Choppy audio playback on bluetooth headset (which keeps getting disconnected)

Question

I am running ubuntu 14.04 (64 bit) on Lenovo B480 laptop.

lsusb lists bluetooth chip as follows:-

Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0a5c:21f4 Broadcom Corp.

Output of sudo lspci -vnn -d 14e4:

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:0608]
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
    Memory at 90500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
    Capabilities: [48] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
    Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-43-ff-ff-9c-74-e5
    Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
    Kernel driver in use: wl

kernel logs have these suspicious messages whenever I turn on bluetooth-

[ 7574.775102] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 9 using ehci-pci
[ 7574.871157] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=21f4
[ 7574.871169] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 7574.871175] usb 1-1.4: Product: BCM20702A0
[ 7574.871179] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
[ 7574.871184] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: 446D57C1EF66
[ 7574.872370] usb 1-1.4: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 7574.872374] usb 1-1.4: Falling back to user helper
[ 7574.874053] Bluetooth: can't load firmware, may not work correctly

My problem is that music playback on bluetooth headset is too choppy and the headset never stays connected for more than 2-3 mins. Coupled with crap UI that can't deal with repeated on/off & connection/disconnection scenarios, this problem makes bluetooth unusable.

I have tested the same headset with Nexus 5 and music playback was good. So any defect in headset is ruled out.

I don't mind the problems in UI very much but I wish I could get A2DP streaming going on properly.

I have read this post - How to get a consistent bluetooth audio playback? The solution suggested there had no effect on my problem.

Can anyone suggest how to fix this?

This problem seems to be more than just poor bluetooth connectivity. I tried using my headset again today. — Kanj, Sep 25 '14 at 14:13
I found that when sound break occurs, banshee's UI does not show the progress bar moving. VLC media player just gets muted after sound a break longer than 3-4 seconds occurs. There's no audio even if bluetooth has disconnected and audio is routed back to laptop's 3.5 mm headset output. (Banshee will continue playing music via speakers connected to the laptop via 3.5 mm output when bluetooth headset disconnects.) — Kanj, Sep 25 '14 at 14:21
Sounds like the problem I had. This helped me: https://askubuntu.com/questions/624833/atheros-ar3011-bluetooth-disconnects-when-wireless-lan-is-heavily-loaded — Stefan, Jul 16 '17 at 21:59

Choppy audio playback on bluetooth headset (which keeps getting disconnected)

0 Answers0