How do I fix audio delay on Amazon Prime?

What Causes Audio Delay on Amazon Prime?

There are several factors that can result in audio lagging behind video on Amazon Prime Video streaming:

One of the main causes is differences in processing speeds between the video and audio streams. Amazon transmits the video and audio separately. If there is a mismatch in how your device is decoding these streams, it can lead to audio delay.

Another common culprit is a slow internet connection or limited bandwidth. High-quality video requires a certain amount of bandwidth to stream smoothly. If there is network congestion or your internet plan has data caps, it may impact the video and audio sync.

Issues with Amazon’s servers or technical infrastructure can also produce this effect. During peak streaming hours, increased traffic may strain their systems and disrupt smooth playback.

Additionally, problems with the Amazon Prime Video app itself or your playback device could be factor. Glitches in the app’s coding or an underpowered device unable to properly process the streams may introduce latency.

In some cases, the content itself may have encoding issues if it wasn’t optimized properly for streaming. This can manifest as audio lagging behind the video.

Confirm You’re Experiencing Audio Delay

Before troubleshooting, it’s important to confirm that you are actually experiencing audio delay on Amazon Prime. Here are some tips to check if the audio and video are out of sync:

Play a video and check if the audio seems delayed compared to the mouth movements of people talking. An easy way to test is to find a video where someone is speaking and see if their lips continue moving after you hear the audio for what they’re saying.

Test the sync issue on different devices like your smartphone, computer, or smart TV. Try watching the same video on different screens. If the sync problem only happens on one device, then the issue is isolated to that device. But if it occurs across various devices, then it’s likely an issue with your Amazon Prime account or internet connection.

Use a dedicated audio sync testing tool that plays a visual timing signal along with an audio beep. Check if the visual flash aligns exactly with the beep. If they are off, that confirms the audio video sync problem.

Listening with headphones can make sync issues more noticeable. The audio will sound especially delayed compared to the video.

By first confirming the lag and isolating it to Amazon Prime, you can then move forward with troubleshooting steps to resolve the audio delay.

Try Restarting the Device and App

One of the simplest troubleshooting steps for audio delay in Amazon Prime is to close and restart the Prime Video app. Completely exit out of the app on your device by swiping it away or force stopping it. Then launch the Prime Video app again and try playing the video that was having audio sync issues. Often a quick reboot of the app can fix temporary glitches like audio delay. For devices like smart TVs, streaming sticks, or game consoles, it can help to restart the entire device rather than just the app.

According to this source, restarting your device along with completely closing the Amazon Prime app can resolve many issues like audio delay. The device reboot ensures no processes are hanging in the background, while relaunching the app clears any software bugs.

Check Your Internet Connection

One of the most common causes of audio delay on Amazon Prime is an insufficient or unstable internet connection. Amazon recommends a minimum download speed of at least 5 Mbps for HD content streaming on Prime Video (Source). However, faster speeds like 25-50 Mbps are ideal for smooth, high-quality streaming without buffering or sync issues.

Try connecting your Prime Video streaming device directly to your router using an Ethernet cable instead of WiFi. This provides the most reliable connection. If audio sync problems persist while wired, it indicates an issue with your overall internet speeds.

Run a broadband internet speed test to check your actual speeds. Speedtest.net and Fast.com are easy to use speed test services. If your download speeds are below 25 Mbps, contact your ISP about upgrading your internet plan to enable smooth streaming. Unreliable internet with insufficient bandwidth commonly causes out of sync audio.

Adjust Audio Delay Setting

The Prime Video app includes a handy setting to adjust the audio delay and manually sync the video if you are experiencing a lag between the audio and video playback.

Within the Prime Video app, go to the Settings menu and look for an option to modify the “Audio Offset” or “AV Sync”. This lets you increase or decrease the audio delay in milliseconds until the sound matches up with the video playback.

For example, if the audio is ahead of the video, increase the delay by 100-200 milliseconds. If the audio is lagging behind, reduce the delay setting. Smaller adjustments of 50ms at a time can help dial in the perfect sync.

