Public bug reported: Bluetooth HSP/HFP audio quality is poor on Ubuntu comparative to all other major platforms (Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS, Android, iOS).
Modern Bluetooth headsets (such as the Bose QC series headphones, many others) are capable of using HFP 1.6 with mSBC 16kHz audio encoding. As it currently stands, Ubuntu defaults to only supporting HSP headsets using 8kHz CVSD, and is incapable of supporting HFP 1.6 at this time. The ChromiumOS team recently tackled this issue - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=843048 Their efforts may assist in bringing this to Ubuntu, however it appears that there are quite a lot of differences considering they have developed their own audio server solution etc. The Bluetooth Telephony Working Group published the HFP 1.6 spec in May 2011 - https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?doc_id=238193 Patches have been proposed in the past for this issue to the kernel and PulseAudio: PulseAudio: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/245272/ Kernel: https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-bluetooth/msg76982.html It appears that the Chromium OS team applied the same kernel patch: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+/77dd0cb94c1713a8a12f6e392955dfa64c430e54 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04 Package: pulseaudio 1:12.2-2ubuntu3 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-20.21-generic 5.0.8 Uname: Linux 5.0.0-20-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27.1 Architecture: amd64 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: jnappi 2777 F.... pulseaudio CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Sat Jul 27 11:08:29 2019 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-11-04 (629 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018) ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: pulseaudio UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-07-18 (9 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 06/07/2016 dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO dmi.bios.version: R07ET67W (2.07 ) dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available dmi.board.name: 20FW000TUS dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO dmi.board.version: SDK0J40705 WIN dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO dmi.chassis.version: None dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrR07ET67W(2.07):bd06/07/2016:svnLENOVO:pn20FW000TUS:pvrThinkPadT460p:rvnLENOVO:rn20FW000TUS:rvrSDK0J40705WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone: dmi.product.family: ThinkPad T460p dmi.product.name: 20FW000TUS dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20FW_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad T460p dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T460p dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO ** Affects: pulseaudio (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug disco -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1838151 Title: Poor quality audio with modern Bluetooth headsets in HSP/HFP. Missing wide band speech support. Status in pulseaudio package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Bluetooth HSP/HFP audio quality is poor on Ubuntu comparative to all other major platforms (Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS, Android, iOS). Modern Bluetooth headsets (such as the Bose QC series headphones, many others) are capable of using HFP 1.6 with mSBC 16kHz audio encoding. As it currently stands, Ubuntu defaults to only supporting HSP headsets using 8kHz CVSD, and is incapable of supporting HFP 1.6 at this time. The ChromiumOS team recently tackled this issue - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=843048 Their efforts may assist in bringing this to Ubuntu, however it appears that there are quite a lot of differences considering they have developed their own audio server solution etc. The Bluetooth Telephony Working Group published the HFP 1.6 spec in May 2011 - https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?doc_id=238193 Patches have been proposed in the past for this issue to the kernel and PulseAudio: PulseAudio: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/245272/ Kernel: https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-bluetooth/msg76982.html It appears that the Chromium OS team applied the same kernel patch: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+/77dd0cb94c1713a8a12f6e392955dfa64c430e54 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04 Package: pulseaudio 1:12.2-2ubuntu3 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-20.21-generic 5.0.8 Uname: Linux 5.0.0-20-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27.1 Architecture: amd64 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: jnappi 2777 F.... pulseaudio CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Sat Jul 27 11:08:29 2019 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-11-04 (629 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018) ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: pulseaudio UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-07-18 (9 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 06/07/2016 dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO dmi.bios.version: R07ET67W (2.07 ) dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available dmi.board.name: 20FW000TUS dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO dmi.board.version: SDK0J40705 WIN dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO dmi.chassis.version: None dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrR07ET67W(2.07):bd06/07/2016:svnLENOVO:pn20FW000TUS:pvrThinkPadT460p:rvnLENOVO:rn20FW000TUS:rvrSDK0J40705WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone: dmi.product.family: ThinkPad T460p dmi.product.name: 20FW000TUS dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20FW_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad T460p dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T460p dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1838151/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
