I posted this is another forum, but I feel like its more appropriate here.
It was brought to my attention that some of the new WM6 cooked roms seem to have some updated a2dp drivers that finally fix the quality issue that causes static and hissing with certain headsets (in my case, an i.tech R35).
Many who had switched to the Widcomm stack for better quality now say that they no longer need it. However, I can't seem to figure out how this was fixed...
I'd like to try and apply it to other devices that don't have these cooked roms available, but suffer from poor A2DP sound quality, such as the Tornado.
I'm wondering, does anyone here know anything about this? I'm trying to figure out if there are new a2dp drivers, or maybe someone developed their own fixed codec and applied it? Or perhaps someone has just found the perfect balance of registry settings?
If you know anything about this, please share! Any help would be appreciated, thanks...
Fact:
Microsoft's A2DP implementation in WM5 is incompatible with certain headsets.
Certain headsets, such as many Nokia and Logitech ones, sound incredible (as good as wired headphones), whereas others, like i.tech or Jabra, don't.
This has been a subject of much confusion to WM enthusiasts, since these headsets sound great when paired with other devices, however when used with a WM device, a high pitched ringing/hissing and slight distortion is heard when certain frequencies of sound are played.
Some Pocket PC users have temporarily solved their problem by porting the Widcomm Bluetooth stack over from the Dell Axim series, however it is generally buggy and not available for all devices.
Fact:
Windows Mobile 6 Beta was released, and had even worse A2DP than WM5
When the beta/demo roms starting floating around, many of us who experience the problem had a glimpse of hope that maybe it would be fixed.
But alas, the A2DP support had many people re-flashing back to WM5. It was even worse.
Fact:
THE FINAL RELEASE OF WM6 SUPPOSEDLY FIXED THE QUALITY BUGS OF A2DP!
There is a write up about this here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=310438
Basically, the new devices shipping with WM6 seem to be more compatible with a wider variety of headsets than its predecessors.
Headsets with the static, popping, hissing, etc... finally sound good even with the Microsoft bluetooth stack.
Some of the new cooked Roms are starting to use this new A2DP support as well.
Problem:
WM5 still sounds bad with A2DP!
Those of us who don't have WM6 upgrades available, or don't want cooked roms or beta versions, are stuck with the poor A2DP of WM5.
Solution:
SOMEONE NEEDS TO MAKE A NEW A2DP PATCH using the WM6 drivers!
Remember when someone first made the A2DP support for Tornado available in WM5? If your device didn't have A2DP to begin with, all you needed was AKU2, and this patch would install the signed drivers and make the appropiate registry edits and like magic we all had A2DP (albeit crummy with some headsets)!
Over time, other patches were made, some using AKU 3.5 and other later releases that promised the possibility of better sound. But all of them failed.
What we need now, is for someone who has an official WM6 device (or someone who has access to a decent cooked ROM with the new A2DP support) to help make a NEW patch for those of us who need it!
Anyone out there willing to help?
When I use the A2DP in wm5/6 I tray all versions BT stack~but no one could work,so I chose 2003se,IT's best for BT A2DP.
Why Helmi Do not fix that?Dose this really hard?
Yes, it's that hard to fix that. The only way we could get wm5/wm6 working flawless on BA is if we had the source code for the drivers and the testing/debug equipment.
If you know someone that works at HTC you could ask them to look for the BA devkit and sourcecodes on the storage rom... hehehe
Mine didn't skip with WM5 and did not skip when I first flashed WM6. Now it does. When I was messing around trying to connect to bluetooth devices (I couldn't connect properly), it stopped skipping for a while. I don't know if this gives any clues.
rambo6 said:
Mine didn't skip with WM5 and did not skip when I first flashed WM6. Now it does. When I was messing around trying to connect to bluetooth devices (I couldn't connect properly), it stopped skipping for a while. I don't know if this gives any clues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know a way to prevented this bug,but not prefectly.
