Weird BT audio volume issue - OnePlus 3 Questions & Answers

Running a bone stock OP3, non-rooted, no mods, on the Community Build. Since the latest update, my BT audio is weird.
I pair my phone to my motorcycle helmet. Its a Shoei GT Air with a Sena 20S Comm system installed. It's a very nice unit.
So what happens is that when I push the button on the comm to activate Google Now, so that I can speak to my phone and tell it to dial, get directions, play music, etc... No matter what volume level I set my phone to, or the headset, the "beep" and "Ok" that Google Now speaks when you activate it, blows out my eardrums. It is like WAY high volume, 5x as loud as the music or anything else. I have gone through the comm system settings and there is nothing in there to mess with. I also notice that the volume of Google Now only goes that high when the screen of the phone is off. If the screen is on, then the tone is the same level as whatever music is playing, etc...
If I turn the screen off and the music is at a normal listening level and I hit the button to make a call or fast forward to the next some, that damned Google Now tone is back to ear shattering levels...
I am convinced that it isn't the comm system, because a google search shows similar issues with Android phones and BT over the past few years...
Another weird thing, is that when I turn on and pair the comm system and I hit the button to activate Google Now, if I do it 5 or 6 times in a row, it will eventually revert to normal audio levels, the same as the music or navigation... But when I turn off the comm, then the next time I turn it on I have to do it all over again...
Very annoying but I an convinced that it isn't the comm system. It seems to have started last week when the new Open Beta came out and I installed it.
Now, I have unpaired, deleted and repaired the connection, I have wiped cache and stuff, but I can't seem to get this to work right.
Any ideas?

It has to do with how Bluetooth handles its datastream.
Bluetooth has very limited bandwidth, so it has to allocate based on the situation. When streaming music from your phone to the BT device, it can dedicate the entire bandwidth to the unidirectional stream. However, if you need to use the helmet's mic, then BT has to use the same limited bandwidth to stream data in both directions. This is why BT devices have notable audio quality degredation when used to make calls.
When your screen is on, Google Assistant/Now will acutally use your phone's mic to listen for commands rather than your BT's mic, which means that it does not have to change protocols and reduce audio output bandwidth.
To address your issue with Google Assistant/Now's increased volume, try to place a call while your helmet is connected to your phone and reduce the volume while in call with your phone's volume buttons. Hopefully, the volume change will stick when your helmet uses the same two-way protocol when using the voice assistant.

Try:
Developer options -> disable absolute volume

Tried that Developer Option, made no difference. It's clearly something else going on under the hood. Other Android phones have had it over the years when connecting to BT devices... I guess I will have to just live with it.

