Got a very specific Bluetooth headphone issue...

[MaxiBash]

I've been using a JBL Tune500 for more than a year now, and since recently, more and more issues started to creep up where my headphones would stutter but only on YouTube.

I've tried reconnecting. Didn't fix it.
I restarted my computer. Didn't fix it.
I disconnected other wireless devices. Didn't fix it.
I fully charged my headphones. Didn't fix it.
I terminated a bunch of background applications that were eating into my system resources. Didn't fix it.
I paired my headphones with another device. Plays fine.
I opened an application and closed my browser. Plays fine.
I youtube-dl'd a video and played that through VLC. Plays fine.
I opened another website besides YouTube where audio plays a big role (such as Soundcloud). Plays fine.
I installed a completely different webbrowser and played YouTube through that. Back to audio stuttering, didn't fix it.
I've looked for updated drivers, couldn't find any.

Is this just a YouTube thing or is my hardware shit?

 

[sarkwalvein]

Does youtube audio also stutter in your PC when you use speakers or wired headphones?

 

[MaxiBash]

Does youtube audio also stutter in your PC when you use speakers or wired headphones?

Nope. Also gave one of the Invidious instances a try which produced no crackle and even set YouTube to 144p which minimized the crackling. Also went into an incognito tab where none of my plugins are enabled, and there's still crackling. This is a YouTube issue that only exists with my setup.

But if anyone thinks this is an acceptable way of watching videos, I'll recommend you a new pair of glasses.

 

[Hayato213]

Seem like to be the headphone

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1244614-stuttering-audio-when-using-jbl-bt-headphones/

 

[fringle]

The only thing I can think of that may work is a different bluetooth dongle. Since you're using the internal one it could possibly be interference or a different version from what the headphones use. Maybe try uninstalling the bluetooth driver and reinstalling it. In device manager just right click on everything bluetooth and choose uninstall then reboot and this should reinstall the drivers. If it's an option also try rolling back to a previous driver if the issue is only recent.

Edit:
Also if you have them paired to more than one device make sure bluetooth is off on the second device as not not cause interfearence. Also there was another fix I read that was to turn the headphones off but don't pair them. Hit the volume down a couple of times and re-pair them with the device and see if that changes anything. These headphones have their own preamp and this is suppose to help.

 

[MaxiBash]

Maybe try uninstalling the bluetooth driver and reinstalling it. In device manager just right click on everything bluetooth and choose uninstall then reboot and this should reinstall the drivers. If it's an option also try rolling back to a previous driver if the issue is only recent.

Also there was another fix I read that was to turn the headphones off but don't pair them. Hit the volume down a couple of times and re-pair them with the device and see if that changes anything. These headphones have their own preamp and this is suppose to help.

Tried both of these things. After reinstalling the drivers and restarting, I got fine audio for about five minutes before returning to an audio cracklefest.

Seem like to be the headphone

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1244614-stuttering-audio-when-using-jbl-bt-headphones/

Makes me feel like this could be an issue with my headphones degrading over time, but at the same time it can't be if this only happens on YouTube.

And just for the record, this is the only Bluetooth device I have paired. Disconnected my mouse for a change, didn't fix it.

 

[Hayato213]

Tried both of these things. After reinstalling the drivers and restarting, I got fine audio for about five minutes before returning to an audio cracklefest.


Makes me feel like this could be an issue with my headphones degrading over time, but at the same time it can't be if this only happens on YouTube.

And just for the record, this is the only Bluetooth device I have paired. Disconnected my mouse for a change, didn't fix it.
View attachment 345916

See if the issue exist on another computer playing youtube video, if it exist, you probably would want to get another brand headphone

 

[fringle]

Tried both of these things. After reinstalling the drivers and restarting, I got fine audio for about five minutes before returning to an audio cracklefest.


Makes me feel like this could be an issue with my headphones degrading over time, but at the same time it can't be if this only happens on YouTube.

And just for the record, this is the only Bluetooth device I have paired. Disconnected my mouse for a change, didn't fix it.
View attachment 345916

Could possibly be compression artifacts from what ever compression method youtube uses on their audio as well. If it's an older headset or bluetooth type mismatch maybe it doesn't have the bandwidth capability to decode it properly.

Check control panel, sound, playback tab and double click your headphones, go to the advanced tab and try changing the default format to see if you can get one that doesn't produce the clicking. If it's set to 32bit 48000hz try 32bit 44100 hz. That might fix it.

 

[MaxiBash]

See if the issue exist on another computer playing youtube video, if it exist, you probably would want to get another brand headphone

Somewhere above in this thread but I gave it a try anyway:

I paired my headphones with another device. Plays fine.

Didn't stutter once.

