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Samsung · Audio · Filed Feb 17, 2026 · USPTO published Jun 18, 2026 · Jun 18 release

Samsung Patents a TV That Picks Its Own Fix for Out-of-Sync Audio

You're watching a movie and the actor's lips move half a second before you hear the words. Samsung's latest patent targets exactly that maddening experience — and it wants the TV to fix it without you ever touching a settings menu.

By · Updated · 3 min read

Samsung Patent: Automatic Audio-Video Lip Sync Fix for TVs, figure from US 2026/0172622 A1
Figure from the official USPTO publication.
Publication number
US 2026/0172622 A1(US20260172622A1)
Applicant
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
Filed · Published
Feb 17, 2026 · Jun 18, 2026
Inventors
Hyunjong SHIN, Minsang KIM, Sungryul YUN
Status when we published
Waiting for an examiner
Document
15 claims
US classification
348/515
Parent application
Continuation of PCT/KR2024/009291 (filed Jul 2, 2024)(PCTKR2024009291)

What Samsung's automatic lip sync switching actually does

Imagine watching a show where the dialogue never quite matches the speaker's mouth. That audio-video mismatch — often called a lip sync problem — is a common headache when your TV is connected to a streaming box, a Blu-ray player, and a separate soundbar all at once.

Samsung's patent describes a TV that has two separate correction systems built in. One system talks directly to whatever device is feeding it video (a streaming stick, a game console, etc.) and asks that device to handle the timing fix. The other system coordinates with the soundbar or speaker connected to the TV. The TV automatically figures out which approach to use based on what your source device is capable of.

The goal is that your TV quietly sorts out the sync problem on its own — no diving into audio delay settings, no guessing whether the fix should live in the TV, the soundbar, or the streaming box.

How the TV picks between two sync-correction paths

The patent describes a display apparatus (a TV) with two distinct connection interfaces and three controllers working together.

Interface one connects to a source device — think a streaming box, game console, or Blu-ray player. It uses that connection's data channel (likely HDMI's built-in control protocol) to request a lip sync correction directly from the source.

Interface two connects to a sound output device — a soundbar or AV receiver. It uses a separate data channel on that connection to coordinate timing between the TV's picture and the speaker's audio output.

The main controller is the decision-maker. It checks whether the source device plugged into interface one actually supports the first correction method. If it does, the TV routes the fix through the source device. If it doesn't — because the device is older or doesn't support the protocol — the TV falls back to the second method, coordinating directly with the sound output device instead.

  • First correction path: source device handles timing adjustment via the HDMI data channel
  • Second correction path: TV and soundbar negotiate the delay between themselves
  • Main controller: detects which path is available and chooses automatically

What this means for soundbars and home theater setups

Lip sync errors are one of the most complained-about issues in home theater setups, and they're notoriously hard to fix because the problem can originate at any point in the chain — the source, the TV, or the speakers. Today, fixing it usually means manually adjusting an "audio delay" slider buried in a settings menu and guessing your way to a tolerable result.

If this system works as described, it means your TV takes ownership of the problem rather than leaving it to you. For Samsung, which sells both TVs and soundbars under its own brand, this kind of end-to-end coordination is a natural pitch — and a reason to keep everything in the Samsung ecosystem. Third-party devices that don't support the preferred correction protocol would still work, just via the fallback path.

Source: US 2026/0172622 A1 at the USPTO (PDF). Full patent text and figures are in the official publication.

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