Screen flickering when rendering new subtitle lines after a pause in full screen mode

[3choff]

When playing videos with subtitles enabled in the Stremio web interface in full-screen mode, the screen flickers at the moment when new subtitle text appears on the screen after a pause or gap with no subtitles showing. The flickering does not occur continuously throughout playback, but rather at the transition when subtitles reappear after a period of no subtitle text being displayed. This flickering issue occurs regardless of the display's refresh rate (tested on a 60Hz monitor).

Steps to Reproduce:

• Open the Stremio web interface
• Play any video with subtitles enabled
• Switch to full-screen mode
• Observe the screen flickering when new subtitle lines appear after a pause or gap in the subtitle stream.

Additional Context

• The flickering only occurs at the specific moment when new subtitle text renders after a pause, not during continuous subtitle display.
• The issue persists using either Chrome or Edge browsers
• The issue persists even after disabling hardware acceleration in the browser.
• The issue does not occur when playing the same video without subtitles or in windowed mode.
• I have tried forcing software decoding in the browser, but the issue remains.

[kKaskak]

Hi, I couldn't replicate the issue on my device. Can you send a screen recording of the problem? Thanks

[3choff]

Hi, I did some more testing, and it seems that an older Chrome version, 119.0.6045.160, is not affected by the issue. I also did a clean install of the latest version, but I still have the problem. When attempting to screen capture the issue, the flickering stops and does not reappear until the browser is rebooted. This sounds odd to me, but ChatGPT assumes that screen capturing might be altering resource allocation, rendering paths, synchronization, or driver interactions in a way that temporarily mitigates the issue.
Anyway, if the issue is not reproducible on other machines, it might just be me, and this issue can be closed.
Thank you for looking into it.

[kKaskak]

Can you just in case provide me with the version of chrome which the issue happened on? Thanks again

[3choff]

I have it with the Chrome version 125.0.6422.61, before I had it also with version 124 but I did not take note of the exact version. Also, Edge version 125.0.2535.51 seems to suffer from the issue.

[israelestevao]

Hi, I did some more testing, and it seems that an older Chrome version, 119.0.6045.160, is not affected by the issue. I also did a clean install of the latest version, but I still have the problem. When attempting to screen capture the issue, the flickering stops and does not reappear until the browser is rebooted. This sounds odd to me, but ChatGPT assumes that screen capturing might be altering resource allocation, rendering paths, synchronization, or driver interactions in a way that temporarily mitigates the issue. Anyway, if the issue is not reproducible on other machines, it might just be me, and this issue can be closed. Thank you for looking into it.

Actually, I believe you are not the only one with this issue. It is annoyingly happening to me too.
As well as, I believe with other people in other contexts outside Stremio app. Like some other streaming online websites.
As you can see in this thread in Reddit also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/pwwcp5/screen_flashes_when_i_put_on_subtitles_how_can_i/?rdt=58348

I still can't find a solution that works for me.
If anybody would have any hint, please post here. 🙏🙂

[kKaskak]

Since this is not happening only in Stremio, it's likely a software issue on your side, as you mentioned. We aren't able to help in this case. I will leave the issue open for now if anybody finds a solution. I don't have a MacBook to test this bug.

[kKaskak]

Actually, this might help you: https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/17y34s5/video_playback_on_chrome_is_choppystuttering_mac/