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Having Bluetooth "Handsfree" and A2DP connected at same time causing severe skipping

Having Bluetooth "Handsfree" and A2DP connected at same time causing severe skipping
Hi....I know there are a lot of posts regarding skipping while playing MP3s over A2DP. My problem is perhaps a little bit different because I've narrowed my problem down to the handsfree bluetooth service.
Here's my situation with my unlocked HTC TyTN II using the stock HTC ROM and with no registiry modifications (bitpool, etc)
If I have only A2DP connected and streaming music to an external bluetooth receiver the MP3 playback is flawless. It sounds fantastic. I've tried Windows Media Player, PocketMusic, and PocketPlayer and they all work just great.
However, when I turn on my handsfree headset (which is a separate device from my A2DP receiver) and allow it to connect to my TyTN II, extreme stuttering immediately occurs through the A2DP music stream. When I shut off my handsfree headset the stuttering stops and the music stream returns to its usual fantastic sound. The problem can be replicated also by leaving the handsfree headset powered ON and simply enabling handsfree service on the HTC TyTN II to cause the stuttering to begin. The stuttering stops immediately when handsfree service is subsequently disabled.
Anyone else out their experience this? Any suggestions? For the time being I have to resort to disabling handsfree when streaming music to my A2DP bluetooth receiver.

Skipping/Cutting out/Speeding Up/Slowing down
Not much to add other than 'Me Too!' and thanks for tracking this down since i thought i was going nuts since I've had a couple of times where i thought i had it resolved only for it to crop up again.
Are you also experiencing your A2DP audio speeding up and slowing down along with the audio cutting out? since to me that is the most bizarre of all of the audio freakery going on.
I found my Logitech handsfree less likely to cause cut outs when on than my Jawbone does. but neither were trouble free.

Just an update for those that may experience the same problem as me. I've noticed that sometimes I have perfect audio even though I am connected to my handsfree car system while streaming music via A2DP. So this leads me to believe that bitpool settings and such are not the issue...since the perfect audio can occur with the default settings. I have also heard in other threads that flashing a new radio may help...but haven't gone to that measure yet.
What I have been able to determine is that this horrible skipping/stuttering occurs when my phone is changing cell phone towers.
That is, if
1) Streaming audio over bluetooth via A2DP
AND
2) Tytn II also connected to a handsfree device
then A2DP skips horribly when the phone needs to switch cell towers.
I have confirmed this by using the program PhoneAlarm to log the cell phone towers my phone is connected to. My A2DP stuttering/skipping problem coincides with every change in cell phone tower.
Now having said all this there is still one other factor that plays into it that I haven't quite figured out. If I soft reset my device and then immediately connect to my car and A2DP stereo then I do not get the stuttering problem when changing cell phone towers. However if I spend the day using the device, active-syncing and such at work, then on the drive home I will ALWAYS get the stuttering during every cell phone tower hand-over.
Frustrating. Anyway...hopefully I'll eventually figure out the last piece of the puzzle. I would rather not have to soft reset every time I get in my car just so that I can get good audio.
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hondophred said:
Are you also experiencing your A2DP audio speeding up and slowing down along with the audio cutting out? since to me that is the most bizarre of all of the audio freakery going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do recall getting this behaviour when using Windows Media player...but I have started using the new Pocket Player and have since never experienced the audio slow down problem.

I found a work-around that works for me. It's posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1990783#post1990783

Yet another A2DP skipping problem
Rumball said:
I do recall getting this behaviour when using Windows Media player...but I have started using the new Pocket Player and have since never experienced the audio slow down problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seem to have related but a different problem with skipping.
I have both Sony and goldlantern BT headphones which i tried (stereo profile).
Both severely skip audio when located on the left side of my belt. Silly but the reception/skipping problems improves a GREAT deal when i move it to the right side. It works flawlessly inside of the building where i have no phone signal but outside -- it skips horribly, even worse after 6.1rom upgrade.
Can anyone confirm that the BT signal going through the body worsens skipping? If so, I assume the signal strength/BT/wireless channel may be at fault, not the tower switching as for me, it happens even when I stay stationary.
Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED!
TILT - R2 VEGA WM6.1 CE OS 5.2.19209 (Build 19209.1.0.2) ROM

I think part of the problem can be the A2DP device as well. I had a pair ofr HT 820 older bluetooth headsets with A2DP that were skipping and annoying. I went out and bought some s9s and the problem went away. I figured just for a test I would try the HT820 out again, still skipping. So for me it was not the phone but the A2DP device.

jallenclark said:
I think part of the problem can be the A2DP device as well. I had a pair ofr HT 820 older bluetooth headsets with A2DP that were skipping and annoying. I went out and bought some s9s and the problem went away. I figured just for a test I would try the HT820 out again, still skipping. So for me it was not the phone but the A2DP device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought that too but i have two different headsets from two different manufacturers, both are skipping the same...