Use regedit tool,open to find software\widcom\plugin\av
add 3 dwords
Linespeed 320 (10+)
Blocks 16 or 32
Subbands 16
You will see the music quality is prefect
but the skipping frequency is above normal~
When using the asus p535,this way will surly improve the quality~and it no skipping,so I thing it must be the bug from the System~
Use win2003 have no such foolish bug.Now I set my pc back up my pda every time connected it with PC~Store the phone book in simcard~
I have no choice
Toxi,
Thanks. I couldn't add the Dword settings which you suggested because I had no Widcom file. So I loaded Helmi's 1.7 Broadcom BT driver. (Always wanted to try it. The Broadcom BT drivers alway better. Immediately after installing, my BA played music better alone and with my BT headsets. Adding the Hemi 1.7 BT cab, added the Widcom file which allowed me to add the Dword registry changes. The music sounds almost perfect.
I tested the BA with these three BT Stereo Headsets: Motorola S9 headsets; Chinese Copy Motorola BT820; and I-Phono RX450. The Motorola S9 works (It didn't at all with the MS WM6 BT Drivers). The S9 would only work if it's 12 to 18" from the BA. That's unacceptable. The BT820 chinese knockoffs skipped as usual (the skip some with every device cause they're knockoffs). The I-Phono worked perfectly with crisp clear sound and no skipping. I can also get further away from the BA but certainly not more than 3 feet without trouble.
In conclusion: Helmis Broadcom 1.7 cab worked to fix the sound problems completely with and without using the headsets. The newer headsets such as the S9 don't work all that well with the BA.
I hope this is helpful for others not satisfied with the music quality of the BA running WM6.
I wish HTC would make a Blue Angle II.
Does anybody know how to improve sound quality for playing music over A2DP profile with Parrot handsfree? On Rhodium i applied some tweaks for quality improve and it was clear and nice to listen, but Leo is not so nice to hear
Thx a lot
I had to tweak my diamond too, looked for tweaks on the HD2 but couldnt find them, but the sound quality is way better on my HD2. I dont think it needs the tweeks tbh.
If i take both, TP2 and HD2 to my car, let play the same song and im switching between HTC's then has got TP2 much more clear and brilliant sound, without any quiet cracklings from tweeter speaker like it is on HD2 :-(
Same problem here, sound quality for a2dp is not what it should be. I tried adding the LineSpeed registry setting, it did improve the overall quality, but did not remove the cracking noise - and in my case I still have frequent skipping and gaps in the audio playback. Have not yet had a reply for Tech Support, and if/when I do, I don't think it'll be a very intelligable one...
Yop, i think too, that the answer will be unusable, or maybe they tell you that u should do a Hard rst :-D
First time i connected it to HF and let music play i thought that is a bad quality song, but it isn't :-(
Anyone idea?
I know there are some settings to definately improve the sound of A2DP. I've added them on my previous HD, and worked perfectly after that! I just found some things you might try (I just applied them myself as well, but havent tested them yet; I'm almost sure they'll work):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308752&highlight=A2DP+settings+bitpool
If I'll find the previost post which I applied in the past on my HD, I'll let you know. If the one I just posted will work, I'll let you know as well of course, because the litteral and figural crappy sound of A2DP is something I hate as well...
Edit:
Take a look at those settings as well from J-A-J-O at page 6:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1677577#post1677577
Again, I don't know exactly if it were those settings, but they sound familiar to me. I'm also busy trying to get the best sound quality via bluetooth out of my HD2
More info about the settings:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=310438
Kind regards,
GreenFrog
The XDA tweaks are rubbish and do not work. I currently have a call out with HTC.
I have removed all reg tweaks from my HTC and now can get A2DP working on my parrot ONLY in the following situation:-
(1) Reboot HD2 (hold end key and select off. then switch on)
(2) Allow to connect to Parrott (will connect handsfree first)
(3) Open bluetooth from settings and select stereo audio and select connect.
(4) select handsfree and select disconnect.
