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Bluetooth 6.2 – more responsive, improves security, USB comms, and testing

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219 points zdw | 7 comments | 06 Nov 25 00:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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7373737373 ◴[12 Nov 25 07:43 UTC] No.45897366[source]▶
Does this finally fix the shitty audio quality when using a wireless headset's microphone?
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reegnz ◴[12 Nov 25 12:03 UTC] No.45899129[source]▶
The trick I'm using (at least on laptops, cannot do this on phones AFAICT) is to change the input device to the laptop's own microphone to get my earphones to not use HFP (Hands Free Profile) and instead stay in a better quality codec (AAC, LDAC, AptX, SBC, whatever your devices agree upon).

Sound quality for my calls on both sides improved dramatically! Since I've discovered this, I tell all my colleagues in our zoom meetings to switch microphones and it's immediately better for everyone on the call (not just the user that was using HFP).

This is because if you use the hands free profile, it'll use a codec that encodes your voice in a terribly bad bitrate, and even worse, the sound you hear in the headphones is also using a terribly low bitrate.

They should finally fix HFP (Hands Free Profile) spec as it's literally impacting call quality for billions of people.

Edit: apparently LE audio is a thing, but device support is still terrible.

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1. HPsquared ◴[12 Nov 25 12:11 UTC] No.45899197[source]▶
HFP has less latency though, doesn't it? And using the headset mic is probably better if the room is loud or has poor acoustics.
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2. reegnz ◴[12 Nov 25 12:16 UTC] No.45899239[source]▶
To be fair, even with no noise, the HFP has such bad encoding that it doesn't mean much if the room is noisy or not.

Also the sound isolation tech should be orthogonal to using HFP.

3. embedding-shape ◴[12 Nov 25 12:22 UTC] No.45899286[source]▶
> And using the headset mic is probably better if the room is loud or has poor acoustics.

Not to mention the combination of "microphone in the laptop body + person who doesn't turn off their microphone when they're not speaking + person who seems to never stop typing during a call" tends to be distracting at best.

replies(1): >>45899410 #
4. reegnz ◴[12 Nov 25 12:37 UTC] No.45899410[source]▶
Bluetooth codecs/profiles do not enforce social norms. And I hope they never will.

EDIT: they also won't get rid of useless meetings where people are not mentally present but do other stuff instead.

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5. embedding-shape ◴[12 Nov 25 13:19 UTC] No.45899780{3}[source]▶
> Bluetooth codecs/profiles do not enforce social norms

Guess I gotta correct my assumptions then, I clearly thought they did.

Regardless, microphones built-in the same body people type against will remain a personal pet-peeve for me.

6. HPsquared ◴[12 Nov 25 13:57 UTC] No.45900234{3}[source]▶
One must follow protocol!
7. jasomill ◴[12 Nov 25 16:07 UTC] No.45901867[source]▶
Sure, but janky $30 wireless gaming headsets have even lower latency, with better audio quality, than Bluetooth handsfree, so it's still sad that anything still uses it.