Delay Time between Audio and Video



Maximum acceptable Delay Times between Video and Audio Signals, Audio - Video - Synchronization


So-called "Lip-Sync" errors occur if the audio and the video signal is not in sync with each other, audio follows video behind or video follows audio behind. It is described and standardized in ITU-R BT.1359-1.

Maximum acceptable delay times between video and audio signals, as defined by the EBU (Recomm R37), ITU (J100), EBU (Tech 3311), ITU (R-BT1359):


production step max. delay time, video follows audio max. delay time, audio follows video
production 5 ms 15 ms
international program exchange 20 ms 40 ms
distribution 40 ms 60 ms
at the end user 90 ms 185 ms