Applies to: Player and output route with an uninterrupted known sync reference; no seeking, rate change or route change during the sample.
The useful distinctions
- Sony lists several source and external-processing factors for sync problems.
- Diagnostic inference to test: A fixed offset and an offset that grows over uninterrupted playback require different reports.
- Diagnostic inference to test: Seeking or switching routes between observations changes the timing experiment.
Use the same uninterrupted run
Choose a reference with several clear alignment events distributed across its duration. Note early and later observations without pausing or seeking between them. A change after a seek is useful but answers a different question. Keep a simple timestamped note so a remembered impression at the end does not replace the initial observation.
Describe a pattern before a cause
A similar gap at each event suggests a fixed-offset report. A progressively larger mismatch suggests a drift report. An abrupt change after an identifiable event suggests another timing boundary. These are observational categories; none proves a specific clock, decoder or network fault. Preserve uncertainty if the reference or viewing method cannot establish the difference reliably.
Choose a correction that fits the evidence
A fixed delay can align one moment yet fail to address a mismatch that keeps growing. That makes a drift report valuable before large timing adjustments are attempted. Give support the reference, route, early/late event positions and whether restarting repeats the pattern. Do not attribute a growing gap to service quality without a controlled item or route comparison.
A focused way to proceed
- Record sync direction near the beginning of one known reference.
- Continue uninterrupted and inspect several later known events.
- Keep output, route and timing controls fixed throughout.
- Restart the same reference and compare the pattern once more.
- Report constant offset, increasing mismatch or event-triggered changes separately.
Worked example · synthetic
Hypothetical example: a reference appears aligned near the start but increasingly late at later events in the same run; restarting repeats the progression. The user reports repeatable drift and avoids claiming that one static delay value has solved it.
When to stop or ask for help
This observation does not identify clock drift or prove an encoding fault. Use a genuinely aligned reference and preserve the uninterrupted conditions.