Originally Posted by
Ravahn
If you are concerned about the encounter timeout setting affecting your results, just compare the encounter durations as well. If they are within 1-2 seconds of yours, then your timeout is fine and the discrepancy is something else. Note that the encounter timeout setting does not affect DPS itself - the encounter time does not keep ticking until it hits the timeout number. Instead, it represents the number of seconds from the last combat action to wait before finalizing the ACT encounter. The duration of the encounter is measured from the first combat action to the last combat action.
There is one major problem with the plugin when parsing from memory - Warrior heavy swing, and to a lesser extent some other abilities on War & Nin may get lost when you are playing those two classes yourself. This is due to the data disappearing from memory before it can be read by the plugin. Network parsing fixes this problem, which is why I added it even though it is a bit more complex to set up. If you're not using it, then I recommend you switch to it if you are able.
As for your specific question, it depends on the encounter. If there is a gap of 15 seconds in the middle of it, then your encounter timeout must be at least 17-18 seconds to be sure that ACT doesn't think the combat has ended. many people set it to 30 seconds for big fights, and reduce it to 5-10 for shorter zones.
You can always re-import an old log file using the ACT Import tab (not historyDB!) after changing your encounter timeout to see how it affects each encounter. The only other settings I can think that would affect parse comparisons would be combine-pets-with-owner and the "disabling combat log" option if you are parsing from memory (not network). Also, make sure the other people are in fact running ACT and not some other parser, since they each have varying degrees of accuracy.