This happens for any bluetooth headphones on Mac. It usually means that mic was turned on.
AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
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Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be surprised, but my frustration is a poor implementation or unintuitive implementation. Quite a few cars go into USB-mode as soon as you attach a phone--almost 100% of the time they just want to charge their phone and already have things set up via Bluetooth or the radio. iPhones won't let you play through the phone if you have an attached audio device. Some cars seem to be able to do album art and track…
I have a 2017 Mini and I have all these problems. The audio clips and has other issues when played over USB, but not Bluetooth. So I have to choose between good audio and charging my phone. I’m about to buy a USB adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter just to fix this problem. Just as you describe, the entertainment system UI is god awful too.
Wonder if you could get one of those "USB Condoms" to be able to charge without it connecting?
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#83You may find value in this Mac app that disables the microphone input channel on AirPods as part of pairing them, which should in theory permanently resolve your issue: https://c-command.com/toothfairy/ (Note that I neither know how they’re doing it nor have I tried to reverse engineer it. Works well for me in non-VMWare scenarios!)
+1 for Tooth fairy. I use it to quickly switch between multiple different Bluetooth headsets when at work
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#84Happens to my Bose QC35s quite often. Part of the issue is that the mic cannot be enabled when full quality audio is active. I guess this is a bandwidth limitation. My issue stems from pulse audio saying that high quality mode is not available though. Common problem though. Not exclusive to AirPods.
Yup. It's really annoying to have to switch Skype back to use my internal mic every time, but not annoying enough to automate it.
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Guess what the number one car infotainment complaint is... I don't have a public source, but for some vehicles bluetooth problems are the number one complain OVERALL.
I wouldn't be surprised, but my frustration is a poor implementation or unintuitive implementation. Quite a few cars go into USB-mode as soon as you attach a phone--almost 100% of the time they just want to charge their phone and already have things set up via Bluetooth or the radio. iPhones won't let you play through the phone if you have an attached audio device. Some cars seem to be able to do album art and track…
My Audi has two USB ports in the driver center console: one connects to the car, the other is charge only. It’s pretty great.
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
My reaction to reading that this happened when the microphone was turned on was also a mental "well yeah, welcome to Bluetooth". I have literally shifted my rating scale for crap technology completely to make room for Bluetooth to be far enough below everything else. The nice part is a monkey brain interprets that as everything getting better, so I am generally more content with software and tech in general. So, than…
Guess what the number one car infotainment complaint is... I don't have a public source, but for some vehicles bluetooth problems are the number one complain OVERALL.
The problem has gone on for years now, to the extent that it has seriously impacted customer satisfaction ratings and JD Power New-Vehicle Initial Quality scores. You would think that the automakers and tier-1 suppliers would devote some serious engineering resources to working with the Bluetooth SIG and mobile device manufacturers in order to improve the situation. But it seems like they don't really care. I don't get it.
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious, to people here who are technically familiar with the standard, do you think this complexity is justified, or is it a case of an over-engineered protocol?
It has 20 years of organic growth and includes a lot of lessons learned from the initial underspecification. Lots of profiles were specified but never used (video delivery, over bluetooth, anyone?). Many were not fully thought through and had to be revised (often in nasty ways to remain backwards-compatible). Sadly backwards compatibility makes it worse and worse every year. If you go and write a stack that complies…
If BT 4 is better, shouldn't BT 4 devices like the AirPods connected to BT 4 devices like modern Mac computers not have these types of weird problems? :/
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#88I will also repeat what has been said about twelve times thus far: Enabling microphone makes Bluetooth headsets turn into pure shit. Guess what 5.0 finally allows as per spec? You can use any codec you want for telephony mode, including 44.1 stereo + 44.1 mono SBC. Guess what Apple does not implement, and guess what every 5.0 headset I've seen so far also does not implement? Sigh. Bluetooth is 20 years old this year,…
I will pay upwards of $1000AUD for a headset that correctly implements the 5.0 spec with a reasonable (read: more than SBC) set of codecs. Then I've just got to find a source that can drive it...
Edit: removed incorrect stuff about the Note 9 - it's listed as Bluetooth v5.0 (LE up to 2 Mbps).
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#89I will also repeat what has been said about twelve times thus far: Enabling microphone makes Bluetooth headsets turn into pure shit. Guess what 5.0 finally allows as per spec? You can use any codec you want for telephony mode, including 44.1 stereo + 44.1 mono SBC. Guess what Apple does not implement, and guess what every 5.0 headset I've seen so far also does not implement? Sigh. Bluetooth is 20 years old this year,…
Interesting. On Windows 10, it shows a in/out "Headset (AirPods Hands-Free)" and an out only "Headphones (AirPods Audio)." So this transition would be very easy for the user to see. However, I've as yet been unable to get a straight answer on what profile the "Headphones" mode is actually using.
Windows 10 is still a disaster. I've got to install a driver from an older Dell to enable apt-X on my XPS 9350. Codecs and licensing mean that most things will fall back to the lowest common denominator - SBC.
Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bluetooth is equally or more universal than Wi-Fi, though. There aren’t that many connectivity standards that are present in just about every single device under the sun, including stuff like headsets and wireless mice and keyboards. It’s effectively wireless USB (from a user perspective), with all the good and the bad that that brings.
I've never had the left half of my keyboard crap out when I plugged it into a USB port. I have never gotten both the input, and the output half of a bluetooth headset to work on Windows 10. But that's understandable, since I'm sure Microsoft is strapped for resources, and has more important things to work on - like the bricking the data in My Documents in an OS update. Even if you don't want the microphone to work, g…
It Just Worked for me. At some point between Windows 7 and Windows 10 1809, they wrote their own Bluetooth stack. You may either want to install or uninstall your device OEM's drivers. Worst case scenario, something like BlueSoleil [1] may work [2].
2: I still hate Bluetooth.