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Level 1

0 points

voicemail audio quality with 2.1 update

Just updated to 2.1, everything seems to work well except voicemail playback. The audio quality of voicemail playback is suddenly terrible, as if the data is being heavily compressed on playback. Never a problem with 2.0.2. I've tested and replicated this problem with EDGE and 3G, the problem is consistent.

Audio quality during calls seems fine, only voicemails sound awful.

Has anyone else encountered this issue with 2.1? Any solutions?

Windows XP

Posted on Sep 12, 2008 12:48 PM

76 replies

Sep 13, 2008 10:38 AM in response to dehlers

After the update the voices of the people who leave voiemais sounds extremely robotic and horrible. What is going on here?

arav1

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2008 10:47 AM in response to neptunepic

I upgraded to 2.1 and since then my phone gives me a black screen when I click on a voicemail message, and I hear it lock up. Has anyone had that issue? I'ev tried rebooting, but that hasn't helped.

Sep 13, 2008 1:53 PM in response to neptunepic

Add me to the folks with tinny voicemail after the 2.1 update...disappointing

Sep 13, 2008 2:33 PM in response to neptunepic

I thought it was just me too. When I listen to voicemails now the quality is terrible.

SSeth

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2008 6:09 PM in response to neptunepic

Also having the same problems with bad visual voicemail quality since 2.1 upgrade. Hope for a solution soon!

J|Spoon

Level 1

20 points

Sep 13, 2008 6:19 PM in response to neptunepic

It is not just the voice mail. Several of us have noticed that the sound quality of the phone calls suck after the 2.1 update. I do not know what Apple did but I would rather go back to a broken iPhone 3G that crashes programs then to have the sound quality of the phone now... I guess I am not the only one that feels this way..

Sep 14, 2008 11:20 AM in response to J|Spoon

It sounds so robotic and terrible for me, this is not acceptable.

CyrDog

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2008 11:57 AM in response to neptunepic

This is the first thing I noticed after the upgrade. Messages received both before and after the upgrade sound tinny. Sound quality doesn't appear to be different. Only voicemail for me.

Technet

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2008 12:28 PM in response to CyrDog

My voice calls are as before - great... Only my voicemessages are being "compressed".. Surely it is the phone company compressing them at their end then sending them to the phone?

neptunepic Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2008 1:11 PM in response to Technet

No, this is not an AT&T problem. If you check your voicemail from any landline, your messages will sound perfectly fine, no compression or distortion. The problem only exists when listening to voicemails from iPhone, probably due to compression added when the messages are pushed and stored to the phone.

This is an Apple issue and must be resolved by Apple.

CyrDog

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2008 1:30 PM in response to Technet

This does NOT appear to be an AT&T issue, unless they are doing something special for delivery to the iPhone but no other phone type. I just checked my voicemail from my landline, and it sounds perfect. I haven't tried another cell phone, though.

Sep 14, 2008 1:32 PM in response to CyrDog

is there difference in audio quality between headsets versus the speaker vs speakerphone?

rimshaker

Level 3

520 points

Sep 14, 2008 2:24 PM in response to neptunepic

Same observation here.

Visual VM msgs are stored locally on the iphone itself, so it's definitely a change in the compression scheme.. for the worse unfortunately.

A slight inconvenience at worst. Definitely implemented to save local space obviously. I can live with lower bitrate audio VM if it serves a greater purpose. The important thing is to have excellent audio quality on LIVE calls. Wouldn't most of you agree?

neptunepic Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2008 9:31 PM in response to rimshaker

Sorry, but the quality of the compression being used is simply unacceptable. Voice-only audio data is extremely compressible while maintaining good quality, and requires very little storage space. We're talking kilobytes of storage required. I doubt Apple would say this was a local storage issue. If that's their excuse, I will lose a lot of respect for them.

It's probably just something that got broken in this firmware or was simply overlooked. Either way Apple should fix it, there's really no reasonable excuse not to.

Sep 14, 2008 9:40 PM in response to neptunepic

As someone pointed out visual voicemail is stored locally. I wonder if the poor quality is related to free space on the iPhone. I haven't noticed any downgrade but I have over 8 gigs free. How much free space do the people experiencing problems have?

voicemail audio quality with 2.1 update