Bluetooth headset issues

[Wullail]

I'm using a pair of creative sfx-i air headphones...

they have wired and bluetooth options , when used in USB mode everything works fine.

As soon as I go into bluetooth mode , they work fine until I run elite...

Then the microphone still works , but the sound cuts out until I quit from elite...

I tried going into sound settings in windows and telling it not to change the volume if communication is sensed as was suggested in an old steam post, but no change.

Can anyone help or have any other ideas please, it's slowly driving me mad.

 

[Tennozan]

Tried SteelSeries and Bose Bluetooth headphones in wireless mode with ED and the sound kept dropping out on me too. Tried a lot of tweaks, but finally gave up. Now wired with a pair of Razer headphones. Perhaps not helpful, but you are not alone.

As for madness...jump down the rabbit hole, it's the only way to go.

 

[Alphamale1956]

I'm using a pair of creative sfx-i air headphones...

they have wired and bluetooth options , when used in USB mode everything works fine.

As soon as I go into bluetooth mode , they work fine until I run elite...

Then the microphone still works , but the sound cuts out until I quit from elite...

I tried going into sound settings in windows and telling it not to change the volume if communication is sensed as was suggested in an old steam post, but no change.

Can anyone help or have any other ideas please, it's slowly driving me mad.

I use BT phones occasionally and no problem. Did you check your audio playback option in lower right corner? In W10, it doesn't automatically switch to a BT device if one is just connected. I often see my soundcard device as the current choice even after I've plugged in the BT dongle and have turned on the phones. Also, you may want to disable Windows Sonic for headphones in the playback options. That might or might not fix it.

 

[Wullail]

I use BT phones occasionally and no problem. Did you check your audio playback option in lower right corner? In W10, it doesn't automatically switch to a BT device if one is just connected. I often see my soundcard device as the current choice even after I've plugged in the BT dongle and have turned on the phones. Also, you may want to disable Windows Sonic for headphones in the playback options. That might or might not fix it.

Thanks for the ideas, my system (W10) does auto-switch to Bluetooth as the default playback item on its own with no issues, the Bluetooth is on-board along with my MB's built-in wifi, so no dongle involved.

The same thing happens even if Sonic is toggled on or off.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Bluetooth audio on windows and PC's in general are atrocious to the point where I would not consider it at all usefull in the slightest.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

disable the microphone can enable sound on some bluetooth devices
or try different hz audio quality maybe is all I can suggest

 

[NobleGuy]

Windows 10:
Open Sound Settings
Scroll to the "Input" section and select "Device properties and test microphone".
Select the "Disable" checkbox.

It turns off the microphone but the sound now works on my headphones.
Why? No clue I'm afraid...

If you want to re-enable the microphone:
Open Sound Settings
Scroll to the "Input" section and select "Manage sound devices"
Scroll down to the "Disabled" list where you should find your device.
Click the relevant icon and then "Enable".

 

[Ashnak]

It turns off the microphone but the sound now works on my headphones.
Why? No clue I'm afraid...

It's complicated. And nasty. And a lot of other things.

Keyword here is "Bluetooth Profiles". Those define (and I'm using this word in the loosest possible sense) the capabilities of Bluetooth endpoints. And it doesn't help in the slightest that different companies interpret these definitions differently and, up to some point (and I'm looking at you here, Apple) insist that their interpretation should be taken as gospel.

In very, very, very abbridged form: common Bluetooth headsets can/should support two BT profiles: A2DP (advanced audio distribution profile, downstream only, stereo, can in theory be decent sound quality if both endpoints can negotiate a common decent codec setting and don't fall back to the least common required denominator that is SBC, has unspecified and often very large latency) and HFP (handsfree profile, upstream and downstream, ty audio, intended for phone useage with low latency).
Some headsets can handle both connections simultaneously - most won't, and you (or something) needs to switch them between A2DP for audio listening and HFP for two-way communication. Depending on the BT hardware, the BT stack running on that hardware, the driver in Windows adressing that stack and the game (or whatever) generating the audio you want to listen to, this may even work. Yeah, right.

And if you want to make things really nasty, throw in KLEAR and APT-X and an Apple mobile phone with AirPods.

---
P.S.: If you're really interested (or sufficiently masochistic): https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/

 

[NobleGuy]

It's complicated. And nasty. And a lot of other things.

Keyword here is "Bluetooth Profiles". Those define (and I'm using this word in the loosest possible sense) the capabilities of Bluetooth endpoints. And it doesn't help in the slightest that different companies interpret these definitions differently and, up to some point (and I'm looking at you here, Apple) insist that their interpretation should be taken as gospel.