(5) Press PLAY on the parrott kit
By doing this I get no skipping at all and the quality is good. I have no tweaks running.
This is obv crap and is why I have been speaking to HTC all week.
Steps 1-5 have to be strictly followed for this to work.
The BT tweaks mentioned on this forum do not work. They only appear to work as you have rebooted. After using the HD2 for a while and then connecting A2DP, skipping will occur again.
Try steps above and it will work.
Interesting! I'll try that on mine. Greenfrog all of those links and bitpool settings relate to the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. However the HD2 uses the Widcomm stack so those registry settings can't be made.
I too am fed up of the bluetooth sound quality. How can they assume we'll be happy with this mediocre sound?! I can't see why with a 1Ghz processor it skips.
Have you guys tried the A2DP with the latest 1.61 ROM? I'm still on 1.43....
When I find my 'goldcard' that I made I'll try it on 1.61 and let you know
We'll get there in the end....this is really my only bugbear with the HD2, so it would be good to get it fixed!!!
There got to be a way!
I, too, am really p***ed off by the bad audio quality i get using stereo blutooth. It's really an issue with the HTC HD2 and apparently no pro reviews pointed it out!!! I use it with the sony DR-50 which are one the best A2DP headphones out there, but the sound is horrible Please help...
I'm too suffering from the A2DP situation...
The Linespeed registry hack helps me on some devices ( HKML\Software\Widcomm\Plugins\AV add DWORD Linespeed with value between 64 and 512, the higher the better sound but higher probabilty for skipping).
With Linespeed = 320 sound is great and I have no skipping with a Sony DR-BT160AS. But: My Motorola S9 badly skips unless I have it very close to the HD2. Linespeed = 256 is working ok with both devices...
BUT:
I also have a blueLino A2DP Receiver which has a bad quality on both settings, at least on some songs. That's really disturbing.
Just a quick update, I've just flashed to 1.61 and it makes no difference. Default A2DP sound quality is unacceptable. Grr
purnelld said:
The XDA tweaks are rubbish and do not work. I currently have a call out with HTC.
....
The BT tweaks mentioned on this forum do not work. They only appear to work as you have rebooted. After using the HD2 for a while and then connecting A2DP, skipping will occur again.
Try steps above and it will work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-----------------------------------------------------
Well, first I have to say I don't have the 'skipping' issue at all. I have my HD2 connected via bluetooth to my Pioneer DEH-P7100BT car radio. I have a clear connection when calling, but when playing music via bluetooth, I have the 'hissing' issue.
Next is that I have to admit that when I changed the settings according to my previous solution, did work a little, but not as it supposed to. When I had my previous Touch HD if found a link which worked perferctly for me! When I changed to those settings, the hissing were gone completely and the sound quality improved to CD level. Although, I'm still searching those ones again for my HD2 at the moment....
So, conclusion this far is that it totally depends on the hardware which you are connected to as well.
Regards,
GreenFrog
@Greenfrog:
I guess the bitpool settings which worked well on my HD as well, only work when using the MS Bluetooth stack. The HD2 uses the WIDCOMM Bluetooth stack, I haven't found a noticable difference.
The LineSpeed registry setting does improve overall audio quality, but I still have skipping and playback gaps. Very poor performance for the performance beast the HD2 is. I urge everyone to report this to HTC (I did) - this is really unacceptable.
I will also report this to HTC. I am so frustrated by it tbh
As Moses posted...I had linespeed set up on my TP2 and the sound was great, but now i have no time to test it now, can someone other test regitry key?
Bluetooth settings
Can be found here HKLM\Software\WIDCOMM\
A2DP Tweak Provided by R_phAn (Please note this will not work with all devices)
As we know from the past, each device has it's own preferences and capabilities (So you'll have to play around)
Managed to improve soundquality by adding DWORD 'LineSpeed' to HKLM\Software\WIDCOMM\Plugin\AV\ with a value of 320.
it is posted here for TouchPro2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=524655
Edit: I tryied it tomorrow morning and it is still the horrible quality, poor music quality and during the call skipping :-/
jonboyuk said:
...all of those links and bitpool settings relate to the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. However the HD2 uses the Widcomm stack so those registry settings can't be made.