Related

I cannot control the volume of Streaming Bluetooth Audio.... :(

I have a pair of bluetooth headphones and a bluetooth receiver in my car.
Once i pair either one to my Touch Pro 2, i noticed that raising/lowering the volume on my HD2 does not affect the audio what so ever(unless i put it on mute).
The music sounds very loud and distorted, and i cant control the volume either way...Anyone else run into this issue? How can i solve it?
That's normal. You need to adjust the volume at the receiving end.
I have the exact same problem. Not sure why as when I pair up to my speakers, the phone tells me it cannot control the volume, yet it worked fine on my "Touch Pro" (the 1st one) and my Kaiser. Not looked for a solution, because its not much of an issue for me really.
Mesquire said:
That's normal. You need to adjust the volume at the receiving end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the problem is that, the audio being streamed from the HD2 is so loud and distorted, that i have to turn it down(but i cant).
So even if i turn it down on the receiving end, the distortion is still there.
With my old samsung omnia, i was able to turn the music up or down from the phone...I dont understand why this isnt possible with the Touch Pro 2.
The music coming from my phone is unlistenable. The distortion ruins the audio. Which really sucks, because i spent $300 on a car reciever with bluetooth!
There has to be a solution! Come on XDA!
Try turning it down on the phone first? Or get a player that uses it's own volume control instead of the system volume (I believe Mort Player and Nitrogen will do this).
jason02 said:
But the problem is that, the audio being streamed from the HD2 is so loud and distorted, that i have to turn it down(but i cant).
So even if i turn it down on the receiving end, the distortion is still there.
With my old samsung omnia, i was able to turn the music up or down from the phone...I dont understand why this isnt possible with the Touch Pro 2.
The music coming from my phone is unlistenable. The distortion ruins the audio. Which really sucks, because i spent $300 on a car reciever with bluetooth!
There has to be a solution! Come on XDA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here!!!
No volume control at all on TP2, and volume of music cant be changed through the system volume control either
I have a bluetooth connection to my motorcycle intercom system. I had the same problem, sort of.
I installed Conduits Pocket Player, and use the equalizer to bring down the level of the Bluetooth. That worked well enough for what I needed to do.
I read somewhere else on the forum here that this issue is attributed to the Widcomm Buetooth stack on our phones. Whenever I connect my headset to my phone or my laptop, I receive a warning that the volume must be adjusted on the output device, and cannot be adjusted on the phone/computer. It may be related to the poor support for AVRCP.
Avatar28 said:
Try turning it down on the phone first? Or get a player that uses it's own volume control instead of the system volume (I believe Mort Player and Nitrogen will do this).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, so it seems that this wincomm bluetooth stack or whatever SUCKS. You're right....I guess the only work around i guess is a player that doesnt use the system volume, like coreplayer.
Coreplayer is great for movies, but for playing mp3's i would prefer Slide 2 Play.
Havent tried nitrogen yet though.
Does a mp3 player exist that is similar to slide 2 play, but doesnt use the system volume of the phone?
I too am not able to use many of the bluetooth audio accessories such as my jabra headphones, desktop speakers and my indash audio system. None of which work as they did with my Kaiser. This was supposed to be an upgrade to my Tilt and it doesnt even support the OLD protocals that were common 2 years ago?? Im seriously considering switching to blackberry. Anyone intrested in a nearly new Tilt 2. Goodbye htc (high tech crap)
THis is a problem with the bluetooth stack, just email HTC so they can get a patch for this. or microsoft because they are the ones that control what stack it gets.
this Goes for the HD2 and others too

Volume auto-lowers on headphone insert?

