Bluetooth headphones have delay (lag)

Question

I've recently switched to a pair of Bluetooth headphones on my laptop. But when I use them the sound is lagging by 3/10th of a second.

I used this video to check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZl6vQ_8Uo

Is this normal for Bluetooth headhpones/speakers or is this something that can be fixed either with drivers (hopefully) or better quality devices?

The sound is great, and as long its just streaming music its fine. but gaming or video watching causes out of lip sync issues.

I'm using a Dell inspirion 15" 7000 series. with Betron BN15 headset.

Answer 1

There will always be SOME delay, compared to wired headphones.
Bluetooth transmission is not instant, but the main issue is buffering. You need to hold a bit of the audio before you can compress and send it.

It is certainly possible to reduce it to make it unnoticeable, but you will be dependent on the hardware and software of the system you connect to, and the software playing the sound.
Often, a small buffer size (for low latency) may cause other problems.

Some recommend the APT-X codec, but that is often not up to you.

BT 4.0 and higher will usually have much lower latency, as long as your computer also supports it.

Official headsets for Playstation (3?) consoles supposedly have no noticeable lag in most games, but act differently with other devices.

So what can you do?
There's no universal solution for games, but for video, most players (smplayer, vlc...) will have the option to alter the audio/video sync. Set the audio to play at -0.3s with respect to video.

Answer 2

Make sure you're using the A2DP audio profile for your earbuds. That is the profile that is used for a proper, high quality, stereo link over Bluetooth. If using a microphone on the same device, the A2DP profile will be disabled.

Could also be the wireless link itself having to start and stop with the audio. Bluetooth does not necessarily start a continuous stream, but instead starts and stops the audio stream as necessary to conserve energy.

Answer 3

Things are very simple; basically, most bluetooth earbuds have 3/10th of a second latency. The only earbuds I know that have very low latency (60-80ms) are Haylou T15 and Razer Hammerhead True Wireless.

Your other option is if you're watching a movie you downloaded, you can set an audio latency, based on what's best for you. For example, if you're using VLC, just press h or g (or k or j I don't remember) and set it to around -300ms.