Server Version#: 1.40.3.8555
Player Version#:1.63.163.-53e43905
Recently (probably in the last version of the Plex HTPC) I noticed a strange issue as follows: When set the “Audio Device Kind” as HDMI in order to passthrough the sound (without transcoding) I am experiencing strange interruptions in the sound.
My hardware:
Video card - INNO3D GeForce RTX 4060
CPU / PC - Intel NUC 12th Generation Ultimate
Amplifier - Denon AVC-X4700H
HDMI cables used between the PC, Amplifier and Display are of the highest possible quality.
I did a clean Windows 11 Pro install (which did not help) and then a completely fresh / new Windows 10 22H2 install - issue persists !
Nothing else is installed on the PC - just the necessary drivers, google Chrome and Plex HTPC (latest version).
Please let me know if you have any advice / clue - where can the problem be. Thank you in advance
Two things to try:
First, the power control in NVIDIA cards could lead to this. I had occasional dropouts (I found it more frequent around black or mostly black frames) in both audio passthrough and not and setting the NVIDIA control panel to Maximum Performance can fix this.
Second, try another HDMI cable. I had an instance a while back where I would have occasional audio drops and it drove me nuts trying to figure out what the issue was. I changed Windows settings, BIOS, and other things. It only stopped when I swapped the HDMI cable even though the previous one was high quality and had worked perfectly fine for years.
I should’ve tried this sooner because several years prior,I had a different HDMI cable go bad after being perfectly fine for years. So, HDMI cables can go bad and worth testing another cable just to make sure.
First if all. BIG THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge and experience !
I will definitely try both things you are suggesting and let you know. Indeed it looks like an Nvidia performance issue as it does not manifest itself every time and on the same place in a movie material. I was about to start swapping video cards as I was thinking that mine might be defect ( despite that it is less then 2 months old).
Thank you and I will follow up on this.
Hmm, I’m not sure that it is but my NVIDIA control panel may be different (I have a 20x0 series card). In mine, I went to Manage 3D settings on the right (which you appear to have) and that contains a long list of settings. I changed Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance.
@dancb2 and @gbooker02
Thank you both for clarifying this for me! I did find yesterday also independent YouTube video showing exactly the option you have directed me to !
Thank you again - I will keep testing till I get to the bottom of this.
It might be also material improperly encoded, because on some of these materials I am also getting MPC-HC sound stuttering
Will keep you posted.
