PulseAudio Plugin Allows For Better Bluetooth Audio Quality On Linux

[xiando]

Fedora used to have a copr for this but it's been censored. It used to be https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/co...dules-bt-aptx/
Some discussion about this is on https://github.com/EHfive/pulseaudio...s-bt/issues/20

The audio codecs work fine once installed but there could be a small catch: The latency is a lot worse, notably so. Doesn't matter if you're listening to music, it's immediately obvious when viewing video. It's possible to solve this by adjusting the "Latency offset" in Pulseaudio. Your audio equipment and configuration will vary. In my case there's a latency difference between using SBC and AAC for some strange reason.

This plugin isn't new, btw, it's been around for years. I guess the news is that some guy discovered it and wrote a blog post about it.

[tildearrow]

Typo:

still encumbered by patent/lega issues.

I have a question. Why not stream raw PCM to the headphones/speakers?

[ssokolow]

I have a question. Why not stream raw PCM to the headphones/speakers?

Bandwidth. There's not enough of it.

[miabrahams]

How does one find out which headsets support these improved codecs?

[eydee]

Wake me up when PA has this by default in all major distros:



and also working mic echo cancellation out of the box. I often participate in meetings (Hangouts/Jitsi) and most of my co-workers are on Linux. The only way to have a decent conference call is when everyone but the speaker mutes their microphone 'cause otherwise echo from pretty much everyone kills the experience completely. We are now in 2019 and absolutely basic audio features are not available in Linux. Sigh.

Oh, the thing that makes everything echoy? Just put your head under water, same effect.

[fxdedyms]

tried in my opensuse tumbleweed, then working in my fiio btr3, hope this will be merged in the future.

[grigi]

and also working mic echo cancellation out of the box. I often participate in meetings (Hangouts/Jitsi) and most of my co-workers are on Linux. The only way to have a decent conference call is when everyone but the speaker mutes their microphone 'cause otherwise echo from pretty much everyone kills the experience completely. We are now in 2019 and absolutely basic audio features are not available in Linux. Sigh.

No, we have the mic echo cancellation issues in Hangouts on every system. Be it Windows/Mac/Android/Linux. Hangouts is just terrible with dealing with it. I think you may just be looking for a scapegoat here.

[rene]

You are exactly like my friend, running Firefox on GNU/Linux on a MS Surface and refusing to use PulseAudio.

Maybe I'm your friend ;-) However, trying Surface's as Linux tablet was a fail, can't recommend and will not continue this path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4c3Xlfrm3A

[Sesivany]

This plugin isn't new, btw, it's been around for years. I guess the news is that some guy discovered it and wrote a blog post about it.

Well, I'm not sure about that. The first commit to the repo was in July 2018. Maybe it was available in a different form? It's also mostly about codecs. AptX was reversed-engineered just last last year, LDAC released as open source like 1.5 year ago, so it is pretty new.

The audio codecs work fine once installed but there could be a small catch: The latency is a lot worse, notably so.

Not with my headphones. I didn't adjust latency off-set at all and my video and audio are in sync. Using LDAC and Sony headphones. Maybe your headphones cannot automatically negotiate latency off-set?

[Sesivany]

I really do wonder why Apple pushed on AAC with Bluetooth.

The reason is very simple: they already have content in AAC (music on iTunes and in Apple Music). By using AAC for Bluetooth they don't have to do transcoding which saves some energy on portable devices like iPhone.