A2DP requires a lot of the bandwidth Bluetooth can provide. Having a 2nd connection open simply exceeds what the Bluetooth chip can handle, no surprise in that. If the BT headset keeps the connection open it's very likely to happen.

kilrah said:
A2DP requires a lot of the bandwidth Bluetooth can provide. Having a 2nd connection open simply exceeds what the Bluetooth chip can handle, no surprise in that. If the BT headset keeps the connection open it's very likely to happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean by a SECOND CONNECTION?
i have 2 different headsets because i thought that i have a poor headset, but both work similarly bad, which makes me think it is the tilt, not the headphones. i do not have 2 connections, never has it and not even sure if it is possible....
Lowering of bitrate did not help at all.....
Anyone have experienced these problems? anyone is using BT headset besides motorola s9?

On mine it does it when it picks up a wi-fi hotspot. When I'm driving the wi-fi is on when the screen is and whenever I pass a hot spot it drops out. Turning the wi-fi off solved it. Don't know if it does it with cell towers.

gs465 said:
what do you mean by a SECOND CONNECTION?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thread was initially about skipping when BOTH an A2DP stereo headset AND a BT handsfree were connected at the same time, as the title shows. I was commenting on that.
Other than this, when I want to listen to music I can leave the Kaiser in my room and walk around in my entire flat with the headphones on without skipping (around 10-15m straight line, with some walls).
However, Wifi must not be active and communicating, otherwise either / both of them will drop. If I'm using Wifi and start streaming audio via A2DP, the wifi will slow down a lot and sometimes disconnect. In the same way if Wifi is communicating the audio will skip. If both of them are active but one is idle everything's fine. But that's also normal as both share the same frequencies and will step on each other. When usage is low it's not noticeable but when both are using a lot of bandwidth then they will disturb each other.
The cell radio doesn't seem to cause any problems for me.

Music Thru Car BlueTooth

Is there a app that will allow music to play thru the Bluetooth in my car?
I have a stock radio that has bluetooth, I can make & receive calls in my car using the bluetooth. However I can NOT play music on my phone and hear it thru my car speakers.
Is there a app solution to this or something else to get this to work
TIA

I would love this...

also I

I'm not understanding the question. Any music player on the G1 (with 1.5) can play music over AD2P through your car headunit. I do it all the time. I can also pause/play and track-forward/back using the headunit's controls.

beartard said:
I'm not understanding the question. Any music player on the G1 (with 1.5) can play music over AD2P through your car headunit. I do it all the time. I can also pause/play and track-forward/back using the headunit's controls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all bluetooth devices support the a2dp profile, some just act as a headset, I've seen similar requests for people wanting audio streamed to a blue tooth headset that doesn't support a2dp either.

As long as your running 1.5 and the latest radio that goes with it, you should be able to get A2DP working without any other applications. Just pair up your car stereo with your phone and it should automatically detect the profile and start piping audio through.

delta_foxtrot2 said:
Not all bluetooth devices support the a2dp profile, some just act as a headset, I've seen similar requests for people wanting audio streamed to a blue tooth headset that doesn't support a2dp either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, I believe my car stereo does NOT support A2DP. I have no problems playing/hearing music thru my Motorola HT820 or my PC.
As you can see (attachment)
DAVID-G: is my PC
Bluetooth Handsfree: is my car
Motorola HT820: is my headset

Lakers3408 said:
Exactly, I believe my car stereo does NOT support A2DP. I have no problems playing/hearing music thru my Motorola HT820 or my PC.
As you can see (attachment)
DAVID-G: is my PC
Bluetooth Handsfree: is my car
Motorola HT820: is my headset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long press "Bluetooth Handsfree" and select options. Under profiles you should see a Media profile and it should be checked. If you do not see this, your stereo does not support A2DP.
edit: If your stereo has a line out jack, you can get something like this to make your system A2DP capable without buying a whole new stereo.