Have you guys tried the A2DP with the latest 1.61 ROM? I'm still on 1.43....
When I find my 'goldcard' that I made I'll try it on 1.61 and let you know
We'll get there in the end....this is really my only bugbear with the HD2, so it would be good to get it fixed!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, thanks a lot for this update! I was really unaware about the different stack, so I don't have to look further for the the previous links anymore... I'll try to add linespeed as well to see if it works with my Pioneer car radio. I hope it will...
There should be an answer for sure for this issue. I also cannot understand why it have to be this difficult. The previous solution did work very well. Why have they changed to the other stack anyway? Does someone know that?
I'm running the 1.48 ROM btw.
GreenFrog
I found one thing, i'm using SPB Radio for online streaming, when im listening in my car streamed radio then the sound quality is excelent...? How is that possible?
That's a very good question.
I experimented a bit with different quality settings during mp3 encoding. I found out that there indeed is a connection between the quality settings of the mp3 file and the badness of the sound quality, at least to a specific degree.
The most important setting seemed to be the stereo setting. If I set a song to "Joint Stereo" its by far better than normal stereo, although not perfect, yet. That's very confusing.
Do you know the settings of the radio channels you can stream with good quality? Maybe that would be worth a test.
--Update--
So I had a predictably useless response from HTC. Namely 'have you tried unpairing and repairing' and 'your device may not be fully compatible, please check our website for a list of compatible devices'.
Useless indeed. Their compatible devices amount to 3 items! The phone is either A2DP or it isn't. There are no compatibility options - it's happening to us all.
So, I haven't mustered up the energy to continue onto the next pointless exchange of basic trial and error possibilities. No doubt their next reply will be "have you tried rebooting the phone"...
Anyway, I digress. I noticed something today. I put on a new album to my SD card and out of nowhere the skipping was worse than ever. Audiomanager is always on the lookout for new songs as you may have realised. When you have music playing, a small circle rotates to show the player is searching. During searches whether or not you've introduced new mp3's to your device, it always makes the skipping far worse. When my circle had come to a stop, then the audio was fine....with very rare pauses and skips.
Still there but much less obvious.
Well that's my latest update and I will continue my investigation. I wonder if this skipping occurs in other music programs? ie wmp or pocket player? Has anyone tried?
Great work, guys. Nice to see a lot of people looking for a solution. I REALLY want to get this A2DP thing working right, it is bugging me a lot, and I'd like it to be fixed when I'm going on vacation (I'll be driving to two straight days, and would love to listen to my own music then). That'll be in about six weeks, so there's still some time left.
I'll try SPB radio myself, see if that causes the same amount of skipping. It could be that it is not the BT link causing the skipping and pauzes, but the audiomanager itself. That would be a bummer, because fixing that is probably way beyond what we can do here, and we'll have to hope for a HTC fix or a custom rom with an older and better working version of the audiomanager.
In my search for possible solutions, I found the priority of the A2DP can be altered. I've added the reg Dword value "Priority256" to HKLM/Drivers/BuiltIn/BtA2dpSnd, with different values. If the value is too high (150+), nothing changes. Set it too low - I tried 60 - and BlueTooth fails to start altogether. I've now set it 149, and it seemed to work, but haven't done extensive testing to see if the skips/pauzes don't return. Will get back on that.
jonboyuk said:
--Update--
(...)
I wonder if this skipping occurs in other music programs? ie wmp or pocket player? Has anyone tried?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried PocketMusic, qualitywise no difference. I don't remember if it had the same skipping / pauzes problem, but the problem for me was it doesn't work with the AVRCP, so I can't play/pauze/ff/rew with my remote, and having to use the screen while driving is a pain - I've mounted my device quite high. I was really hoping to use the inbuilt musicplayer