5 ms·

A HUGE issue for me is the quality during calls with a BT headset (HSP/HFP) profiles. This is a killer in my workflow as I need to be in calls all the time, and

A HUGE issue for me is the quality during calls with a BT headset (HSP/HFP) profiles. This is a killer in my workflow as I need to be in calls all the time, and for that I need to take them through a separate windows laptop. It is crazy, I hate it. Is there a way to improve call quality?

dijit 6y ago
this is actually a limitation of HSP. You might have more luck with LDAC (and LDAC enabled headsets) like Sony's wh1000xm3
- niksakl 6y ago
  The point is that the same headset works perfectly fine on windows/android/apple devices. The call quality there is just great. Only calls on Linux are with that issue.
  - pitterpatter 6y ago
    There's a patch for pulseaudio that allows bidirectional A2DP: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/227 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...
    - niksakl 6y ago
      Is there any plan in making it part of pulse audio shipped with Ubuntu? Is there a straight-fw way to install it somehow and enable high-quality calls for BT Headsets? I am sure that this is a very common issue especially now-days, where people have lots of calls instead of meetings due to COVID-19...
    - kn100 6y ago
      This I'm extremely interested in trying. I am willing to bet a lot of CSR (Qualcomm) based Bluetooth hardware (a LOT of headsets seem to be based on this) probably also supports FastStream - and this would be an absolute gamechanger for me.
    - lxgr 6y ago
      I'm pretty sure A2DP won't help you for calls – it's using the Bluetooth equivalent of TCP (i.e. it is connection-oriented and retransmit based), which is not appropriate for real-time communication. You want mSBC support on HFP. Here's an open ticket for pulseaudio, for example: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/254 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...
- FL33TW00D 6y ago
  Have you been able to get LDAC to provide high quality audio whilst still being able to use the microphone on the XM3's?
lxgr 6y ago
What you want is mSBC for HFP. It supports 16 kHz sampling rates and sounds decent enough, although it's still a noticeable step down from modern VoIP codecs like Opus at 12 kbit/s. The default is 64 kbit/s PCM or CVSDM, which is limited to 8 kHz and gives you potato quality comparable to POTS phone calls. Unfortunately, not all headsets support it (Bose and Apple Airpods consistently do, in my experience), and I have no idea if common Linux Bluetooth stacks do. This seems to be a related ticket for pulseaudio: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/254 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...
amelius 6y ago
If all else fails, plug your PC into a separate BT transceiver?

dijit 6y ago

this is actually a limitation of HSP. You might have more luck with LDAC (and LDAC enabled headsets) like Sony's wh1000xm3

niksakl 6y ago
The point is that the same headset works perfectly fine on windows/android/apple devices. The call quality there is just great. Only calls on Linux are with that issue.
- pitterpatter 6y ago
  There's a patch for pulseaudio that allows bidirectional A2DP: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/227 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...
  - niksakl 6y ago
    Is there any plan in making it part of pulse audio shipped with Ubuntu? Is there a straight-fw way to install it somehow and enable high-quality calls for BT Headsets? I am sure that this is a very common issue especially now-days, where people have lots of calls instead of meetings due to COVID-19...
  - kn100 6y ago
    This I'm extremely interested in trying. I am willing to bet a lot of CSR (Qualcomm) based Bluetooth hardware (a LOT of headsets seem to be based on this) probably also supports FastStream - and this would be an absolute gamechanger for me.
  - lxgr 6y ago
    I'm pretty sure A2DP won't help you for calls – it's using the Bluetooth equivalent of TCP (i.e. it is connection-oriented and retransmit based), which is not appropriate for real-time communication. You want mSBC support on HFP. Here's an open ticket for pulseaudio, for example: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/254 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...
FL33TW00D 6y ago
Have you been able to get LDAC to provide high quality audio whilst still being able to use the microphone on the XM3's?

lxgr 6y ago

What you want is mSBC for HFP. It supports 16 kHz sampling rates and sounds decent enough, although it's still a noticeable step down from modern VoIP codecs like Opus at 12 kbit/s. The default is 64 kbit/s PCM or CVSDM, which is limited to 8 kHz and gives you potato quality comparable to POTS phone calls. Unfortunately, not all headsets support it (Bose and Apple Airpods consistently do, in my experience), and I have no idea if common Linux Bluetooth stacks do. This seems to be a related ticket for pulseaudio: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/254 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge...

amelius 6y ago

If all else fails, plug your PC into a separate BT transceiver?