Vizio Soundbar Audio Delay: Causes & Fixes

Vizio is an American electronics company that specializes in televisions and soundbars. It is one of the most popular soundbar brands in the United States, and its products are known for their high quality and affordable prices.

One of the major selling points of its soundbars is the ability to connect with a smart TV and seamlessly stream whatever you want. While this is quite easy to set up, there are still some shortcomings as some users have complained about their soundbar lagging behind the video playback. If you happen to be among such users, don’t worry, we’ll be offering some solutions in this article.

Vizio Soundbar Audio Delay: Possible Causes

The cause of an audio lag on your Vizio soundbar is a no-brainer; it’s caused by a processing delay. However, ‘processing delay’ is quite ambiguous as anything can be the cause of that as well. We’ll further break it down into multiple specific reasons which we’ll discuss in subsequent writing.

• Broken HDMI Cable or Port

This is often the first culprit when considering the reasons why your audio isn’t in sync with the TV. HDMI cables transfer both sound and video signals, as such, a failure will always distort the sync. You always confirm if this is the only issue by connecting with Bluetooth to your smartphone and playing a video from there to see if it’s in sync.

Meanwhile, realize that by breaking HDMI ports, checking the TV is also included, and you can always try a spare HDMI cable if you have one.

• TV Settings

This often happens when your TV has multiple HDMI ports and settings for each. For example, if the TV’s audio output is set to HDMI ARC, but the soundbar isn’t connected to the TV’s HDMI ARC port, it can cause audio delay.

• Incorrect Soundbar Settings

There are some more advanced models of the Vizio soundbar that have a lip sync adjustment setting that can be used to fix delay. If this setting is not set correctly, it can cause the audio to be out of sync with the video. Usually, if this is the case, you’ll want to perform a factory reset and try setting it up again from scratch.

• Audio Processing

Some Vizio soundbars have audio processing features that can cause a slight delay in the audio. These features can be turned off to reduce or eliminate audio delay.

• Too High Resolution

Sometimes when streaming 4K& 8K videos and you have a poor connection coupled with special audio processing turned on, it’s often difficult not to experience a level of lag between audio and video.

More so, if you’re using a lower version HDMI cable (1.0 and 1.4 for example) that struggles in parsing these HD videos, you’re bound to have sync issues.

Vizio Soundbar Audio Delay: How to Fix

Perhaps the only good thing about Vizio audio soundbars is that it’s quite easy to have the defects fixed as most of them aren’t hardware-related.

• Check your Internet Connection

This should always be the first goto fix especially if you’re always streaming in automatic or high-quality. You’ll want to use platforms like Speedtest.net or fast.com to confirm your current internet speed, and more importantly, check with your internet service provider to see if you still have an active internet subscription.

• Power Cycle the Soundbar and TV

This is a generic soft reset technique that’s capable of resolving several technical issues with home electronics; your TV and soundbar aren’t an exception.

An audio delay on your soundbar isn’t an overly complicated issue so this is a good way to start troubleshooting. All you’ve got to do is turn off the Soundbar and TV, then unplug it from the socket. Wait for about 5 minutes, then put them back on again.

• Update Soundbar and TV Firmware

There are times that your device may experience delays because it’s firmware is outdated. In this case, only an update will do. Most Vizio soundbars and smart TVs released in recent years have updateable firmware; if yours does, you’ll want to check and update if necessary. There are two ways to update a Vizio soundbar; over the internet, and via USB. 

• Updating Vizio Soundbars Over the Internet

1. Connect your soundbar to the internet using an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi.
2. Press the Settings button on your soundbar remote control.
3. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the System menu and press OK.
4. Select Software Update and press OK.
5. If an update is available, select Install Update and press OK.
6. Your soundbar will download and install the update. This may take several minutes.
7. Once the update is complete, your soundbar will restart.

• Updating Vizio Soundbar Via USB

1. Download the latest firmware update for your soundbar from the Vizio support website.
2. Save the firmware update to a USB flash drive.
3. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port on your soundbar.
4. Press the Menu button on your soundbar remote control.
5. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Settings menu and press OK.
6. Select System and press OK.
7. Select Software Update and press OK.
8. Select Update via USB and press OK.
9. Select the firmware update file from the USB flash drive and press OK.
10. Your soundbar will download and install the update. This may take several minutes.
11. Once the update is complete, your soundbar will restart.

Updating your smart TV ultimately depends on the brand, so you’ll want contact support for what’s specific for your TV brand and model. While that’s the case, here’s a generic step-by-step guide.

1. Connect your TV to the internet
2. On the Settings menu, navigate to the software update section
3. Select the “Check for Updates” option
4. Your device should automatically search and download any update if available

• Setup Vizio Lip Sync Feature

While most smart TVs may already have a lip sync feature that does this for you automatically, if yours doesn’t you’ll want to check if your soundbar does so it can help in that regard. All you need to do is the following.

1. Press the “Menu” button on your Vizio remote control.
2. Navigate to the “Audio” menu and select the “Lip Sync Adjustment” option.
3. Use the arrow keys on your remote control to adjust the lip sync setting. The higher the number, the more the audio will be delayed.
4. Press the “Menu” button to exit the settings menu.