In very, very, very abbridged form: common Bluetooth headsets can/should support two BT profiles: A2DP (advanced audio distribution profile, downstream only, stereo, can in theory be decent sound quality if both endpoints can negotiate a common decent codec setting and don't fall back to the least common required denominator that is SBC, has unspecified and often very large latency) and HFP (handsfree profile, upstream and downstream, ty audio, intended for phone useage with low latency).
Some headsets can handle both connections simultaneously - most won't, and you (or something) needs to switch them between A2DP for audio listening and HFP for two-way communication. Depending on the BT hardware, the BT stack running on that hardware, the driver in Windows adressing that stack and the game (or whatever) generating the audio you want to listen to, this may even work. Yeah, right.

And if you want to make things really nasty, throw in KLEAR and APT-X and an Apple mobile phone with AirPods.

---
P.S.: If you're really interested (or sufficiently masochistic): https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/

I had a feeling it might not be simple!
That (semi!)-explains why sometimes my headset defaults to the tinny phone-style audio quality.
But only sometimes...

All good stuff!

 

[DevCMDR]

It's actually really simple.

The "good" sound is without the microphone being active, the "bad" sound is with the microphone active. There's reasons for that, but they're not really relevant, and I've forgotten them.

Windows 10 is an ass, and constantly puts the newest sound devices as the communication devices. So, just turn on your bluetooth headset, set your mic to whatever you normally use, then launch E.

 

[NobleGuy]

Windows 10 is an , and constantly puts the newest sound devices as the communication devices. So, just turn on your bluetooth headset, set your mic to whatever you normally use, then launch E.

The microphone I normally use is my headset - I don't use it for ED but I do for others, so it's a pain having to keep turning it on and off (requiring about 55 million clicks in Windows...).
I know it's not 100% their fault, but I'm surprised the game makers haven't found a solution to this TBH.

 

[DevCMDR]

The microphone I normally use is my headset - I don't use it for ED but I do for others, so it's a pain having to keep turning it on and off (requiring about 55 million clicks in Windows...).
I know it's not 100% their fault, but I'm surprised the game makers haven't found a solution to this TBH.

Don't change sound devices, don't use Windows 10+ or find some software that automatically sets your audio devices back to your preferred devices.

I'd make that software myself, but it's just not a big enough issue for me; I know what the issue is, so I just right click the sound icon, choose "sounds", then go to the type of device I want to change defaults on. It's more like 5 clicks, if you use that method.

It's not a big enough issue for me, someone who has the requisite skills and encounters this issue several times a week; I wouldn't expect Frontier to try and fix that when it's not their fault, and they can't fix the things that ARE their fault.

 

[ferus]

Windows 10:
Open Sound Settings
Scroll to the "Input" section and select "Device properties and test microphone".
Select the "Disable" checkbox.

It turns off the microphone but the sound now works on my headphones.
Why? No clue I'm afraid...

If you want to re-enable the microphone:
Open Sound Settings
Scroll to the "Input" section and select "Manage sound devices"
Scroll down to the "Disabled" list where you should find your device.
Click the relevant icon and then "Enable".

I'm necoring this thread and I'm not even sorry

I just wanted to say that I bought a Razer Opus X headset and even years later I ran into the same issue with ED.
Luckily, your tips helped and I am able to play everything now (I don't use the mic on the Razer X so I'm fine with disabling it once and for all).

But the issue is still here...

 

[Northpin]

I'm necoring this thread and I'm not even sorry

I just wanted to say that I bought a Razer Opus X headset and even years later I ran into the same issue with ED.
Luckily, your tips helped and I am able to play everything now (I don't use the mic on the Razer X so I'm fine with disabling it once and for all).

But the issue is still here...

another workaround that used to work on my laptop when i was using bt-headset was to start ED, then turn-on (connect) the bt-headset
however, if ED happened to crash, i had to remember to turn off the bt-headset, then start ED, then turn on the bt-headset
still faster than digging through the menus.

 

[ferus]

another workaround that used to work on my laptop when i was using bt-headset was to start ED, then turn-on (connect) the bt-headset
however, if ED happened to crash, i had to remember to turn off the bt-headset, then start ED, then turn on the bt-headset
still faster than digging through the menus.

Thanks, that's actually a good tip.
I'm not planning to use the microphone on my headset so I just keep it disabled (no menu digging for me at the moment).

But I will keep this in mind in case I will decide to use it regularly some day.