I've got a strange situation that I think I've figured out the cause, but I'm not sure how to fully fix it. A little while ago my Logitech wireless headphones (G930) that I used for corporate conference calls died, so I figured it would be a good time to replace them with a Multipoint headset that I could connect to my corporate laptop (a Lenovo) and my iPhone simultaneously. I ended up picking up a pair of Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 headphones, because they were one of the only over-ear ones that incorporated a mute button, a feature I used all the time on my Logitechs. Pairing the Plantronics with my laptop and my iPhone, I was disappointed to learn the mute button didn't work with the corporate softphone, only with the iPhone. So, since it doesn't cost me any extra to do the calls from my iPhone, I started using it for my conference calls instead of the softphone.
This worked for the most part for a while, until my work instituted a new policy that said we couldn't have iTunes installed on our computers anymore (fair enough, it's their hardware). I'm also now working out of the house more and more, with my iMac sitting on my desk next to my work setup, and with me doing the calls from iPhone anyways, so I switched the pairing from my laptop to my iMac. This is where I've started to notice some issues. Whenever I played audio through my iMac to the Plantronics, the audio would be spotty, and you'd hear constant breaks in the stream. I've had a different bluetooth headset paired to the iMac in the past (a Sony DR-BT22) that never exhibited this condition, so I wasn't sure what the issue was. I checked for interference, I've shutdown any background processes, etc... Eventually, my investigations lead me to a bunch of messages in the console that the Bluetooth audio was dropping packets.
error 09:46:24.152024 -0400 bluetoothaudiod Error sending audio packet: 0xe00002e8
error 09:46:24.152078 -0400 bluetoothaudiod Too many outstanding packets. Drop packet of 1 frames (total drops:114 total sent:281 percentDropped:28.860760) Outstanding:17
So, more digging, more investigations, and via Bluetooth Explorer, through some trial and error and some re-paring, etc... I finally figured out that when I have the headphones connected to both my iPhone and iMac, the headphones were in a 'Sniff' mode in the Bluetooth status while playing audio. But if they were only connected to connected to my iMac, then they were in 'Active' mode while playing audio and I didn't get the dropped packets like before. I've tried pairing the headphones to a ton of different devices, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to my iMac having a problem with a Multipoint connection. Everywhere else the headphones work fine connected to two devices simultaneously, and on the iMac they work fine, just not when simultaneously connected to something else.
So, now that I've figured it out, what can I do about it? For now, I've been flipping Bluetooth off on my iPhone (which disconnects it from the headset) whenever I want to play audio on my iMac, but that means I can't answer incoming calls easily anymore, so it's not really a sustainable solution. I'd rather not have to spend money again, but I'm not opposed to picking up a different brand of headset if anyone knows of one that's guaranteed to work, but I don't recall there being a lot of choice in ones with a mute button. I've considered going Beats, due to their Apple integration, despite the lack of mute button, but I've read in some various reviews that they're not true Multipoint, and if I have audio playing from the iMac, the phone won't interrupt them?
Any help or insight is appreciated.
This worked for the most part for a while, until my work instituted a new policy that said we couldn't have iTunes installed on our computers anymore (fair enough, it's their hardware). I'm also now working out of the house more and more, with my iMac sitting on my desk next to my work setup, and with me doing the calls from iPhone anyways, so I switched the pairing from my laptop to my iMac. This is where I've started to notice some issues. Whenever I played audio through my iMac to the Plantronics, the audio would be spotty, and you'd hear constant breaks in the stream. I've had a different bluetooth headset paired to the iMac in the past (a Sony DR-BT22) that never exhibited this condition, so I wasn't sure what the issue was. I checked for interference, I've shutdown any background processes, etc... Eventually, my investigations lead me to a bunch of messages in the console that the Bluetooth audio was dropping packets.
error 09:46:24.152024 -0400 bluetoothaudiod Error sending audio packet: 0xe00002e8
error 09:46:24.152078 -0400 bluetoothaudiod Too many outstanding packets. Drop packet of 1 frames (total drops:114 total sent:281 percentDropped:28.860760) Outstanding:17
So, more digging, more investigations, and via Bluetooth Explorer, through some trial and error and some re-paring, etc... I finally figured out that when I have the headphones connected to both my iPhone and iMac, the headphones were in a 'Sniff' mode in the Bluetooth status while playing audio. But if they were only connected to connected to my iMac, then they were in 'Active' mode while playing audio and I didn't get the dropped packets like before. I've tried pairing the headphones to a ton of different devices, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to my iMac having a problem with a Multipoint connection. Everywhere else the headphones work fine connected to two devices simultaneously, and on the iMac they work fine, just not when simultaneously connected to something else.
So, now that I've figured it out, what can I do about it? For now, I've been flipping Bluetooth off on my iPhone (which disconnects it from the headset) whenever I want to play audio on my iMac, but that means I can't answer incoming calls easily anymore, so it's not really a sustainable solution. I'd rather not have to spend money again, but I'm not opposed to picking up a different brand of headset if anyone knows of one that's guaranteed to work, but I don't recall there being a lot of choice in ones with a mute button. I've considered going Beats, due to their Apple integration, despite the lack of mute button, but I've read in some various reviews that they're not true Multipoint, and if I have audio playing from the iMac, the phone won't interrupt them?
Any help or insight is appreciated.
