Bluetooth Voice Quality Settings

[jkark]

Hello all - sorry for any redundancy but I can't seem to find any posts on this topic. So I'll start a thread and hopefully we can all contribute here.

Like many of you, I have discovered the bluetooth setting in the maintenance screens in the Prius. I've pursued these in the hopes of improving the voice quality of phone calls conducted using the Prius. The outbound (mic) side of the phone calls is pitiful at best and not a function of the phone as far as I can tell.

I have tested numerous phones and most especially the HP6315 and the Blackberry 7100t - both of which I love and both of which work exceptionally well with the Jabra headset both inbound and outbound. WIth the Prius however, neither phone works well outbound (meaning: I speak but my caller can't hear me about 50% of the time). In addition, I've noticed that unless I initiate the call from the MFD, there is about a 5 sec lag before I can hear anything (although the call is set up normally - typicall the person on the other line is wondering what is going on).

I have set the Rcv and Snd settings in the maintenance screen to all sorts of values but none of them seem to do anything. Currently, I think these values are gain numbers with postive meaning an increase in gain - but I have no idea.

I've gotten the best results from Rcv 0, Snd -2 which if these are gain numbers might mean that I am making the mic less sensitive and thus keeping it from cutting on at the slightest noise? I'm guessing...

Anyway, at these settings, my callers hear me about 80% of the time (which is infuriating but it's better than 50%) and I can hear them 99% of the time.

I'm bringing my Prius in for routine maint soon and will ask the tech their what's up with these settings and if this is epxected performance or not.

I'll continue to post info here as I become aware of it.

[dbarry]

I use a Motorola V551 (Cingular) on mine, and it consistently works great.

[dgstan]

I use a Cingular/ATT Motorola V505 (pretty much the same as V551), and I have no problems. My wife wasn't even aware I was calling through the car.

I haven't messed with the Bluetooth settings at all. Do you know anyone with a different BT phone that you could try?


DGStan

[mboileau]

I had a Sony-Ericsson T616 (Cingular) which had really crappy bluetooth quality on the outgoing sound to callers. They complained that I was always cutting in and out and that it just sounded awful.

I now have an Audiovox SMT5600 (which I love!) and the bluetooth quality is completely different. Callers can't even tell I'm in the car or on a handsfree. I haven't touched the bluetooth settings in the car at all.

I do believe that even though these gain settings may help, ultimately you're at the mercy of the quality of your equipment.

Mark

[onerpm]

I can't be of much help here, other than to say that I've had a 7100t for a few months, and have had no complaints about voice quality/cutout incoming or outgoing. I don't use it much for voice, though.

Does the 7100T let you transfer outlook contacts into the Prius? I can't find a Send command anywhere.

rob

[Brenna]

Jkark,

I am having the same problem. I have a Nokia 6820 and when talking through the car, I sound like I am underwater. I have even left myself messages and I am hard to understand.

I have tried adjusting the settings in the maintenance menu, which helped a little but not nearly the voice quality of an earbud.

The Cingular people don't seem to know anything about bluetooth, so they were no help. I have been thinking about buying a different phone (probably the V551 - which has gotten good reviews here - for $79.) to see if the poor quality is from the Nokia. Cingular said that if the new phone wasn't what I wanted (i.e. still crappy quality) I could return it within 30 days for a full refund.

Please keep us posted with any solutions you find.

Thanks Brenna

[V8Cobrakid]

Motorola V551 Here too.. works awesome. Sound quality is great. People can't tell i'm on a car phone. They hear me better and i can hear them better. I can even hear them typing.

[jkark]

Thanks all for the info and replies... I think I can get my hands on an Erikson phone that has bluetooth and try that. Also there's another version of the blackberry (7100v) that uses verzion instead of tmobile and is a different device entirely.

I love the 7100t because of the calendar/email integration with work (they both stay current 24x7 over the air) but have not been able to get the contacts to transfer over either (I couldn't figure it out anyway).

As you might see from another post from me elsewhere on PriusChat, I MIGHT be having electrical problems in my Prius. IF that's true and a component was failing somehow, it is possible that there was all sorts of RF being emitted that interfered with things. it's a long shot because if true, I would also expect that I'd hear some of this interference on the radio and you'd think that both listening and talking would be affected on the call... anyway, just a thought. I will ask the tech and post more info if I figure anything else out, especially tests with other phones.

thanks all

[jkark]

OK - I've been able to test the Prius with different phone combinations. Here are the results:

Scoring
excellent means you could not tell it was a cell call, very poor means I would never use the phone under these conditions so we have a scale:

excellent, very good, good, poor, very poor, did not work

Through the Prius
Device: HP6315
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: good (tinny)
outbound (sent) voice quality: poor (every other word lost)
Device: Blackberry 7100t
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: good (tinny)
outbound (sent) voice quality: very poor (highly variable: 20-100% loss)
Device: Sony Ericsson T610
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: good (tinny)
outbound (sent) voice quality: good (very slight echo)

Through the Jabra headset
Device: HP6315
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: excellent
outbound (sent) voice quality: excellent
Device: Blackberry 7100t
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: excellent
outbound (sent) voice quality: excellent
Device: Sony Ericsson T610
inbound (rcvd) voice quality: did not test yet (but presume excellent)
outbound (sent) voice quality: did not test yet (but presume excellent)

Methods:
- I performed all the tests in the same location with the same carrier (TMobile) at full signal strength. Phones were at full charge and I simply moved my SIM from one phone to the next and rebooted both the phone and the car each time.

- Called my voicemail and left a standard message ("this is a test", then I counted 1-10)

- Then I called the same person each time and asked them how the quality was (they were getting annoyed after a while so this may have affected the score :-))

- For the BT connection, I turned encryption on/off (didn't matter), and tried Snd at -2 and 0 in the maintenance menu (also did not matter).

I cannot explain these results yet but I am curious as to how they compare to other's experience with the 6315 or 7100t. The poor performance does not seem to be due to the phone itself (since they both work with the Jabra) or the Prius (since the T610 works great). Instead it seems to be some interaction between the 7100t/6315 and the Prius.

I will be checking with RIM to see if there is an update available for the phone's software by some chance and will post the results.

[Quickster]

I use an unlocked GSM Treo 650 that I have had for about two months and everyone I talk with says the quality is excellent. No complaints about being in a tunnel or sounding nasale or other phone related anomalies.

Incidentally, if anyone uses a Palm device and wants to help me finish my QuickMPG application, as in beta testing, send me an email. The application works well, been using it myself for a couple of years but would like to move out with it and put it on my web site. www.thequickster.com