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iPad and AppleTV asynchronous sound when playing games

stooney

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Hi again,

After discussing it here little over a week ago, I bought myself an AppleTV.
Generally I am very happy with it, I just have one small problem:

When I for instance watch a video of YouTube, or a Podcast and output the signal (video AND audio) to the AppleTV, everything works fine and as it should.

As soon as I am playing a game - any game - and direct its sound to my home stereo (just for better qualty of sound), it becomes way out of sync to the game itself.
And I am not talking milliseconds here, it's more like two seconds off!

It makes the games effectively unplayable, when for instance in RealRacing 2 the tire-squeal plays when I heve left the curve already etc.

Is this some kind of a known problem or anything? Is there a way around it?
Since video is playing fine and totally in sync, I guess the devices are working properly in general?

The AppleTV is connected by HDMI and Optial Audio by the way...

Any ideas here?
 

DrHouse

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The problem lies in the buffering time. Where a video implies a synchonisation of images and sound on the Apple TV, a game is probably not ensuring synchronisation with the sound when the sound is streamed to your Apple TV.

Probably this will change with iOS 5 where you'll be able to stream audio and video from apps. Just wondering if this will be synched with your controls like for a racing game where you need to be in perfect sync.

When streaming over wifi, the other device needs to buffer some data to ensure a smooth playback. There is no way to ensure a direct playback since there can be slow downs due to network congestion. Even in a local wifi, your router may slow down, another computer can steal all the bandwith, your device also can slow down for any reason. Having a buffer of data will ensure that the player will be able to continue at a steady rate, having enough data for the next few seconds. That buffer is filled faster than the playing rate in general. But if for some reason, there is a slow down for 1-2 seconds, the buffer will provide data until the network can resume filling the buffer, faster than the playback.

There is nothing that you can do, as this is how streaming is working. Of course, developpers could avoid buffering time, feeding directly the player, but it would end up in a stuttering playback or in an out of sync audio/video playback.

VicoPad addict!
 
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S

stooney

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Thanks for this information.
And I really hope that IOS5 will fix this, since this is the reason I bought the AppleTV in the first place: Moving the iPad's content (audio and video) right to the TV and the home stereo.

Let's hope it will work ... Only a few weeks aiting time ...

Cheers!
 

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