Windows 10: Broken Video Playback on Lower Refresh Rate Monitor

To start off, I'm not exactly sure when this issue started; I've had 2 monitors for a few years, the primary being a 1080p 144hz panel, the secondary a 1080p 60hz panel. However, after a long vacation and not playing any games (where refresh rate would be more noticeable), I hadn't noticed the primary monitor's refresh rate was set back down to 60hz. Once I set it back to 144hz, I started to have issues.


Videos that I watched back many times before, all of a sudden had issues. Strange stuttering and frame skipping (if the frames were numbered, the playback would be: 1,2,5,3,4,6, etc. It wouldn't just skip and call it quits on the skipped frames, it would come back to them, making the video impossible to watch), along with slow downs (instead of 30fps, it would drop down to those 30 frames over 1.5-2 seconds, before speeding back up and recovering), makes video playback on the second monitor impossible. I've performed tests at a variety of frame rates, with it being quite consistent. 30 & lower makes the slowdowns more apparent, while 60fps just jumps all over the place.


This also had an effect on videos in-browser (FireFox), but this was much more minimal. Videos looked slightly off, but not anywhere near to the same extent. It also seemed to entirely go away once I turned off hardware acceleration on FireFox.


The only fixes I've found are to play all videos on the primary screen, or set the primary screen back to 60hz. Even for a video window opened on the secondary, if it's moved to the primary, issues will immediately go away. Setting the primary screen back to 60hz also fixes the issues, but is quite a poor option, as I'm effectively stopped from using the feature that I paid extra for.


In case there are any hardware questions, I'm using a custom build desktop, Intel 6600k, Nvidia GTX1070, and 16GB of memory. Both monitors are of course connected to the GPU, and while watching videos, none of the computer's resources are anywhere near being maxed out. Running the latest graphics driver from Nvidia, as well as the latest Windows update.


Any help with this regard would be great. Sorry if this isn't the correct category, it just seemed like it fit best.

:)

 

Refresh rate Problem

Hi Robert,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Screen refresh rate is the rate at which the data displayed on screen is refreshed; it may be an image or some text document. Most of the users would like to set it to a higher rate but this also depends on the capacity of graphic
card and monitors. If the refresh rate is slow, the images on the display looks as flickering to the user eye and makes it uncomfortable to work.

Nowadays the latest monitors available in market will have minimum 60 Hz of refresh rate and it is very good option to set it to 70 Hz if you your monitor is compatible. Normally a high performance or quality monitors can reach
120 Hz of refresh rate. So I would suggest you to set your monitor refresh rate as higher as possible, below given steps describes how to access this feature on your Windows 8.1/10 PC.

• The default refresh rate setting is 60 Hertz (HZ); however, your monitor may support a higher setting. Check your manufacturer's documentation for information about the settings that your monitor supports.
• If you use a higher refresh rate, you can reduce the rate that your screen flickers; however, if you specify a refresh rate that is too high for your monitor, your screen may become unusable and your hardware may be damaged.
• Changes to the refresh rate affect all users that log on to the computer.

I would, as of now, suggest you to visit the computer manufacturer's support website and install the latest display and chipset drivers available for the latest operating system (currently it would be 8.1 in the list).

Hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.

 

high-refresh-rate-displays-60hz-and-netflixamazon

Hi Stephen,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I can imagine the inconvenience you are experiencing and will certainly help you in the right direction to fix the issue. However, I would appreciate if you could answer a few questions to narrow down the issue in order to provide you with better assistance.

1. What is the make and model of the computer?
2. What is the Windows 10 version and Build installed? (Type winver in Windows search/Run command) to provide the details.
   

The maximum refresh rate you can use depends on your monitor. If you have multiple monitors connected to your PC, each has its own separate refresh rate setting.



I would suggest you to try the below suggested methods and check if it helps.



Method 1

Check your Cables

Some monitors may have both HDMI and DisplayPort connections, but may be limited to a 60Hz refresh rate when connected via HDMI. In this case, you'd need to use a DisplayPort cable. Check your monitor's specifications or setup guide for more information.



If you're using HDMI, you'll want to ensure you're using a "high speed" HDMI cable and not an older "standard" HDMI cable.

In this scenario I would suggest you to replace the cable with the higher quality display and check the status of the issue.





Method 2

Update Graphics driver

Integrated graphics or older discrete graphics might not support your monitor's refresh rate. Be sure your graphics card supports the monitor's resolution and refresh rate. You need to update your Graphics drivers.

Refer the article
Update drivers in Windows 10 for the steps.



If the issue still persists, I suggest you to get in touch with the manufacturer support for the further assistance.





Regards,

Muralidhar

Microsoft Community Moderator

 

monitor refresh rate


Hello hkatlady, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Double check using the tutorial below to see if it may be able to help you set your monitor refresh rate to what it should be.

*Arrow Change Screen Refresh Rate of Display in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials