[Question]: MQTT vs .HTTP event start_time and end_time difference

[glossyio]

What is your question:

I am monitoring MQTT events of type: "end" to notify me when I have a "completed" event and process that information for determining how long an object was in the field of view and attach it to other readings, so timestamp of start_time and end_time are critical to this.
I am also requesting the HTTP API (/api/events/<id>) for that event to pull back the thumbnail to display on an external dashboard. This is where I noticed the start_time and end_time for the MQTT end do not match the corresponding HTTP API. In the few sample I checked, it looks like the HTTP API is exactly 5-seconds later (greater) than the MQTT end .after times (see below).

Shouldn't these MQTT type:end .after and HTTP event values be the same? Is the HTTP API more accurate than the MQTT values? Am I totally misunderstanding the use of one or both?

Sample payload:

"event_api": {
    "id": "1712785029.806161-7s7dfw",
    "start_time": 1712785024.806161,
    "end_time": 1712785037.604645,
    ...
}
"after": {
    ...
    "id": "1712785029.806161-7s7dfw",
    "start_time": 1712785029.806161,
    "end_time": 1712785032.604645,
    ...
}

[NickM-27]

this is because there is a default post_capture for events which extends the time of the event. the /events mqtt topic does not include this since it is about the object itself not the recording

[glossyio]

OH, sorry, I see that now: the HTTP API has the additional 5 seconds on both ends (I thought it was merely shifted back).

So, the HTTP API start_time and end_time fields represent the object with the post_capture times. The MQTT fields represent the actual object. MQTT sounds like the one I want for my purposes.
Thank you.