Also tried one of my controllers which refuses to reconnect until I restart and after another unpair I can't reconnect them and give fringle's advice a try. My headphones now also stutter on Discord so it's getting progressively worse. Long story short, I uninstalled the bluetooth drivers as whatever internal bluetooth hardware is in here has turned to shit and is getting worse by the day. This laptop already has a broken 2nd GPU to a point that my computer locks up unless I go into safe mode and manually disable it, so it says something about the state of this laptop.

Are there any external dongles out there that people can praise?

 

[Kazesama]

Might be due to interference from other devices, such as your smartphones and/or WiFi. I used to experience sound stuttering here and there with my bluetooth headset. But ever since I started using LAN instead of WiFi in my home network, I rarely get any stutters.. (WiFi network is Off)

Try turning off your WiFi network to see if there's any changes/improvement as a test, if it does improve your headset connection, try changing the channel of the WiFi frequency etc.

 

[fringle]

Somewhere above in this thread but I gave it a try anyway:

Didn't stutter once.

Also tried one of my controllers which refuses to reconnect until I restart and after another unpair I can't reconnect them and give fringle's advice a try. My headphones now also stutter on Discord so it's getting progressively worse. Long story short, I uninstalled the bluetooth drivers as whatever internal bluetooth hardware is in here has turned to shit and is getting worse by the day. This laptop already has a broken 2nd GPU to a point that my computer locks up unless I go into safe mode and manually disable it, so it says something about the state of this laptop.

Are there any external dongles out there that people can praise?

Maybe also try installing the bluetooth driver directly from intel rather than windows update.

https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca.../wireless/legacy-intel-wireless-products.html

Could be worth a shot but can't be sure if it will work for you.

 

[MaxiBash]

Maybe also try installing the bluetooth driver directly from intel rather than windows update.

https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca.../wireless/legacy-intel-wireless-products.html

Could be worth a shot but can't be sure if it will work for you.

Got the drivers from a site that mirrored them from Lenovo's website since they were all taken down there. Maybe the driver support assistant recommends something different...hopefully.

Might be due to interference from other devices, such as your smartphones and/or WiFi. I used to experience sound stuttering here and there with my bluetooth headset. But ever since I started using LAN instead of WiFi in my home network, I rarely get any stutters.. (WiFi network is Off)

Try turning off your WiFi network to see if there's any changes/improvement as a test, if it does improve your headset connection, try changing the channel of the WiFi frequency etc.

I used a 2nd laptop at the same spot using the same wifi and using the same wifi frequency. No stutter even once. Also doesn't help that it stutters exclusively while playing videos from YouTube (and on occasion on Discord) so turning the wifi off defeats the purpose.

And before you ask, I already tried another browser. Didn't fix it.

 

[RAHelllord]

The headphones are BT4.2 and only support SBC as a codec, so literally any cheap Bluetooth dongle with a reputable Qualcomm chip on the inside will work.

Theoretically the decoding from the YouTube AAC format to SBC for the bluetooth transmission should be trivial for your PC to perform, and it's likely YouTube updated something on their end that is now making it harder. You could try enabling or disabling hardware acceleration in your browser and see if that works as a workaround.

How much is your CPU being used playing back something on YouTube compared to playing the same video back locally via VLC? Is it a big difference or roughly the same?
Assuming playing it back online uses a lot more CPU you could try being a bit more aggressive with browser add-ons and had a combination of Disconnect and uBlock Origin to try and keep random scriots running in the background to a minimum.

 

[MaxiBash]

Check control panel, sound, playback tab and double click your headphones, go to the advanced tab and try changing the default format to see if you can get one that doesn't produce the clicking. If it's set to 32bit 48000hz try 32bit 44100 hz. That might fix it.

Headphones only support 16-bit Stereo at 44100 Hz.

You could try enabling or disabling hardware acceleration in your browser and see if that works as a workaround.

Nope, hardware acceleration was turned on by default and turning it off to see if it made a difference made the video completely unwatchable.

How much is your CPU being used playing back something on YouTube compared to playing the same video back locally via VLC? Is it a big difference or roughly the same?

Did a quick check. YouTube gives Chrome an average between 10% / 16% CPU usage with occasional spikes at 34%, though I didn't hear any crackling during those spikes. VLC had zero CPU usage, so I'm guessing hardware acceleration is turned on by default on that too.

Assuming playing it back online uses a lot more CPU you could try being a bit more aggressive with browser add-ons and had a combination of Disconnect and uBlock Origin to try and keep random scriots running in the background to a minimum.

Installed Disconnect and uBlock Origin, no difference. Also tried loading the page in incognito with all plugins disabled, still no difference.

Theoretically the decoding from the YouTube AAC format to SBC for the bluetooth transmission should be trivial for your PC to perform, and it's likely YouTube updated something on their end that is now making it harder.

Starting to lean more and more towards this now, since other instances such as Invidious still produce a little bit of crackling near the beginning of playing a video, but after that it plays without a hitch. This happened from one day to the other too without having changed any settings.