[pulseaudio-discuss] Setting Bluetooth headset connection to *both* A2DP _AND_ HSP at the same time?

[Alexander Skwar]

Hello,

Am 14.09.2011 11:40, schrieb Luiz Augusto von Dentz:
> Hi Alexander,
>
> On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:39 PM, Alexander Skwar
> <alexanders.mailinglists+nospam at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Am 09.09.2011 21:52 schrieb "Johan Hedberg"<johan.hedberg at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>> Hi Alexander,
>>
>> ...
>>
>>> Firstly, you should be a bit more precise: I assume you're talking about
>>> having audio streams active to both profiles at the same time, and not
>>> about them being connected (but having an audio stream inactive) at the
>>> same time.
>>>
>>
>> Well, let me try to describe what I would like to get.
>>
>> I want to hear music and i also want to be able to use VoIP.

That's the key here.

>> For music, I need a2dp, for VoIP, I need hsp. But when I enable a2dp
>> output/profile in the phonon settings or with the pacmd command, I can no
>> longer select the p311 as a recording device in phonon and it is also not
>> shown in ekiga and other apps for input (only for output).
>>
>> When I select hsp, I can select the p311 as a recording device, but when I
>> play music in amarok or the like, it sounds terrible (because the sound
>> quality of hsp is bad, but good enough for VoIP).
>>
>> Hsp doesn't really have to be active most of the time, only when I actually
>> use VoIP. The VoIP is open all day long. But when I am actually in a call,
>> a2dp can (and actually SHOULD) be off. No need to listen to music while
>> talking… ;-)
>
> Most headset cannot handle streaming simultaneously in both a2dp +
> hfp, but it seems you only need one or the other and for that you can
> use the card profile to switch.

Well, this basically means, that it's not going to work at all, doesn't
it? Reason:

If headset/connection is in a2dp mode, I cannot select the headset as an
input device. It's not offered. Thus I cannot configure my VoIP client
to use the headset as an input device. If I were to configure my VoIP
client, then the headset has to be in hsp/hfp profile. But that means
crummy music. As soon as I'd switch to "music mode" (ie. a2dp), the VoIP
client would lose the configured input device, wouldn't it?

I base my assumption on the observation, that the input device "goes
away", as soon as I switch to a2dp and comes back, when I go to hsp.
This is with the Phonon backend of KDE 4.6.0 of openSUSE 11.4.

>>> The default BlueZ behavior when connecting a headset, and also something
>>> recommended in Bluetooth white papers, is to always have both profiles
>>> connected.
>>
>> Aha. That is why both connect, when I connect to one in the Bluetooth icon
>> in the system tray of KDE.
>
> If KDE uses org.bluez.Audio.Connect then yes both profiles gonna be

I don't know what KDE uses.

> connect, but note that only one will be streaming/active.
>
>> Is it possible to get what I would like to get?
>
> Yes, but iirc there is no audio policy to do this automatically for
> you, so you gonna have to manually select the profile you want to use
> e.g. for VoIP switch to hfp and for media player switch to a2dp.

This "Yes" is a strong "No". I'd like to start _BOTH_ the music
app (eg. Amarok) *AND* the VoIP client (eg. Ekiga) in the morning
at the same time. Both apps are running all day long (in the case
of Ekiga/VoIP, that's actually a must, because else I would not be
reachable via VoIP).

Oh, well, guess Linux + Bluetooth audio really is not there yet.
Especially considering, that it seems like it cannot even keep up
a good enough connection and thus is Skipping A LOT of bytes :(
As mentioned before:

I think I'm gonna ditch Bluetooth. Too complicated to setup on Linux. :(

Alexander
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