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Bluetooth audio lag

Just updated (17th.Oct.2014) to OS X Yosemite. Im having trouble with bluetooth connection. There is an audio lag on my bluetooth headphone which progressively gets worse. Im using Sony DR-BTN 200. Is there a temporary solution until they fix it?


P.S. I found others with similar issues as well. Ive tried re-pairing the connection to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 9:27 AM

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436 replies

Dec 15, 2014 1:17 AM in response to mommu

Just happened to pull out my very very old iPhone 3GS 16GB that I bought 6,7 years ago, jailbroken with iOS 5.1.1 (if i'm not mistaken) and it works absolutely perfectly with my JBL onbeat awake using bluetooth. It appears to me there is some incompatibility between Apple's latest software and the speaker's firmware. So if you have a similar problem like mine, just pull out an old Apple device if you have one and use it, or wait for the latest fix, or downgrade the operating system (not recommended!)

Dec 18, 2014 10:16 AM in response to mommu

Just wanted to jump in since I am new to the party. I have Bose Mini Soundlink and mid-2014 MBP w/Retina. I experience horrible lag since the "upgrade" to Yosemite, random disconnects, when I disconnect my speaker iTunes randomly opens or starts playing if it is open, and Spotify randomly just stops playing music. I use my speaker all the time. I spent alot of money on an Apple device because I expected great QA on their hardware/software - if I wanted to deal with issues like this I would have bought a lenovo and saved my money. At least when Windows machines have issues work arounds crop up after a few weeks. This is ridiculous, can't even use my stuff on which I spent mucho dinero. I hope the 10.10.2 update fixes it. If not I will seriously consider selling the MBP.

Dec 19, 2014 2:23 AM in response to mommu

Just want to add to the discussion.


I've also experienced problems with BT audio since I upgraded to Yosemite (10.10). Sometimes it seems as if audio is 'repeated' partly, which means that get something like thi-this, and i-it's REALLY annoying! I'm not sure if there is a an actual lag in the audio.


Initially I thought it might be related to my audio device (Jawbone Jambox), but now I'm also experiencing the same problems with a BT headphone (Philips SHB4000). It's also not really related to specific Mac hardware, as I'm experiencing the problems with both my macBook Air (13" Mid 2013) and an older iMac (21" Spring 2010).


The upgrade to Yosemite 10.10.1 didn't bring any improvements, and now I'm hoping that the 1010.2 update will solve this issue.


Finally, a more technical remark on the issue: So currently I'm experiencing this 'doubling' (don't know how to call it otherwise) of short parts of audio, but I don't experience a real lag. Also not something like an increase in lag after some time. This brings me to believe that there's a problem with the communication stack itself in the way that audio packets may be lost, and then retransmitted, and re-amplified; or something like that.


It can't be that the macBook's transfer rate has increased, so it is (a little bit) higher than the audio device's receiving rate? Maybe stupid thought, but might be worthwhile to check...

Dec 20, 2014 6:27 AM in response to mommu

The storage of the Bluetooth audio values have been changed in Mavericks / Yosemite the defaults are now with a process called “Bluetoothaudiod”, you can change the defaults by using the following example:

Sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Apple Bitpool Min" 50

Please see below all the parameters I have changed, to read the defaults please enter the following command in terminal:

sudo defaults read bluetoothaudiod

enter your password:

MacBook-Pro:~ Ciaran$ sudo defaults read bluetoothaudiod

{

"AAC Bitrate" = 320;

"AAC CBR" = 1;

"Apple Bitpool Max" = 64;

"Apple Bitpool Min" = 50;

"Apple Initial Bitpool" = 50;

"Disable AAC codec" = 0;

"Disable AptX codec" = 0;

"Disable HFP" = 0;

"Enable AptX codec" = 1;

These setting work well with my Bose Soundink OE headphones, please be careful entering the values as they are case sensitive, I really hope this helps some of you out there.

Cheers.

Dec 20, 2014 6:11 PM in response to Ciaran Power

Nope. The thing is, the Bluetooth pane sees it no problem. It connects and the computer sees it fine. Just the Sound pane doesn't see it. The Bluetooth pane even shows that it's an external sound item. However, if I use the option key on the Bluetooth menu item, the Active Code shows as not active.


Either way, these settings haven't helped and now I can't hear anything through my bluetooth headphones. Can't find the file, otherwise I'd delete it and see if that would fix it.


Also, when I had done the bitrate to 50 but none of the other settings, it was still lagging, but the sound pane saw the headphones. Something in the other settings has disabled the headphones from the sound pane.

Dec 22, 2014 2:47 AM in response to lastlaststar

yeah me too mac book pro 2010 with wireless dre beats and a thompson sound bar both lag. lag gets worst over time. it works best with vlc, and worst with safari espically youtube. im very disappointed after spending so much i cant even listen to a song or watch a youtube video im gutted its the holidays i wanted to zone out and watch some movies i cant even do that im absolutly gutted. I would have expect the great god in the sky apple to fix it as its been about 4 weeks since i upgraded. i dont want to take this junk to cash converts but whats the point in having stuff that dont work i would have brought a windows computer if i wanted that kind of unfunctioning rubbish

Bluetooth audio lag

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