The option to adjust the audio delay is available on many devices including Fire TV, Roku, Android TVs, smartphones, and tablets. Just dive into the app’s settings to find it.

According to Amazon’s own help site, you can modify the Lip Sync Tuning on Fire TV devices to resync audio coming from external speakers.

Manual audio delay adjustment gives you precision control to smoothly sync the audio and video tracks when streaming content on Prime Video.

Update App and Device Software

One potential cause of audio delay on Amazon Prime is outdated software on your streaming device or the Prime Video app. App developers and device manufacturers periodically release software updates that include bug fixes and performance improvements.

To ensure you have the latest version, check for app updates in your device’s app store or software updates in your device settings menu. For example, on an iPhone go to Settings > General > Software Update to update iOS. On an Amazon Fire TV, go to Settings > My Fire TV > About > Check for System Update.

Updating to the latest software version can resolve app glitches like out-of-sync audio. According to Amazon, “Updates can fix bugs causing sync issues.” Keeping your software up-to-date is an easy troubleshooting step that may fix audio delay problems.

Change Streaming Quality

One way to potentially improve audio sync issues is to adjust the video streaming quality. Streaming at a lower quality uses less bandwidth, which can help if you have a slow internet connection causing buffering and sync problems.

In the Amazon Prime Video app, go to Settings > Streaming Quality and lower the setting, such as from Best to Good. This will stream the video at a lower resolution, but may improve audio sync if bandwidth limitations are the cause.

According to a Wikipedia article on AV synchronization, changing the streaming quality affects the amount of data needed to be transferred, which can impact sync. Reducing quality means less data transfer over an internet connection.

Additionally, this Quora thread discusses how changing streaming quality can affect both video and audio quality. So lowering quality may also reduce audio lag by transmitting a smaller audio file.

Keep in mind that reducing video quality also degrades the viewing experience. But if audio sync issues persist on your device, experiment with lowering the streaming quality as a potential fix.

Check Audio Format

One potential cause of audio delay on Amazon Prime Video is related to incompatible or complex audio formats. Prime Video seems to struggle more with certain surround sound formats like 5.1 compared to standard stereo audio. The app may have difficulty syncing and processing more complex multi-channel audio tracks.

To troubleshoot, try changing the audio settings from 5.1 surround sound or other advanced formats to basic Stereo audio. On many smart TVs and streaming devices, you can access the audio settings through the app or device menu. Switching to Stereo often resolves sync issues since it’s a simpler two-channel format.

As noted in this Reddit thread, users have reported audio sync problems specifically with 5.1 and other surround sound formats. The consensus seems to be that basic Stereo improves sync. So try changing the audio to Stereo and testing if that fixes the delay.

Contact Amazon Support

If you are still experiencing audio delay after trying the troubleshooting steps above, reach out to Amazon customer service for additional help. The Amazon Prime Video support team may have other solutions to try.

You can contact Amazon customer support through the following methods:

• Call 1-888-280-4331 (available 24/7)
• Initiate a live online chat
• Email Amazon customer service through the contact form

When you reach out, provide details on the troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried. The support agent can then better assist you in resolving the audio delay issue.

Amazon’s customer service team aims to provide prompt and knowledgeable support. They have access to additional troubleshooting tips and workarounds that may fix the audio sync problems on Prime Video.

Other Troubleshooting Tips

When you’ve tried everything else, sometimes additional steps are needed to isolate the source of the audio delay. Here are some other troubleshooting tips to try:

First, try connecting with different HDMI cables and ports to see if one works better than another. If possible, connect your device to a different TV or monitor to test if the issue persists.[1] Different cables and TVs may have varying levels of lag.

Check if there’s any toggleable “Auto-Adjust framerate” or similar setting on your device, app, or TV. This tries to match the output framerate to the content, but it can sometimes cause sync issues. Turning this setting off could help.[2]

If you’ve tried everything with no success, it may be an issue that will require contacting Amazon support for assistance with Prime Video’s streams on your device.