Connect your phone to a stereo with a standard 3.5mm audio cable and set media volume to max. Play some music, eject the cable, plug it back in, resume playing music. For some reason the audio volume is automatically lowered. Increasing it back to max works just fine but you do get a notification saying "Loud music may harm your hearing if you listen to it for a long time" while you do that.
I only listen to music in my car using aux 3.5mm. I control volume using the headunit and this "feature" is annoying as heck.
Any way to disable the volume auto-lowering?
thats the way all of them work, also was the same on old galaxy s device. happens on ipad also.
i think the reason is they dont want you blowing your brains out when you plug your headphones in if you forgot to turn down the media volume before you unplugeed them
I've been in HTC world for past 5 years and never had a need for such feature... all I'm trying to figure out is how to disable this on my new sammy ​
I listen via the 3.5 port in my car and can confirm the original Epic 4G did NOT behave this way. (At least not when running stock--Voodoo drivers did do this by default but you could override them.)
It pisses me off too and the NS4G never did this when I had it. I can live with it but just annoying.
I solved it through tasker. Not elegant, but it works.
true, also a hack... solves one problem but creates another. when i DO use headphones i set volume low and taking 3.5mm out and back in resets volume to max. ouch
i wonder if there is a way in Tasker to simply re-set volume to whatever it was just before 3.5mm was inserted.
Yea, you can do this. Create a variable to hold the volume, update it whenever the media volume is changed. When headphones are plugged it, just set the volume based on the variable. Imo, this wouldn't help much though. If you insist on playing media at max volume through your car, you're still going to blow up your ears when you plug in headphones.
I'd recommend setting the volume offset on your stereo (slack on some radios, I think) to be ideal when the phone is at the reduced volume. This is what I do.
Sycobob said:
I'd recommend setting the volume offset on your stereo (slack on some radios, I think) to be ideal when the phone is at the reduced volume. This is what I do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the issue at hand is a bit more complex. consider this scenario:
i'm in a car driving and someone calls me.
i pop out the 3.5mm and answer the call.
once done talking, i pop 3.5mm back in and resume music.
now the volume is NOT what it was since sgs2 lowered it automatically trying to "save" my hearing.
similar story happens when i get out of my car for few minutes and upon coming back in i constantly have to turn the volume back up.
changing the in-car headunit volume is not helping since my cell is not the only device used there. there is built-in radio, built-in cd player, other portable players, etc that i (and others) use. no need to tweak main system just because one of many devices is being an #!$le about media volume.
ugh, still looking for a right solution. i'll go ahead and try to mess with tasker but that will be just patching the problem, not solving it
frifox said:
Connect your phone to a stereo with a standard 3.5mm audio cable and set media volume to max. Play some music, eject the cable, plug it back in, resume playing music. For some reason the audio volume is automatically lowered. Increasing it back to max works just fine but you do get a notification saying "Loud music may harm your hearing if you listen to it for a long time" while you do that.
I only listen to music in my car using aux 3.5mm. I control volume using the headunit and this "feature" is annoying as heck.
Any way to disable the volume auto-lowering?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TRY THIS
Hi
Download and buy license from "SOUNDABOUT"
1. Enable it
Update the below
2. Call volume to EAR PIECE
3. Media to SPEAKER
everything will be ok...after many year it has worked for my HTC ONE E9PLUS
Robin

Help finding a multipoint Bluetooth headset that behaves properly

I'm looking for a good quality multipoint Bluetooth headset, I've tried two different ones so far and have not been pleased with the results, A Blueant Q2 and a SoundID 510.
The Blueant would only let you use voice commands on the 1st phone that it connects to at that session, sometimes it was one phone, sometimes another, highly annoying. Even when it was connecting to the right phone the only way I could use the phones built in voice dialer was by pressing the side button, waiting for the prompt then having to speak "Phone Command", then I was taken to the phone's own voice control, and I would have to do this every single time. and if that was not bad enough, the headset would always take over the phone's audio, I connect to my car stereo via a line connected to the headphone jack, but when I connected with the headset it would disable the headphones and output to the headset even after I disabled it in the phone settings. Returned.
The SoundID was even worse, most of the time it would not even let me get to any phone's voice commands after having paired a second phone. When it does go to voice commands it says "Siri" every time , I hate Crapple, deal breaker. I didn't use it enough to check out the rest. Returned.
I just want a headset that can do the following:
Connect to 2 devices, one of which will be answer only.
Have one button access to voice commands and always have it go to the same phone, regardless of which one connects first.
No ADP audio, or have it easily disabled in the hardware.
Hard Switch (No hold down talk button for X amount of seconds to turn on/off)
Comfortable and easy to put on (no over the ear) would also be nice.
Under $100
Does anything like this exist? I do not want to have to navigate a menu to get my phone to call someone, I just want to push a button once and know its always going to the right phone.
Gracias
I Love Carmen De Mairena