Datruesurfer said:
Long press "Bluetooth Handsfree" and select options. Under profiles you should see a Media profile and it should be checked. If you do not see this, your stereo does not support A2DP.
edit: If your stereo has a line out jack, you can get something like this to make your system A2DP capable without buying a whole new stereo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip
I checked under options and it does not show a "Media" profile
My stereo does have a line out jack, but Im not sure I want to spend $100+ on a gadget.
Im hoping some bright app developer can make a app to some how trick my stereo into thinking its a call as my phone plays music
Wishful thinking? I think not, Im sure someone can make it work. I do remember when people said transfering files via Bluetooth was impossible! But now we can with Bluex.

Lakers3408 said:
Thanks for the tip
I checked under options and it does not show a "Media" profile
My stereo does have a line out jack, but Im not sure I want to spend $100+ on a gadget.
Im hoping some bright app developer can make a app to some how trick my stereo into thinking its a call as my phone plays music
Wishful thinking? I think not, Im sure someone can make it work. I do remember when people said transfering files via Bluetooth was impossible! But now we can with Bluex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not possible. The way bluetooth works is that the both devices have to have the same profile in common to communicate with each other. Your phone supports it, your car stereo does not. With OBEX, other devices supported it but the phone did not. To get this working you would either need to hack your stereo to enable the A2DP profile, get a bluetooth gateway (like what I have) or get a new stereo receiver that supports A2DP out of the box.
From experience I can say that the gateway is the best option. I got mine on sale for under $50 at buy.com and it works beautifully. My phone automatically pairs with it when my car turns on and I can make/receive calls as well as listen to music no problem.

Datruesurfer said:
To get this working you would either need to hack your stereo to enable the A2DP profile, get a bluetooth gateway (like what I have) or get a new stereo receiver that supports A2DP out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He already said other handsets support sending audio to BT devices that don't support A2DP, it's just a matter if the underlying Android OS supports sending audio streaming to non-A2DP devices, eg faking a phone call basically, or not. Or if it can easily be hacked in by someone.
I'm guessing this may require screwing about with the underlying OS code, an app alone may not be able to do it without OS support.

At least I understand the question better now You want an app developer to create something that allows the phone to make up for what's lacking in your headunit.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the "headset" profile mono by definition? Are you cool with giving up stereo and audio quality just to get your music over bluetooth to your headunit?
I won't say it's not possible. I've been wrong before on pronouncements like that. But app development is driven by need in the Android world (usually the developer's need first). I hope there's a big enough need that someone will help you out.

beartard said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the "headset" profile mono by definition? Are you cool with giving up stereo and audio quality just to get your music over bluetooth to your headunit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same arguments are made about MP3 v lossless compression, and it turns out people do accept these sort of limitations after all
I don't know enough about the bluetooth standards to even know where to begin making such an app, and I don't plan to start reading up to find out
While not as cheap as a BT audio gateway option, but you can get an inline BT attachment to suit non-BT enabled car radios to support A2DP and for those of you still using phones to talk to others you can even use it as a hands free car kit which uses the car speaks...
http://www.parrot.com/catalogue/catalog/products/parrot-mki9100/

I'm glad my unit already does this. But I never use it.

Its worse than just being mono... headset profile is actually a much lower quality... phone quality.

Bluetooth A2DP Audio Gateways
I've been trying to do the same thing as OP, except my stereo does NOT have bluetooth. It does have an aux in down by the cigarette lighter. I've been googling like a fool and researching available bluetooth gateways, thanks to the poster that pointed us towards that Kensington unit. I'm not willing to spend $100 US on this functionality. I have, however, found a nice little device I plan to pick up soon.
RIM Blackberry Bluetooth Audio Gateway
Check it out here: http://www.daydeal.com/product.php?productid=20932
Hope this helps OP and any others that may have similar issues.

supremeteam256 said:
I'm glad my unit already does this. But I never use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL your missing out... 16gb sd card and you can for get about using other mp3 player. *couch ipod couch zune couch*
anyway there's a long tread about 3.5 bluetooth dongle Here

I know it's old, but in case anyone stumbles on this thread, try btmono (an app on Google play) It puts audio through a mono headset such as that described above. Cheers

[Q] Any bluetooth settings/adjustments available?

