[brudgers]

It is happening because it works the way that is most useful to most people. The number of people who want to use bluetooth earbuds with a different microphone is line noise in the consumer market.

Implementing special requirements is always inconvenient for users because no B2C wants to risk bad the-microphone-didn’t-work reviews, customer returns, and support tickets.

Nevermind coordinating with arbitrary USB microphone latency…I’ve got one with 250ms of it.

[thaumasiotes]

> It is happening because it works the way that is most useful to most people. The number of people who want to use bluetooth earbuds with a different microphone is line noise in the consumer market.

I don't think you have any idea what you're saying. The scenario I'm describing is when you want to use a bluetooth headset that includes a microphone. Using a different microphone is how you solve the problem.

[brudgers]

I have never had a microphone problem with a bluetooth headset. They all always just work until something mechanical breaks through use.

If I had an issue, wired headphones seem a simpler solution than changing the bluetooth standard and more likely to work than wishing manufacturers changed their devices.

[thaumasiotes]

So, the standard defines behavior that is obviously pathological, actively working against the needs of all users. But because it's already codified, it's a bad idea to change it?

[brudgers]

Works for my needs.

If it didn't, I'd use wires.

Or something else.

[redeeman]

it happens because bluetooth profile for audio+microphone uses different codecs and has less bandwidth, due to being used for realtime communication.

the bluetooth audio streaming profile enables more codecs, but only playback, and allows significantly higher latency that you wouldnt accept on a call

[Dylan16807]

> and allows significantly higher latency that you wouldnt accept on a call

That latency is also a millstone. We can do much better, but the standard lags and implementations lag even more.

[thaumasiotes]

My personal bluetooth ear clips do something much worse than adding latency - if they're not currently playing something, and a sound is supposed to come through, they omit the beginning of the sound while they get ready to become active or whatever it is they're doing.

Just delaying the sound and playing all of it would be a big improvement.

(Though that would fail badly for watching videos. That's something that uses 'headphones' mode anyway - why is latency OK there? It isn't.

My ear clips do add some latency, a noticeable amount, when I'm watching a video with mpv, and I adjust that by altering the A/V sync setting. They don't do the same thing when I'm watching something on youtube. I'd like to know what's going on there.)

[redeeman]

well you wont get any argument from me that things could be significantly better.

> why is latency OK there? It isn't.

well.. if you listen to music, you probably dont care too much, but if you're talking to someone, you do.

whats much worse is also that latency is not constant.