I made a simple testing system with Ableton and Isadora. Ableton outputs MTC (via the LiveMTC add-on) directly to Isadora, which is running a simple set with MTC Movie Locker, Movie Player and a Projector. I've also tested a second version with Ableton outputting LTC, which is then converted to MTC with Lockstep (I'm on a Mac) before Isadora receives it. Ableton also has the same video on a track, so I can compare them both and see how locked they are.

The thing is: I've noticed that there's always some delay between the moment I press play in Ableton and the moment Isadora starts following the timecode. And the worst part: this delay is always a bit different. Sometimes up to three whole frames, sometimes less than one. So there's no way for me to just add an offset. I've checked the FPS and everything matches. What could be causing this? Is that something I have to deal with or are there ways to troubleshoot/fix this? Thanks in advance.

@milt0n i ran it via proton on steamdeck. Wouldn’t have considered it stable or that usable but it worked. Tried launching it since and it doesn’t seem to work now. I wanted to see how capable steamdeck was for projects out of curiosity