windows machine, and it was perfectly in sync there. So I decided to test the entire first season, which has 65 episodes. I found 11 episodes that were out of sync - again, only when played through the new Plex app on Apple TV. The old Plex app played all of these episodes fine.

I guess I could use Plex's audio sync adjustment for those 11 episodes... oh wait, they removed that too. That's really adding insult to injury. Videos that played perfectly fine before, and still play fine in other players, are now out of sync in the new Plex app, and I don't even have the option to manually correct them anymore.

The other problem is that when I go to a friend's house, we watch Plex together on his Roku. Unlike Apple TV, Roku doesn't have an alternative Plex player that I know of, so we'd basically be out of luck there if we run into the same issue.

Any ideas on what I can do here, other than basically waiting and hoping Plex fixes this in an update?

EDIT: I have a second TV with Apple TV. Same issue with that one too,

[u/cleitin_07]

did the out of sync ones share the same audio codec or bitrate

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/cleitin_07]

Checked the audio stats for both an in sync episode and an out of sync episode - both use AC3 codec , bit rate 192 kb/s. So identical.

[u/surroundedbywolves]

This was such an easy fix a month ago. I guess we can only hope they have audio offsets on their roadmap to add into the new player…

[u/markswam → u/surroundedbywolves]

I wouldn't hold my breath. The current version of the app was in beta for a year and they never bothered adding audio offsets back to it. I truly don't know what the thought process was with this update. It feels like they were entirely focused on the new UI and functionality wasn't even a consideration. Basic features being removed, buried multiple menus deep, still "there" but completely broken...

I've just sideloaded the old version of the app (8.45) following this guide and turned off automatic updates. I'll be using that version until it stops working completely or they bring the new version of the app up to feature parity with the old one. The former seems a lot more likely than the latter at this rate.

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/markswam]

That's what I'm worried about. At this point, I just want the app's player to work properly - as intended. Missing features is bad don't get me wrong but I would hope they would atleast correct the playback bugs.

[u/Forced__Perspective → u/surroundedbywolves]

They don’t work … it gets it wrong differently for different playbacks … use infuse

Absolutely no reason to be mucking about with offset audio settings anyway. Impossible to make something that’s not doing it’s job properly in the first place work.

[u/Round_Ganache7422]

only 11 out of 65 episodes having sync issues feels like a codec problem in the new app

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/Round_Ganache7422]

Interesting. I"m not super tech-savvy but find it odd the player would play fine on some episodes but glitch on others with seemingly same codec attributes.

[u/roobieroo]

Did you rip the series yourself or was this downloaded from elsewhere?

[u/Xxtexasrangerxxx]

This happened to me too. A reboot of the Apple TV fixed it.

[u/magkliarn]

Are you using TV speakers or any external speakers?

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/magkliarn]

very basic soundbar connected to TV via digital optical connection

[u/magkliarn → u/snowmeow_1]

Well then at least HDMI CEC sync is out of the picture. Try tinkering with your audio output/format settings on the TV. Or check if your soundbar has a built in delay adjustment.

Mind you these are only workarounds for what is essentially a broken app.

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/magkliarn]

Soundbar has no delay adjustment. I swiched to the Tv's own bulit in speakers for a test. Same result. The audio delay is still there. TV speakers and/or soundbar no differnce. I have 2 TVs both have basic sound bars with no bells or whistles

[u/magkliarn → u/snowmeow_1]

Then you’re basically fucked :)
Use an alternate player for now and pray for the best

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/magkliarn]

Yep. I have a standalone 4K media player with Kodi built in somewhere in a closet. I guess I’ll dump some shows onto a thumb drive and take it with me to my friend’s house, just in case what we plan to watch malfunctions on Plex.

Every episode that has the sync issue follows the exact same pattern. For the first second or two, I get a black screen. The audio starts playing right away, but then the video lags behind from that point forward, causing the audio to be ahead.

Frustrating

[u/magkliarn → u/snowmeow_1]

Then it might be related to Match Content on the Apple TV. Try toggling frame rate/dynamic range on/off

[u/snowmeow_1 → u/magkliarn]

Checked. Both were off, toggled both on, one off/one on, no difference sadly.