Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

jeffgeerling.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 170 posts

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#121

Post by Rjevski »

ebrewste wrote: post #117
voltagex_ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can cut the data lines in a cable and it should solve some of the issues with unwanted behaviour. The album art and track progress I don't really care about (eyes on the road!) but via Bluetooth that's AVRCP and there's a stack of standards for people to butcher there, too.

I was wiring in a charge only USB port in my car today and found out that cutting the data lines limits the charge rate to a uselessly low rate. You need to tie the data lines together to put it in usb bc1.2 mode. Or 2.7 v on each line for 2.4 a iPhone charge or other modes. It isn’t simple. Simpler than Bluetooth, but not “hook up ground and 5v” simple.

iOS devices will outright not charge if there’s just 5V on the port. Even the lowest charging current requires some sort of resistor arrangement.

Fortunately it seems like bridging the two data lines (essentially a 0 ohm resistor) is what’s needed to allow high-current charging (I think it’s 2 amps), so as long as your supply can withstand it (which pretty much every single device can, given that it’s tied to its own 5V rail which can supply many amps) you can just bridge the two pins together. Worst case scenario the overcurrent protection on the port will protect the source device.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#122

Post by Rjevski »

dexterdog wrote: post #106
wildmusings wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're better off with a dongle anyway because they almost always charge faster than the car ports.

In most cases you can use the car port and just make a custom cable that bridges the two data pins together which tells the phone to use high current charging. The car’s port’s overcurrent protection will kick in if it’s an issue but I’ve got such a cable and so far I have yet to see any issues and I’ve used it for years with hundreds of different devices. No fire yet.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#123

Post by visarga »

chrisseaton wrote: post #70
jtbayly wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never gotten input and output from a Bluetooth headset working on MacOS, either.

I use my AirPods everyday for input and output on macOS and it works fine for me.

I use my AirPods everyday for input and output on macOS and it sometimes connects, sometimes fails, sometimes I need to reboot the laptop to make it work.

The main problem with AirPods seems to be that they don't make sound because of BT failure. Apple could have missed this detail.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#124

Post by visarga »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #87
dmitrygr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? :/

In my case, AirPods + MB Pro 2013, BT just disconnects for no reason sometimes, other times it refuses to connect. And it's Apples to Apples. Considering the hefty price tag for both devices, the fact that they often fail to produce sound is shameful.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#125

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

darawk wrote: post #27
userbinator wrote: post #19

I have tried to read the BlueTooth specs a few times, never really getting anywhere, and am amazed that it all (mostly) works given the immense complexity in those standards[1]. Thus I'm not surprised that bugs like this can occur. [1] The BT5 core spec is freely downloadable. It is a 25MB PDF with over 2800 pages. That's just the core, there are other specifications that layer on top of it.

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?

Way over-engineered. What most people don’t realize is that Bluetooth isn’t just a PHY layer, or a data decription or ‘just’ an anything - it’s everything. Who would make a spec to be 6 layers of an OSI model (only a slight exageration).

USB doesn’t really care what you send over it after a few base class types, BT does.

BT Classic is really bad in the type of designed by committee way. BT Low Energy is alright imo, but intentionally limited (no SPP, 16bit SIG approved GATTS, a 5.0 feature doesn’t “need” to fully support 5.0 in order to be called a BTLE5 device). I think the BY SIG is too big to get out of its own way.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#126

Post by hkeide »

voltagex_ wrote: post #96
cptskippy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm constantly surprised by how terrible it is even in high price ranges. Car makers don't really care. They want features on a list to check off and don't care how well they work. You can't return. The car easily after a month of frustration and realization that the car is the problem not you or your phone trying to interface with them.

Two things: * It's probably not anyone's job to make it better [1] * They're probably just buying the IVI module from someone else and slapping some logos on it. [2] 1: I'm misremembering or can't find a talk by Seth Godin along the lines of "everything sucks because it's no one's specific job to make it better" 2: https://www.genivi.org/compliant-products

The Seth Godin talk is “This is broken”. Very entertaining.

https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_this_is_broken_1/up-nex...

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#127

Post by voltagex_ »

hkeide wrote: post #126
voltagex_ wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things: * It's probably not anyone's job to make it better [1] * They're probably just buying the IVI module from someone else and slapping some logos on it. [2] 1: I'm misremembering or can't find a talk by Seth Godin along the lines of "everything sucks because it's no one's specific job to make it better" 2: https://www.genivi.org/compliant-products

The Seth Godin talk is “This is broken”. Very entertaining. https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_this_is_broken_1/up-nex...

Thank you!

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#128

Post by dawnerd »

m0zg wrote: post #111

I figure the audience is right on this site, so here's my question: for someone used to pretty decent over the ear and in-ear headphones (Sennheiser, AKG, Etymotic), are AirPods passable at least, or total trash like Apple's wired earbuds? What's the quality differential? This is the thing I don't get about Apple. They sell $1.1K phone and include these crappy $3 earbuds in the box. Can they do better? At their produ…

They're about the same as the normal earbuds but still way better than 3 dollar earbuds. I use them not for the quality but for the convenience when making phonecalls. Unfortunately the battery life on them is abysmal two years later. Barely lasts 10 minutes after daily use.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#129

Post by WA »

zbuttram wrote: post #18
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, this seems to happen whenever AirPods convinces itself that it needs to use its microphone, which seems to necessitate degrading the audio quality.

Doesn't happen on iOS though, which leads me to think it must be a limitation of the Bluetooth hardware in Macs but not in iPhones and iPads?

If I play PUBG Mobile on iOS with AirPods and activate the microphone ingame, the sound immediately turns to some weird mono channel low quality stuff. I always thought this was some kind of bug in the game, but apparently, this thread is the real answer.

Re: AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM

#130

Post by cududa »

nsomaru wrote: post #116
Slix wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely hate the terrible audio when using my Jabra Elite Active 65t to talk over VoIP. It should be crystal clear HD audio, but I have to listen to scratchy voices. I have trouble processing audio, so it makes calls really difficult. I've started resorting to cheap earbuds to hear people for really critical calls like interviews.

What’s the reasoning on the cheap earbuds

I’ve found the jabra 65t to have better audio quality than AirPods or Bose soundsport
Post reply on HN