[Q] Bluetooth headset buttons not responding

I have a Verizon G3 but figure this forum gets more eyeballs, and perhaps this is a universal Bluetooth issue.
I use the LG Tone+ HBS-730 headset with my phone. If I go into a music app and start playing music through my headphones with the app, no problem. But, let's say I pause music for a while, or turn the headphones off for a bit. I turn the headphones back on, press the play button on the right side, and nothing happens. The headset is still on - I can long-press a button and get the double-beep, but my music won't play. Sometimes it does, but most of the time, it doesn't. I switched from the stock Music player to Rocket Player, which has proven to be a little more successful.
Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere, or is this a common BT occurrence? Control is through the AVRCP BT profile, I believe. I know on my G2 I'd sometimes lose control sync with my phone, where I couldn't skip or pause the track through my headphones. This new problem seems like a magnification of that problem.
Overall, I do find the BT performance a little worse than the G2. I get more audio drops when the phone is in my pocket, but this is when I'm outside and BT is not great outside in general.
Thanks everyone - I have five days to decide if I want to return this phone, between this and some signal problems.
bluetooth connects. calls ok. media plays on device.
WheresTrent said:
I have a Verizon G3 but figure this forum gets more eyeballs, and perhaps this is a universal Bluetooth issue.
I use the LG Tone+ HBS-730 headset with my phone. If I go into a music app and start playing music through my headphones with the app, no problem. But, let's say I pause music for a while, or turn the headphones off for a bit. I turn the headphones back on, press the play button on the right side, and nothing happens. The headset is still on - I can long-press a button and get the double-beep, but my music won't play. Sometimes it does, but most of the time, it doesn't. I switched from the stock Music player to Rocket Player, which has proven to be a little more successful.
Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere, or is this a common BT occurrence? Control is through the AVRCP BT profile, I believe. I know on my G2 I'd sometimes lose control sync with my phone, where I couldn't skip or pause the track through my headphones. This new problem seems like a magnification of that problem.
Overall, I do find the BT performance a little worse than the G2. I get more audio drops when the phone is in my pocket, but this is when I'm outside and BT is not great outside in general.
Thanks everyone - I have five days to decide if I want to return this phone, between this and some signal problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I come from the philippines and i have the g3 also. my bluetooth connection was fine it connected to my car and headset but now it only receives calls but does not play music through my bluetooth headphones. when i press the play button on my headset it plays on the device itself. checked under bluetooth setting and call and media and audio was checked.
my device is rooted. i did a factory reset but the problem remains unfixed. please help. i have installed g3 tweaksbox but i dont see any mods that is related to music apps. i dont know what to do. i have considered unrooting and flashing stock rom.
Also interested in this, as I have the same issue but my car.
Op, did you ever find a fix, or work around?
OP
Do you have any other BT programs loaded? I had something similar when I had the Sony app and a Garmin app loaded. Both use BT to connect to their devices and they were interfering. I removed the Garmin one and my play/pause button started working again
Alan

Bluetooth music quality

Does anyone else have any issues streaming music over bluetooth? When I connect it to my car, it sounds terrible, as if the phone's volume is up too much.
When I first connected it, I had it at about 3/4 volume since that was the sweet spot on my Note 8, so I turned it down, and even at 2 steps up from off, the music sounds like garbage. I messed with the settings in the car, turning down the input volume, etc, but my wife's phone plays fine through it and my old phone still does as well, so it's not the car.
Playing music through the phone speakers is fine.
Edit: I was wrong about below. When I reconnected next time I got in the car, if went back. Apparently my car only supports SBC.
Turning on the Disable Absolute Volume option is what actually fixed it.
Well turns out there are bluetooth settings int he Developer Options now.. I don't remember that on previous phones.
I set Bluetooth Audio Codec to Use System Selection from SBC. That seems to fixed it. I set the others that had the Use System Selection as an option to that as well.
Oddly, it shows that is the default, yet none of them were set to it.
In one of my 4 cars, that has Pioneer 2018 device, I had to turn off phone and contact sharing in those settings for it to stay connected. Kept doping connection even though it said it was connected.
Butt, I just looked at the settings for that Pioneer, and only contact sharing is disabled. I may have accidentally turned it back on when I was showing my radio installer these options. Maybe I only need to turn off contact sharing. It still worked after I talked to him. I'll test later.
.
Had no issues with my head unit in my car or with my headphones. Both have aptX, so they sound the same as my previous phone. No random drops yet.

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