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

jeffgeerling.com

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

#141

Post by rightbyte »

loosetypes wrote: post #113
csours wrote: post #66

Earlier 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 rented a car from National and drove cross country last week. I don’t know if it was for the reason you mention (to mitigate complaints?) or just to upsell it being bundled with the satellite radio/ gps package, but I was surprised to find that Bluetooth on the infotainment console of the 2018 Camry had been completely disabled. As in there, but all options grayed out. An aux connection worked, but I was more frust…

Maybe National was tired of costumers calling them for support to fix the bluetooth link or wrecking the company ranking on review sites becouse bluetooth problems.

I dislike bluetooth. It's so much problems. But atleast it has got better since it was introduced in the late 90s(?) when I first tried it with a Ericsson headset.

It's the same UI-less problem as I experience with Chromecast. When the magic box doesnt magically work, you are stranded with no clue what to do other then reseting stuff in random order.

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

#142

Post by gambiting »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #93
shadowoflight wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't NFC or some other proximity-sensing tech largely solve these issues? For instance, AirPods will offer to pair with a new iPhone when they're within some fairly short range (I think around 5ft, but I don't know the specific distance) - theoretically, car stereos (and a slew of other devices, for that matter) could use a similar approach, possibly combined with NFC for pairing-on-contact.

That may very well be a good approach, though another technology has been roped into the mix. And there's also the case where I indeed do want my headphones to pair with my iPhone that's 15m away in another room instead of the Macbook in front of me. And not my car that my girlfriend just started on the driveway 10m away. And I want to manage this from my headphones which only has two buttons and some multi-tap gestu…

Same here. My wife starts her car in our driveway, and my phone connects to it. Which leads to two issues - she has to fiddle with controls to connect to her phone, and then any audio/phone call that I was having at the time is completely lost for me until I can change it back.

And then Bluetooth is just hot garbage in environments with lots of interference - I work at a games studio so we have loads of devkits with controllers lying around, and my pretty expensive Sony Bluetooth headphones stutter like crazy unless my phone is within a foot of them.

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

#143

Post by gambiting »

vkou wrote: post #48
snazz wrote: post #42

Earlier 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…

Sound in Windows 10 is a joke at the moment. After a reboot it shows my speaker as muted, but play any audio and it happily plays through the speaker. I have to unmute it and mute it again for it to display the correct state.

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

#144

Post by x0x0 »

cududa wrote: post #130
nsomaru wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the reasoning on the cheap earbuds

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

Me too, except android is still utter shit so, in order to take 2 calls in a row over BT, I have to disconnect the jabras between calls. Or it won't work.

This is in the year 2018, with a less than 2 year old HTC 10 phone.

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

#145

Post by dplgk »

viraptor wrote: post #41
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.

Same. I tried to debug why does my Ford sometimes get stuck in a state where it disconnects immediately after the phone starts playing. (Then fixes itself after a few days) I've learned many protocols, but BT was the worst experience. Had to give up rather than deciphering the mess...

My bmw does the same disconnect crap with my Samsung s7. It doesn't do it with my pixel.

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

#146

Post by pilif »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #47
morpheuskafka wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A2DP SBC. Apple products that implement AAC over A2DP only do so on iOS devices (and in only limited cases), and also do not implement anything else (such as any form of AptX, or LDAC).

you can tell macOS to use AAC using an Apple tool called "Bluetooth Explorer". Also, Macs equipped with a T2 chip default to using AAC even without the manual intervention.

You can check what codec is used by alt-clicking the bluetooth icon in your menu bar and hovering over your headphones. There will a an "Active Codec" entry that shows which one is used (during playback).

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

#147

Post by geekit »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #39
DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

I 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.

AirPods on Windows 10 is really a disaster, after listening for while, it will go mute randomly (then requires reconnecting), and sometimes sound doesn't match to the other side of pair, few milliseconds apart - which will again require reconnecting. Hence I had to stop using it.

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

#148

Post by Nexxxeh »

joecool1029 wrote: post #79
csours wrote: post #66

Earlier 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 had a 2012 VW Golf TDI. Before VW bought it back for making asthma great again, it had bluetooth issues. Out of the factory it would only play mono, the right channel specifically. VW issued a TSB for it and the radio firmware could be updated by the dealership but it was a 3 hour process. I did it, dealership went in thinking it was 1 hour billable and were pissed that I only agreed to pay 1 hour!

Wait, the dealership gets to charge you for fixing a bug in the stock firmware? Or are they billing VW?

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

#149

Post by zapzupnz »

anoncareer0212 wrote: post #16
heavymark wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No none of that is normal. If it were, no one would buy them or write the rave reviews you've read. What happened when you reached out to Apple Support about those issues?

Why the accusatory tone? He's given incredible interpretive charity already, it's not an astroturfing campaign to discredit Apple.

I don't see an accusatory tone there, just an reassurance that AirPods are indeed what they're cracked up to be, and that GP has a dud because, as emphasised, millions of happy customers can't be wrong™.

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

#150

Post by c1sc0 »

dawnerd wrote: post #128
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.

Never heard this before. Mine are 1yo with intensive use & easily still last hours. 2 years is a really short lifetime
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