Server Version#: Version 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#: TBD - downloaded March 2, 2019
In general, do HT receivers prefer video and audio signal coming across HDMI cable? Can a receiver have a harder time staying in sync with PCM audio over HDMI if there is no video coming with the audio?
I have PLEX server on a Windows 10 laptop. The laptop is connected to HT receiver using HDMI cable. When listening to music files on the laptop, I don’t use the large 65" plasma TV connected to the HT receiver to control music playback. Instead I use the PLEX app on my iOS iPad. On the laptop, I open PLEX Media Player (PMP). On the iPad I then “cast” to the PMP program running on the laptop. I then start listening to music files that are on the Windows 10 laptop. The laptop transmits PCM to the HT receiver via HDMI cable.
I would like to listen to music files on laptop with the 65” TV turned off and I would like to close the lid of the laptop so that the laptop display powers down but the laptop keeps running the PLEX server and the PLEX Media Player.
I have set the laptop display settings to “duplicate” for display 1 (laptop) and display 2 (HDMI). So it is the same video (e.g. the music track album cover moving around) on the laptop display and on the TV connected to the HT receiver. I have set the laptop setting so that when you close the lid, the laptop will keep running. When I close the lid of the laptop, the laptop display powers down and there is also nothing but black on the TV connected to the HT receiver. This is exactly what I want. I had the TV powered on just to test. Normally the TV would be turned off and the laptop lid would be closed while I listen to music files on the laptop.
This all works perfectly except for random audio dropouts that last for one or two seconds. They can appear near the start of music file playback, in the middle of playback or near the end of playback. I can get two or three dropouts in one 4 minute music track or i can go 20 minutes (several music tracks) with no dropouts. Also it doesn’t seem to matter if mp3, Flac, wav and the resolution of the music file doesn’t seem to matter either (I will double check).
When I hear a dropout i will wait for music to start playing again and then I will hit the little “go back (rewind) 10 seconds” in the PLEX iPad iOS app. The music then starts playing again. The dropout never occurs a second time at the same spot after using rewind.
I need to do more experiments but I think this is what I observed last night.
If I close the lid of the laptop (no video signal being sent to receiver over HDMI), it seems like there were more times where the receiver would indicate loss of HDMI signal (the digital display on front of receiver would change for a few seconds then go back to Stereo). When this happens, the audio would stop playing for one or two seconds and then restart.
If I left the laptop display open so that the laptop was sending audio AND video (the PMP screen with album cover moving around) to the receiver over HDMI, there did not seem to be any audio dropouts (but I need to test more).
I am probably on the wrong track – it was late last night when I was testing this.
thanks
