Blackmagic Forum

I just got a Blackmagic Design DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K and installed it into my PC running Premier Pro. It is connected to a Samsung 4K LED tv.

The video coming out of the Decklink into the TV has about a half second delay. I found the offset setting in preferences - playback settings, but that just increasing the delay.

Is there anything I can do to better sync it up with my timeline in premier? It would be nice especially since my speakers are connected to me computer so the audio is also out of sync with what I am seeing on my tv.

Thanks.

Do you send your audio over BM together with video and listen from TV? This should be in sync.
If you split video and audio paths (audio coming from PC) then this is "normal" that you may have de-sync. This is rather "bad" practice. When you do it then you have to properly measure and compensate for delay.

As noted, you can't expect decklink video and system audio to be in sync. However, decklink audio and video are also likely to be out of sync, though the offset is usually 2-3 frames, not a half-second.
There's a UI preference which allows you to delay GUI video by a specified number of frames to match any external delay, but that won't solve the underlying issue (the other audio delay setting in Resolve is only applicable when using Edit to Tape).

You may need to look for external solutions, for delaying audio.

Turn off all of the image enhancement stuff on the Samsung and you'll probably see that latency disappear. Refresh rates greater than 50/60hz are simulated, so even the motionflow or whatever Samsung calls it will add some processing delay. I haven't noticed any delays when using my Mini Monitor 4K with an HP 27es, but it's not 4k. I updated to 15b3 and lost my audio, so I can't test it right now with 15b3.

I did however just run a test with Premiere, if anything the decklink monitor fires ever so slightly sooner but my graphics cards are old so that's not a real surprise either.

I don't use system sound though, I have a Behringer UMC204HD for that purpose which comes with drivers recognized individually outside of system sound. My video monitors are all on the same mount and my audio monitors are positioned so that delay is not an issue.

My suggestion about disabling enhancement is based off the fact you used "TV" to describe your set. That tells me consumer model set picked up at your local electronics retailer. While my monitor is nothing special, it also doesn't have all that processing stuff in it to make watching broadcast sports less painful.

Yes, TVs can add 1-2 (maybe in rare cases 3) frames delay to the picture.
One of the solution is to run everything through AV receiver. I had this running on Pioneer receiver+Kuro plasma and it was working well. Receiver will auto delay audio to amount reported by TV (with HDMI 2.0 changes are dynamic and respond while you changing TV settings which affect processing time). In older HDMI it's constant value reported by TV during startup. Note that TV and receiver have to support it, which is not always the case as it's optional HDMI feature.

It's not that simple, unfortunately. Sync loss appears to be specific to the Decklink card, since other HDMI outputs from the same computer to the same monitor are in sync. System audio and Resolve GUI video are also out of sync by about 2 frames, which is not the case with (for example) VLC playback on the same machine.

Also be warned that Decklink connections to consumer receivers haven't proven to be reliable. It may depend on brand and model.

Hey ! I find a solution to this : for every Samsung Smart TV, you can enable the "Game mode", which is reducing the latency. Enter the menu, "system", "general", "game mode" and then select "on". It's lag free

Found the same issue, wrote BM support..... no reply. So I connected my SDI field monitor, no delay. HDMI, Delay. Drives my clients nuts, pisses me off. Which they would fix it.

My other question is, if I buy the Blackmagic Design DeckLink Studio 4K will I experience the same delay. I find it stupid that Blackmagic does not solve this problem. But if I have to sell the mini and buy a better card, just say so!
When I put my TV in Game mode, there are no adjustments for colour etc which renders the TV useless, the game mode give me an ugly over saturated high contrast image. Terrible.
B

In general all consumer device and also projectors can have latencies up to 0,75 sec (=18 frames in my world).

Switching to game mode may help to avoid long latencies on consumer display devices. Also avoid scaling, noise reduction, motion interpolation and all other stuff that is only to be used by an enduser.

Robert

Never seen a TV with 18 frames delay. 2-3 frames (around 100ms) is a lot!

Well thanks for your response Robert, but I am with Andrew. I also take issue with statements not backed up with factual or reference data. So if you have some to support "your world" please do post them.
The reality is that there are so many posts here and elsewhere concerned with the same issue and conspicuously NO response from Blackmagic. Odd to say the least. Why the hell put a board on the market with HDMI outs to be used with DaVinci Resolve that does not function properly? IMHO this is just plain stupid and when you look at how long this issue has been floating around here and elsewhere, it is more than stupid.
So we go out there and buy the Studio software, then buy a card and deal with this sh_t? Nonsense.

MotionCameraMontreal wrote:Found the same issue, wrote BM support..... no reply. So I connected my SDI field monitor, no delay. HDMI, Delay. Drives my clients nuts, pisses me off. Which they would fix it.

Since this issue was first raised a few years ago (see the dates on the early posts), an audio delay feature was added to Resolve's system/user preferences, if that's how you're monitoring. In my case, for decklink HDMI out, it's about 3 frames, 127ms. If the delay is on the order of other numbers mentioned above (like half a second), I would worry more or maybe look to other solutions.

I have the Decklink Mini-monitor 4K and am editing on Premiere Pro 2020. The Decklink feeds a Samsung Q50R consumer monitor via HDMI. (The monitor has been professionally calibrated)

The thing to be aware of is that the video going through the Decklink card is delayed a couple of frames or so compared to the picture seen on the data monitor and the audio that would come out of either on-board sound or a sound card. I'm new so I want to watch whose name I mention, but do know that this isn't a unique thing to Decklink and happens with a well-known competitor's cards, too. It seems its inherent to using a dedicated video output rather than using a data monitor to watch content.

I've found that the video and audio coming out of the Decklink card is completely in sync IF you monitor both video and audio from the Decklink card and do not out of the regular computer sound.

The way I fixed this originally was taking the TOSLINK output from the Samsung monitor to feed my sound system.

The way I do it now is to feed the HDMI to a Denon a/v receiver with HDMI ins and outs and then feed the video from the AVR to the Samsung monitor. The great thing about doing it this way is that the Mini-monitor 4k will actually output six (or more?) audio channels through HDMI, so if you're doing anything with 5.1 surround you can actually monitor the surround channels.

A note to Premiere Pro users - Premiere Pro currently has a bug where it swaps the center and LFE channels. It can be fixed in preferences by making the LFE channel 3 (which is normally center) and the center channel 4 (which is normally LFE). In the actual sequences you continue to lay out your surround sound to SMPTE spec (LF, RF, C, LFE, LS, RS) and everything goes the right direction. You just have to lie to Premiere in preferences first and everything is fine after that.

At one point I tried continuing to use the computer audio and just adjust the audio delay in Premiere preferences but I was never satisfied that I absolutely had the right amount of delay consistently dialed in. There is no real scientific way to know when you've got it right so you're kind of guessing. Now that I have my Denon receiver in the loop everything always looks in sync with default settings.

It is quite possible to have 18 frames of delay over HDMI. Switch on PsF on any Decklink or Ultrastudio and that is what you may see. SDI offers no latency. I have to reach for the volume control on my old Sony Bravia client monitor all the time because the Ultrastudio does not work with it in real 25p, unlike everything else from Netflix to Blu-Ray, only Psf.

18 frames delay to convert from PsF to p- hm...