[kaneelschep]

Hi all!

I have a very weird issue.
I have kodi 19.3 on a laptop connected to a projector by vga cable. The projector is an extended screen, not duplicated.
Resolution is hd. 1920x1080. native resolution for projector.
When I play any video with subtitles, the subtitles disappear after a little while. max 2 minutes. When I fast forward or rewind, they come back for a little. and disappear again.
As long as I click Fforward or rewind after they are gone, they will keep coming back and disappearing.

When I play the video on the laptop itself without the projector connected, the subtitles never disappear.
The resolution of the laptop and kodi on it is 1366x768.

When I play 720p video on the projector, the subtitles also stay like normal.
It only seems to be with 1080p.

Anyone has an idea?
Thanks a lot!

[TimeZone]

Hi @kaneelschep 

I don't know what may be causing this so someone with an idea will explain but have you tried displaying only one screen as a workaround? You said that whenever you use the laptops display, you don't see this problem. Have you also tried the projector display only. So instead of using Extended, use Display 2 only (assuming the laptops internal display is 1 and projector is 2). This way, your laptops internal display is turned off, and the projector becomes primary display.

I have learnt that using duplicate is the worst method, using extended is better but using only one display is best. With duplicate method, your projector would have been limited to the laptop's resolution, so both the laptop and projector display at 1366x768. Using extended, the projector can go upto 1080p. But using only the second display in my case, I get upto 4K HDR, the max resolution of the external display. If I use extended can't reach max res.

[Klojum]

Technically there is no reason why Kodi would start displaying subtitles, and them not appear 'after a minute', and even reappear after a FF or RW. That would then have to happen on every screen on your setup, or on all other setups. And I haven't experienced anything like that. The only reason I can come up is that your screen resolution fluctuates (which would be bonkers as well) and that your subtitles would vanish 'under water'. That, or you are using a faulty, incomplete subtitle.

Normally, Kodi would only support duplication when using multiple screens, and all screens would have to have the same screen resolution. On laptop setups with different displays it would be preferable to have the output display as the main OS display, so that Kodi will pick that one first, as already suggested above.

[kaneelschep]

I played around a bit more and just started changing the resolution downwards to see what would happen.
Only when i got to the same resolution as the laptop, 1366x768, the issue is gone.
with that resolution subtitles work like normal again for all video.

The laptop is not my normal media center. Its just a temporary replacement for a pi4. The HDMI capable receiver died on me, so I had to use something that uses rca audio and a VGA cable.
And we sometimes need to quickly use this laptop for something while the kids are watching something on kodi. Therefor its on extended and not on duplicated.
Anyway.
Its a weird thing. but this is 'a' solution. Which is the same as duplicating the screen I guess. Like suggested.

I will also try your solution of using only the projector screen and turning the laptop monitor of. But like I said, this goes a bit against the way we have to use it. 
Another HDMI receiver will soon come I hope. The pi4 is a much more elegant solution and works great as a media center!

Edit. The subtitles are fine. I tried it with a lot of different video. We even used vlcplayer instead of kodi as a workaround. And had no issues.

Thanks!

[kaneelschep]

Using the projector as only screen didnt work. It took longer before the subtitles dissapeared, but they still did. From then on it was the same. rewind or ff and they were back for a short while.
Duplication results in the same as my solution of changing the resolution to the same as the laptop.



Thanks!