Observation regarding Motorola s9 headset (a2dp) and 1.0.3
 

I noticed this in the store when I was demo'ing my headset under helmi's 1.0.1 - it skipped like crazy right then and there.. but later that night when I tried it (they had a return policy so I took it home to test it out) it was playing perfectly..

I just upgraded to 1.0.3 - and checked the various registry settings out of the box.. the bitpool was set to 30...

Connected the s9 - and tested - it was skipping big time.. checked the registry settings - something had set the registry to bitpool 58 (hklm/software/microsoft/bluetooth/a2dp/settings)

rebooted, and it's not skippng anymore.. i.e. at sync time, it's setting the correct registry setting - but of course that's not taking effect until a reboot..

just food for thought..

Also - has anyone played with settings to get higher quality audio out of this headset?

-mark

btw - interesting post here -

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308752

I'm going to experiment with what the author is saying to try.. specfically, leaving off the bitpool/bitmax and letting the stack figure it out.
-mark

I tried the three reg edits in that post and WOW - Hello bass -- goodbye hiss! I am running the 3.5 helmi 1.02 hybrid kitchen and I can't tell the difference between my bluetooth headphones and my wired set.

Only one problem. I am back to getting SKIPS at the beginning of songs! I wonder if there is some compromise edits???????? I'll try messing around with them a bit.

OK, I am now using only the last regedit in the post from xda. It has elimitated almost all of the hissing usually present. I still feel like the bass sounds a little better than usual, but I think that removing step number 2 in the post fixed the skipping but lost a little bass.

Here's the regedit I am using (option number three). "Finding #1" is already in the 3.5 helmi 1.02 kitchen I am using:

Finding #3:

This is optional, and a matter of preference.

ADD the following value to the registry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings:
Name: SampleRate
Value (DWORD): 48000 (decimal)

This forces the A2DP stack to send the audio to the headset at 48000Hz instead of the default 44100Hz. For some reason, I find that the 48Khz value makes the "hissing" sounds less obvious. Your findings may vary, as some people may prefer the slightly more forward sound of the original setting. But if you are game, give this a try - one thing for sure is that it definitely changes the sound quality.

To reverse the change, just remove the SampleRate value.

If you make this 3rd optional change, you should have the following values in the registry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings:

UseJointStereo = 1
SampleRate = 48000

I'm getting skips too about once/30 seconds of minute... very distracting.

I'm going to experiment with jointsterio=1 but leaving the bitrates in there next...

my experience with this device is that setting anythin to auto is a recipe for disaster. (i.e. auto mic volume...)

-mark

warning about the jointstereo setting - it changes your output to mono (just coming out of both speakers but without left/right seperation..)

jointstereo=2 does true joint stereo (with seperation) - jointstereo=0 means that it really pipes left channel to left / right channel to right (without combining/saving bandwidth on the common elements..)

I'm experimenting with different values right now.. currently listening with jointstereo=0 bitrate and maxbitrate=128 (just picked a random number) - seems to sound great.. Would love for others to try higher bitrate settings and see what happens...

edit - maxbitreate/bitrate = 160 was giving me quite a bit of skipping.. trying jointstereo=2 max/bit = 128 again.. seems to be the sweet spot? Sounds great.. Would love to hear other people's opinions..

BTW - if it makes a difference - i'm using coreplayer for my music.. (uses less battery then windows media player, but works w/ remote/library/etc...


-mark

I am going to try jointstereo=2. Funny I didn't notice that there was no seperation.

The default that was in 3.5 helmi 1.0.2 on the bitrates are:
MaxSupportedBitPool =1e
BitPool=1e

What does 1e translate to? Thought I'd ask before I try changing em.

I did the registry changes on mine and it works flawlessly. My only question is it a way to have your custom ringtones come through the headset?

1e = 30... It's hex.. Here's a hex translator online -
http://www.statman.info/conversions/hexadecimal.html

btw - ran most of the day today with bitrate/maxbitrate = 128 and jointstereo=2.. So far so good.. Slight (barely noticeable) skipping at the beginning of the song, but then pretty smooth - and it sounds great! For what it's worth I'm using coreplayer.. (found it to use less CPU then windows mobile player and generally be better/have more features...) - my music is re-encoded @ 128kb wma...
-mark

Not sure about ringtones...
 

One issue that I have with this setup - sometimes Microsoft voice command's answer (dial xxx xxx xxxx?) does not come through.. reboot seems to fix it... anyone else see this?

once it starts working it keeps working until the next reset... (just sometimes after a reset it doesn't work..)

-mark