Playing audio over a Bluetooth network

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DeeMikey

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#1900 17-Jul-2004 08:43

Hi! I’m using my PDA (iPaq h2210) to play audio from over the Bluetooth network. Problem is that there’s tons of skipping and buffering needed in order to play a 128 kbps MP3.
However, the Windows Task Manager in XP says rarely more than 30% of my Bluetooth network bandwidth is being utilized while I’m playing.
My question is why can’t I play a 128 kbps audio file, when Bluetooth bandwidth is supposed to be 700 kbps. Do I have a faulty Bluetooth dongle or is there something else that’s eating my bandwidth but isn’t being shown in the Task Manger? Thanks!

freitasm

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#7238 17-Jul-2004 09:16

Are you playing from the storage, or are you playing from a stream server (like the Windows Media Encoder)?

If you're playing from a streaming server, does it gette better if you reduce the output to something like 96kbps?

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DeeMikey

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#7239 17-Jul-2004 10:04

Hi Mauricio, I've mapped a network drive on my PC and am playing the audio file directly from the network this way. I find the quality to be better than using Windows Media Encoder, and this way I have direct control over the playback as well.

Yes, it does get better if I play an MP3 that's 96kbps, but even that seems to be a bit much, 64kbps seems to work fine.

But the main thing I don't understand is if the Bluetooth transfer speed is supposed to be 700kpbs, why does it have trouble with 128kpbs. Is there really that much overhead, or does Bluetooth not actually transmit at that speed?

pho_boi

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#7255 19-Jul-2004 14:54

i have the same problem as well, i cant seem to stream any mp3s from 64kbps and up. 64kbps works fine sometimes but it does skip sometimes. i've also tried to use windows media encoder to stream it, but again anything over 64kbps will start to skip........ im begining to think its a problem with the bluetooth technology at the moment. i guess ill wait till i get my CF wifi card :D.......

taniwha

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#7291 20-Jul-2004 14:16

The bluetooth might be 700kbps, but your own BT dongles might not support those speeds
and 700kbps is the maximum speed in perfect conditions (which just doesn't actaully exist).

keep in mind too that the spectrum will be shared - it's the same band as wifi and some appliances like portable phones.
if you're using anything else at the same time, you're sharing. (or maybe clobbering)

DeeMikey

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#7332 22-Jul-2004 09:12

Sometimes I wonder about my dongle quality, but from what I've seen, streaming audio to an iPaq generally has to be pretty low. Do you get quality problems when streaming to a BT headset? I wonder if it's more of an iPaq/PDA issue then it is a problem with dongles or Bluetooth in general.

Interesting tutorial on setting up to stream and still get decent quality using Ogg Vorbis encoded files. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it should work:

http://www.4bitterguys.com/rants/Bluetooth/

freitasm

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#7335 22-Jul-2004 09:26

BT headset from your computer is generaly ok, except that mono. Also if the CPU goes up to more than 95% you'll have some dropouts.

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taniwha

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#7338 22-Jul-2004 12:29

surely you can give you bluetooth service a higher priority and not get dropouts ?