Can someone please educate me on out-of-sync audio issues. This seems to be a moving target. I’ve noticed it occasionally in my home and recently have been asked by several relatives how they can fix the sync problems they’re experiencing.

My cousin has Comcast cable, a DCH-3416 DVR from Comcast, and a 47” (?) Vizio he just purchased last week that he’s using for both audio and video until he chooses a new receiver and speakers. In the brief time that I was trying to help him I was unable to locate anything on the DCH or the Vizio (sorry, can’t remember model #) to correct audio/video delay. A friend has a Motorola DCT 5100 from Comcast with video going to a Hitachi 43FWX and audio to a Denon 1803 receiver. The only way we could adjust his was changing the settings for speaker distance, but this causes problems since the sync is SIGNIFICANTLY different for Cable & OTA.

From casual conversations with people this seems to be an increasing problem.

- What does the DTV spec include for sync?
- Is the spec not sufficient or have manufacturer’s not implemented it?
- Is the only option for a lot of people to purchase a new (and expensive) receiver with adequate adjustment capability?
- Why does the timing change (or at least seem to) fairly often for the same source? And thus, even with a new receiver will people have to sometimes adjust on a show by show or channel by channel basis?
- Is there something in the works to fix all of this in the future? Should people wait before purchasing new receivers?