Bluetooth audio - choppy

[cb2367]

I have wireless headphones connected via Bluetooth. The audio is always choppy when listenng to Pandora, and I would like to know why. My understanding is that there is supposed to be a range of 30ft for the Bluetooth or the headphones, but I can't listen to music without the audio cutting in and out, especially when the phone is right next to me.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[Skunkape60]

I have wireless headphones connected via Bluetooth. The audio is always choppy when listenng to Pandora, and I would like to know why. My understanding is that there is supposed to be a range of 30ft for the Bluetooth or the headphones, but I can't listen to music without the audio cutting in and out, especially when the phone is right next to me.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

Could it just be Pandora buffering?

 

[cb2367]

I don't think that's the case because it's happening all the time even when there is a good data signal. This does not happen with regular headphones, but the cord doesn't stay connected with regular headphones and the otterbox defender case.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[IAmSixNine]

To address what Skunkape60 was mentioning, play some audio thats loaded on the device instead of streaming. This will eliminate buffering.

I have a pair of Motorola S305 stereo bluetooth headphones and ive ben happy with them over the years, across my multiple devices.
Ive also had issues with plain jane normal BT earpieces that have similar issue as to what your describing. My guess, and its a guess, is that thers a low signal connection, RF interference or a combination.
I know if im in a high wifi area or close to a 2.4ghz wifi hotspot BT has issues..

 

[cb2367]

A better way to describe the audio issue is that its equivalent to playing a CD that is scratched. Everytime the scratch is encountered, the audio will skip. Is there nothing that can be done to improve the audio?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[viper_wolf]

I have had this same problem for years. I think it's more a problem with the OS than any one phone. I started with a Motorola Droid and have since moved to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I've also changed head sets twice. Always had this choppy audio problem.

I use my phone while I jog, depending on how long I jog it can take 45 minutes to 2 hours. The first 15-30 minutes there is no audio problem, but after 30 minutes the sound begins to cut out. At first it seemed to be a head movement thing, as I would really only notice it if I turned my head. This kind of lead me to think maybe the phone was trying to conserve power by only sending a signal strong enough for where the head set was, and if I moved my head it changed the distance. But the signal drop is to often and to constant for that. Also thought the phone might be flooded with internal signals since I was moving, the gyroscopes and accelerometers might have been flooding the OS with signals even with the screen turned off. But one day I stopped and sat on a bench for 15 minutes after the audio started dropping and it didn't stop dropping.

It's also not a streaming problem. When I run I turn off the Mobile Data, Wi-Fi, NFC and GPS so that I can conserve battery. The Galaxy Nexus is a power hog, and I've lost power several times during really long jogs if I didn't turn those off. All my audio is stored on the phone, and played off the internal storage (no SD card on the nexus). There has to be some problem in how the OS handles Bluetooth.

It doesn't drop as much if I'm not jogging, so something with activity does cause the problem to be more pronounced, but I do find the problem still occurs to a lesser degree if I'm just sitting at my desk at work, it's just not as bad. I don't have this problem with wired headset, so it has to be a problem in Bluetooth. I've also started to notice that if I use Bluetooth all day, the music player stops working and I have to reboot the phone.

 

[TheIxian]

I have had this issue for years with Android phones.

I have had a set of Blue Ant headphones for about 5 years and every Android phone or tablet I pair them with have had this choppiness issue no matter how fast the processor speed or version of Android.

When I originally bought the headphones I was using them with a Windows CE device and they worked flawlessly.

I am once again on a Windows phone (Windows Phone 8) and once again, the Bluetooth headphone quality is fantastic and never skips.

 

[Abdul-B]

i am using windows and still having this problem.

 

[atruckenbrodt]

Just came across these postings and have exactly the same problem. Did anyone ever get to a solution of this problem?

Andreas

 

[ideal4ever]

I know it's been a long time since the last post, but just to be helpful to someone else who might stumble upon these posts (as I have before), I've resolved this problem for myself and my solution might be relevant to your situation as well, though it needs your phone to be rooted, which might be an issue for some. Anyhow, when I first encountered the problem of choppy Bluetooth audio, I also did try to find the answer on the internet using google and reading forum posts, but soon realized that the problem is not necessarily with the phone hardware, environment or the software. I suspected it had something to do with the configuration and settings, as in priorities of the processes or things like that. so using an app called OS Monitor I changed niceness value of Bluetooth daemon (/system/bin/bluetoothd) process to -10 and voila, no more jerky music while running.