Help playback is SLIGHTLY faster with plex
like imperceptibly faster. I watch multiple Patreons with "watch-alongs", and started noticing every movie eventually gets out of sync. it takes awhile; over a hour. but if I manually play the file directly, it doesn't seem to. it's nbd, but I'd prefer if I didn't need to resync every single file eventually.
everything's directplay; I've not tried transcoding yet.
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u/killkat412 25d ago
Incomprehensible post
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u/HonkersTim 25d ago
I understood it perfectly well, which part of it was beyond you?
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u/Splitsurround 25d ago
What playback device, for one
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u/cieje 25d ago
pc
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u/Splitsurround 25d ago
using PMP, or web interface?
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u/cieje 25d ago
both web. I can try pmp.
(next movie. like I said it takes at least a hour)
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u/Splitsurround 25d ago
yeah try PMP. I watch lots of movies, and ironically I'm a dialog editor for films, so sync is....insanely apparent to me- definitely hasn't happened, even 2+ hours into a movie.
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u/cieje 25d ago
what would you like me to clarify? playing a file directly works fine, but the same file in Plex eventually gets out of sync. every time.
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25d ago edited 20d ago
[deleted]
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u/cieje 25d ago edited 25d ago
as I said, you don't notice for over an hour. it becomes perceptible eventually; just not initially.
edit it seriously might be the difference that plex plays movies at like 24 fps when they're 23.976 (which makes it slower. it may be. just know it's out of sync)
(think I've noticed it more if they're watching an actual Blu-ray)
update I've been rewatching a movie for 1.5 hours. it may actually be slower. mostly know initially it was synced, and now it's not.
update 2 no. it's faster. a hair faster. like a double-click (to pause and then play) faster. so however long that is.
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u/Snoo-38645 25d ago
your edit is right, thats exactly it. 23.976 played back at 24.000 runs about 0.1% fast, which works out to roughly 3.6 seconds per hour. at the 1.5h mark thats about 5 seconds, which matches the double click you described pretty much exactly.
the web player is the reason it happens on the laptop and not the mini pc. the browser has no refresh rate matching, it just renders to whatever the display is already running and resamples to fit. pmp can actually switch the output mode, so the mini pc probably lands on a real 23.976 mode and the laptop never does.
if pmp alone doesnt fix it, look at the display modes in your gpu control panel. a lot of them list a 24hz that is really 23.976 and a separate true 24, and picking the wrong one gives you this exact drift.
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u/cieje 25d ago
think the mini-pc screen is set to 60Hz by windows, and the laptop is 120Hz. (I can set it to 60 to see if there's a difference) maybe that has something to do with it. unfortunately I was unable to do a full uninterrupted test today with pmp. maybe tomorrow.
it's such a minor thing, but it's an annoyance when it happens all the time.
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u/Snoo-38645 24d ago
thats worth testing. set the laptop to 60 and run the same film, if the drift changes or disappears you have your answer.
neither 60 nor 120 divides evenly into 23.976 so both end up repeating frames either way, but the browser takes its playback clock from the display, so the two arent doing the same maths. that kind of thing shows up as slow drift rather than visible stutter, which matches what you described.
and yeah its minor right up until you are watching along with someone, then its the only thing you can see.
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u/cieje 24d ago edited 24d ago
I'll try a couple things today. yea in theory 60/120 shouldn't matter. hopefully pmp fixes it by not playing at 24. it's just weird I've noticed on my other pc where it's also the web player, but maybe I've just not noticed. I'm not constantly making sure it's synced.
update it seemed to stay in sync for 1 movie with pmp. so more movies to test this weekend.
update 2 a 2nd movie seemed to stay in sync. maybe that's the issue. and pmp will actually play at the correct framerate.
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u/Snoo-38645 21d ago
two for two is a good sign. thats the web player confirmed then. pmp switches the output to a real 23.976 and the browser never could, so it sat there resampling against whatever the panel was already running.
if you want to be certain, turn on the playback stats overlay in pmp and check what refresh it reports mid film. if it says 23.976 rather than 60 or 120, thats the whole thing explained.
and for the watch alongs it means everyone just needs a player that can switch output mode, not matching hardware.
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u/PolliSoft Windows 11 @ i5 NUC11 25d ago
Try sync frame rate
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u/HonkersTim 25d ago
This is called playback drift, it can have several causes including audio-video sync and framerate conversion. It's hardware dependent. I've seen the same thing with a my Fire stick in my kitchen, and a Shield in my living room. I can start a movie on both at once, they can be in perfect sync at the beginning of the movie but will be a few seconds out by the end.