Audio drift on Windows 10

[leandronb]

Hi guys, i am using plex for a long time, and a problem that i always have is an audio drift. When i play a movie after a while the audio starts to be out of sync, and if i pause and unpause the audio gets back in sync, but after a while the same problem occurs. I am not sure what cause this, because sometimes i don’t have this problem, but lately is been a constant.

I use Plex media player (3.104.2) and doesn’t matter if is on TV mode or the normal mode, and if i enable the display switch option to go into 24hz mode, the problem is the same. I also downloaded the new Plex for windows (1.3.1.916-1cb2c34d) and have the same problem. I always use direct play, and don’t like using chrome because it can’t direct play everything and the sound gets lower. On TVs i don’t have this problem. I am using server version 1.18.0.1944-f2cae8d6b. Is there a fix for this? Lately i am selecting a movie in plex and watch it on media player classic with no issues.
I have a 3570k, 8gb ddr3, and plex on a 240gb SSD.

Thanks in advance.

[nibbles]

I think you’ve done a good job at narrowing this down to how the Plex playback application, mpv, is interacting with the operating system. It is used in both PMP and Plex for Windows. Because it’s happening with everything you play (is that correct?) that would be more evidence it’s something about your Windows that Plex is having a difficult time living with.

Do you have any VPN, antivirus, ESET, Malwarebytes, or other security software running? Tell us a bit about your Windows computer hardware.

You may have a subtle problem with your server, too. Would you get us some clean log files so we can check how it is booting up first of all?

• Set the PMS to log in debug mode but not verbose.
• Restart the Plex Media Server computer
• Get back to a desktop so that PMS is running for about 6min.
• After that time has passed, go into Settings - Troubleshooting and Download some log files for us. We need them in debug mode.

You can see the Settings in these:

Screenshots

And here is a general guide on posting personal info:

Posting Log Files

In an effort to help troubleshoot an issue you post about, you may be asked to post your log files. While posting your logs in the forum is optional, some issues cannot be investigated without logs to review. It may be difficult or impossible for the community to help you without your logs. We respect your privacy and want to ensure you are fully aware of what kind of personally identifiable information may be contained in your log files, so you can make an informed decision that best suits your…

[leandronb]

The only security software i have is windows defender. I am at the latest windows version, 1903, build 18362.418. I’m not sure if the problem occurs with everything i play. Some stuff i never watch with no pauses, like smaller tv shows episodes, and maybe when i pause, the audio gets synced again before i notice the delay. Movies it happens for sure, and don’t happen with Media player classic with madvr.

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-10-20_01-24-30.zip (2.4 MB)

[nibbles]

You logs show a good clean boot except for IPv6 is enabled and not helpful.
Make this change in your Settings - Show Advanced - Network

and

Then restart PMS and give it another 6min.

Now we’ll have you play a video until it goes out of sync.
Start PMP in desktop mode, and set Debug Level Enabled in your

Settings - Show Advanced - Debug

• then hit Save.
• Restart PMPlayer
• Switch to TV Mode
• Start playback until it goes out of sync
• While it’s playing press the letter Ito get the Information Overlay
• Look for dropped frames and signs of lag
• Screenshot it if you can. Not a big deal though.
• Stop playback.
• Wait 30sec
• Gather logs for player and server.
• Zip and attach everything with your reply

[leandronb]

I played a movie on TV mode and auto switch to 24hz disabled and for some reason the problem didn’t appeared this time. But i played the same movie in desktop mode but didn’t paused to sync the audio. The audio sync was getting worse over time. Then i paused and played again, the audio was synced. So i closed the movie and downloaded the logs. Just got the same logs the way i got the first time, not sure if the played log is included there, if is not let me know.
I will now try to reproduce the issue in tv mode and 24hz enabled.
Plex Media Server Logs_2019-10-20_12-56-49.zip (2.1 MB)

[nibbles]

Nothing bad at first look through that log. It only buffered once.
You might have to ffprobe your source media to see if there are any complaints.

[leandronb]

How can i do it? I just did another test on TV mode at 24hz, and the sync problem appeared again. I am using the same file in all the tests. I will try again in TV mode but without switching to 24hz to see if the problem appear or not. Last time it didn’t.
On desktop mode the problem appear in both 24 and 60hz mode.

[nibbles]

I’m guessing there’s an FFmpeg build for windows that gets you the commands ffmpeg and ffprobe available on the command line. If so then you would

ffprobe C:\temp\myvideo.mkv

or something like that.

You’re going to want to start capturing the player log too. The easy way to do that is start the player then do your tests. Then exit the player to make it save the log. You’ll only need to most recent one, as it starts a new log file each time you start the app.

[leandronb]

Found the log of the player. Played the same video again, it went out of sync, closed the video then after some seconds i closed the player and got the log.
I also made a copy of the file i was playing then i used ffprobe on it.
PlexMediaPlayer.log (221.3 KB)
ffprobe.txt (4.3 KB)

[nibbles]

That’s odd, stream 0 is audio according to FFprobe.

Usually it’s

0    video
1    audio
2    [audio/subs]
3    [audio/subs]
4    [...]