I picked up a Vivid over the weekend and overall I'm thrilled. The only area that is lacking is BT quality when paired with my car stereo (Pioneer AVIC-Z110 updated to the Z130 firmware). Granted, these units have gotten bad reviews for their BT quality, HOWEVER, my old device worked well. I used to have an HTC "Pure" running Windows Mobile and got no complaints for call quality.
My wife now says that this phone is echoing really badly. I can't hear it on my end, all sounds well. When I disable BT and just call her directly from the handset, all is well.
Are there any tweaks or settings that can be changed in Android and on the Vivid specifically? I read about someone adjusting the "BT gain" before they paired their device, but I can't find such a setting.
Thanks,
-Brett.

+1 on this. My stereo has a Mic volume adjust that helps a little, but it seems to be bad when I'm on the highway. Though I've always had this problem with Android. my old windows 6.5 phones were just fine.

Another Solution
Instead of using BT for music from my phone, I just hit the Sirius/XM button on the sound system, or plug my iPod directly into the sound system. Of course, I had to buy a new vehicle to get this capability.
PS: The Vivid does work well via BT for hands-free phone calls, also built into the new vehicle.

brucegil said:
Instead of using BT for music from my phone, I just hit the Sirius/XM button on the sound system, or plug my iPod directly into the sound system. Of course, I had to buy a new vehicle to get this capability.
PS: The Vivid does work well via BT for hands-free phone calls, also built into the new vehicle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I re-read my first post and realized I might not have been as clear as I could be. I'm speaking strictly about phone call quality, not BT audio streaming. I tried audio streaming once and it sounded OK, but that's not what I'm referring to here.
When talking on the phone using the Pioneer AVIC z110 as a BT headset the person that I'm calling reports a lot of echo on their end, to the point where it's almost unusable. Things sound mostly fine on my end.
So the question stands - are there any (hidden?) settings or adjustments that can be made on the Vivid, or in Android in general?
Thanks,
-Brett.

not to my knowledge, no adjustments. But if you're using your headset, have you used it on other phones without this problem? If there's an echo, it makes me think maybe the phone mic is active while it should be only the BT mic that is. Maybe try covering the phone mic with your thumb or something and ask the person on the other end if that does anything to take away the echo?

Yea I'm getting the same feedback about phone calls. Music quality is great except when I use navigation. My streak would lower music when it would speak instructions. My vivid doesn't.

Reclaim said:
Yea I'm getting the same feedback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pun intended?

radi0chik said:
not to my knowledge, no adjustments. But if you're using your headset, have you used it on other phones without this problem? If there's an echo, it makes me think maybe the phone mic is active while it should be only the BT mic that is. Maybe try covering the phone mic with your thumb or something and ask the person on the other end if that does anything to take away the echo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used the same BT setup on my old Windows Mobile phone with no complaints.
Maybe you're on to something. I had assumed that the phone would mute its internal microphone when connected to a BT device. Maybe that's not the case? I'll try covering the phone's mic and see if that makes a difference.
Thanks,
-Brett.

No luck. I tried both covering the Mic and taking the phone out of the car entirely. It made no difference in call quality.
Next step is to pair my wife's blackberry to the car and see if that works better. Need to determine if it's the phone or the car.
:: Sent from my HTC Vivid via Tapatalk

radi0chik said:
Pun intended?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a real comedian lol
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA App

zzoinks said:
I re-read my first post and realized I might not have been as clear as I could be. I'm speaking strictly about phone call quality, not BT audio streaming. I tried audio streaming once and it sounded OK, but that's not what I'm referring to here.
When talking on the phone using the Pioneer AVIC z110 as a BT headset the person that I'm calling reports a lot of echo on their end, to the point where it's almost unusable. Things sound mostly fine on my end.
So the question stands - are there any (hidden?) settings or adjustments that can be made on the Vivid, or in Android in general?
Thanks,
-Brett.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for being a smart-aleck. Actually, on a hand-free BT call last night I noticed a bit of an echo. I need to make some more calls to see if it continues. I never had that with the HD2 in 15 montrhs of use. Also, I noticed that the phone rings directly as well as through the car's sound system when I recieve a call. Again, I don't remember my HD2 doing that.

