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Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

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Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#41

Post by dylan604 »

swores wrote: post #31
dylan604 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this was my take on reading it as well. my first thought was that it sounds like a bluetooth device. the only time I ever have issues is because of how shitty bluetooth is. when I use wired headphones, I never have issues

Even bluetooth now days is often fine if not buying bargain basement products. I use pretty much exclusively bluetooth for audio between PCs/phone/TV and both earphones and speakers, and my car's stereo is the only bluetooth connection I have that ever has connection/lag issues at all (and even then it's infrequent enough that I still choose it over plugging a USB cable in between phone and car).

Yeah, but bluetooth is different in how it can stutter and cause interrupts than just signal strength. I have seen multiple common "speaker" devices where multiple devices have paired to it so that while it is streaming from one device, gets confused when another paired device is rediscovered and it tries to connect. The confusion of trying to decide if the current stream should continue or allow new device to take over is irritating.

I had one device that would suddenly connect at random times and music would suddenly start playing from an app that was previously not playing until the bluetooth device "woke up" or whatever happened.

I hate bluetooth for all of the little paper cut issues it has. Not one of them are killer, but together just ruins its likeability.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#43

Post by JohnnyHerz »

skrrtww wrote: post #13

Something is fucked up with Apple Music streaming playback; it may be Bluetooth specific or may not be. In nearly every song I stream, whether it's from my iCloud library or Apple Music itself, there's a stutter at exactly the 15 second mark in whatever song it is; the stutter is different every time but when it occurs is consistent. There are also inconsistent stutters throughout songs. iPhone 13 and 2nd gen AirPods…

I experience the same type of issues with Spotify on my iphones. it's followed me through every Spotify upgrade and across every iPhone i've owned.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#44

Post by c0deR3D »

manicennui wrote: post #11

Android had audio latency issues for a long time, and I think they were originally related to the fact that Linux also had high latency audio. I was under the impression that these were much better now: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/03/an-update-... I haven't heard about issues with latency in iOS audio, but the iPhone 8 is certainly not "modern". Are you using bluetooth headphones? Which apps are yo…

Yes, I was using Bluetooth headphones at the moment. I don't have the app name at hand, but I know that the app is also a file manager.

So there's probably jitter in my headphones, or the app was not suppose to do music playback smoothly because that's not its main usage.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#45

Post by c0deR3D »

Solitude042 wrote: post #4

One of the media players I used (on Android) had a bug in which it was susceptible to getting put to sleep when in the background - it would promptly be reawakened by the player service, but that would cause a glitch each time (especially at the transition between tracks). Once I removed the player from the power optimization list, the glitches evaporated entirely. Maybe something to look into, since it's a different…

Sure, I'd try remove the app from the power efficiency restricted app list, which by default are enforced on all apps.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#47

Post by thefz »

jlmorton wrote: post #17

I'm perplexed how you're talking about this like it's a common problem people have had, something that's been ongoing for years. There is no stuttering problem on audio playback on any of the smart phones you've listed. And there hasn't been any stuttering problem since the initial launch of the first generation iPhone. The last time I remember any stuttering on any phone I've owned was maybe the Motorola Rokr twenty…

Use my Pixel 6a daily to listen music either via cable or BT, and I have never encountered any problem.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#48

Post by lordnacho »

c0deR3D wrote: post #46
lordnacho wrote: post #40

I'll throw in another speculation: maybe the battery management is causing the OS to pause CPU usage for a bit?

If this is the case, it's weird then. Why releasing CPU for only a glimpse saves battery?

Perhaps it's like my car. It doesn't know when it turns off the engine that I actually need it in a second, so shutting down at a light ends up being brief and inconvenient.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#49

Post by warrenm »

dylan604 wrote: post #41
swores wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even bluetooth now days is often fine if not buying bargain basement products. I use pretty much exclusively bluetooth for audio between PCs/phone/TV and both earphones and speakers, and my car's stereo is the only bluetooth connection I have that ever has connection/lag issues at all (and even then it's infrequent enough that I still choose it over plugging a USB cable in between phone and car).

Yeah, but bluetooth is different in how it can stutter and cause interrupts than just signal strength. I have seen multiple common "speaker" devices where multiple devices have paired to it so that while it is streaming from one device, gets confused when another paired device is rediscovered and it tries to connect. The confusion of trying to decide if the current stream should continue or allow new device to take o…

My solution to this is only allowing a couple pairings per Bluetooth end device

My wife's van, for example, can store a few connections - but only "likes" to keep its most recent (so ... in her vehicle, while my phone is 'paired', it never connects)

The only thing I have with more than 1 or 2 pairings are my [nice] Bose headphones ... and those are only paired to 'my' devices (two laptops (home & work), my cell, and my wife's cell (because she likes to steal them to use when mowing))

Bluetooth soundbar? Only connects to my laptop

Bluetooth earbuds? Only connects to my phone

Bluetooth wall speaker? One connects to my wife's phone, the other to mine

Re: Ask HN: Why can't modern smartphones play music smoothly?

#50

Post by RealPlastic »

frizzlebox wrote: post #30
skrrtww wrote: post #13

Something is fucked up with Apple Music streaming playback; it may be Bluetooth specific or may not be. In nearly every song I stream, whether it's from my iCloud library or Apple Music itself, there's a stutter at exactly the 15 second mark in whatever song it is; the stutter is different every time but when it occurs is consistent. There are also inconsistent stutters throughout songs. iPhone 13 and 2nd gen AirPods…

I’d get a single stutter seconds into playback of a new song fairly often when playing lossless on Apple Music on my iPhone, without Bluetooth. I suspect that the stutter happens when it decides to change audio tracks to a higher bit rate stream, but that’s me talking out of my rear. That particular problem went away once I turned off lossless in Apple Music settings.

Same here. The stutter is quite annoying, and easily reproducible. It only happens when streaming lossless music; does not happen when playing downloaded music.

Amazon Music Unlimited has no stutter whatsoever when streaming lossless files. Perhaps Apple wasn't quite ready to offer Lossless, knew the stutter was there, and released it anyway.

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