Minor update: I've found that it might be related to the Android Bluetooth in call volume setting. It seems like if I lower the volume during a call (via the volume rocker on the phone, not form the car's head unit) it helps with the echo problem. The problem is that this volume level resets itself to the max every time I pair with the car.
Is there any way to force Android to keep a lower volume level for the BT headset? I tried an app called Bluetooth Volume, but it didn't affect the BT Headset volume.
Thanks,
-Brett.

[Q] Audio and video out of synch when using Bluetooth - any suggestions?

Hello all.
I'm having problems with Bluetooth on my One. The device that I'm trying to use with it is called a Siemens MiniTek. (It's actually a hearing-aid accessory. You clip to the front of your shirt - it looks a bit like an MP3 player - and it plus my hearing aids together then function like a Bluetooth headset. So, when making a call, the sound is sent wirelessly to the hearing aids, and the device itself has a microphone on it.)
Making a call with it works okay; but if I try to use it to get audio out of my One in other conditions (playing a game, say, or watching downloaded video) then the video and audio are always badly out of synch - the sound lags at least one second behind the picture.
I'm using the stock HTC ROM, the latest one available in the UK (2.24.401.8).
Anyone have any thoughts as to why this might be happening and what I can do about it?

Mby there is too much data to deliver via bluetooth (high quality audi/video sound) and the hearing aid device is not meant to recive such a load.
When calling to some1, the sound quality is only like 24kbps or something.
Just a thought

Rendoqoz said:
Mby there is too much data to deliver via bluetooth (high quality audi/video sound) and the hearing aid device is not meant to recive such a load.
When calling to some1, the sound quality is only like 24kbps or something.
Just a thought
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might result in there either being no sound at all or in the sound quality being very poor, but I don't see that it would result in reasonable-quality sound running 1 second behind the picture...?
The device itself is designed to handle fairly high quality sound: as well as receiving Bluetooth signals it can take analogue audio input via a 2.5mm stereo jack socket, and it also has a separate "base station" transmitter which you can plug into (say) the headphone socket of your TV: the transmitter then sends a signal wirelessly to the MiniTek (using a proprietary version of Bluetooth) and the MiniTek relays it to the hearing aids. Using either the direct-line input or the wireless transmitter works quite nicely, and there's no perceptible lag problem there.

I should have said, I've been onto Siemens tech support about it, and they're adamant that it shouldn't be doing this, and they don't know why it is. So I'm looking for a problem at the phone end.

Shasarak said:
I should have said, I've been onto Siemens tech support about it, and they're adamant that it shouldn't be doing this, and they don't know why it is. So I'm looking for a problem at the phone end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've experienced the same issues on various BT-Receivers and Smartphones. Seems to be a general issue. So far, this 1 second lag was present on all combinations of:
Phones: Samsung Galaxy S2 / iPhone 4 / HTC One
Receivers: Creative D100 / Creative D200 / Belkin BT Adapter
As i found out so far, this problem occours when the receiver can't handle the apt-x codec and audio has to be resampled to the older SBC codec. Found one thread kinda dealing with this topic, but haven't tried it out for myself at the moment. I'll do some testing later when i'm at home.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1256407

Bluetooth Audio Choppy when Multitasking

I have never been able to have steady audio via Bluetooth while using my phone. Example if I have Bluetooth streaming audio from Google Play All Access and try to reply to a text message the audio will start cutting out and skipping. Even if I try to use the Google Play app to change a song.
I know this is not an issue when using the headphone jack as that is how I normally have my phone plugged into the stereo in my truck.

BrokenWall said:
I have never been able to have steady audio via Bluetooth while using my phone. Example if I have Bluetooth streaming audio from Google Play All Access and try to reply to a text message the audio will start cutting out and skipping. Even if I try to use the Google Play app to change a song.
I know this is not an issue when using the headphone jack as that is how I normally have my phone plugged into the stereo in my truck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try re-pairing. I have this issue through a cheap bluetooth dongle. I generally reconnect and that will fix it (for the time being), but in some cases I've unpaired and re-paired and that has gotten it working. I don't have this problem in my car.

The car is question is the family SUV, it has an Alpine Receiver with Bluetooth built-in. I have not only repaired but noticed this issue with 4.2.2 and 4.4 and now 4.4.2. There has even been a full wipe and fresh start on the phone and the issue continues. I don't have another Bluetooth device to try with unfortunately.