Bluetooth Windows 10 Audio Crackling/Jitter when Paired Audio Device Initiates Connection

Question

Wondering if anyone is also experiencing a similar issue. Moreover, has anyone been able to solve it?

It's a minor inconvenience, but here's the issue. I have a Logik Bluetooth sound bar. It's paired with my Windows 10 Pro 21H1 PC. My Bluetooth is a Ziyituod PCIe with Intel Wireless 6 AX200, and Intel Bluetooth controller, LMP 11.9590 (Bluetooth 5.2).

The pairing was initiated from Windows, no issues here. The issue occurs when the sound bar is turned off or goes in to standby, then is switched back on. The bar can only be paired with one device at a time, and so my expectation is that the pairing information is stored in the bar itself, and when it's switched on, it initiates the connection to my PC, which is discoverable - rather than Windows detecting it has become available and connecting.

When it does this, the audio from my PC is distorted - it stutters with very short and frequent cut-outs. However, when I disconnect from the device in Windows, then reconnect, the audio is perfect. So each time I turn the bar on, I have to go to BT devices, disconnect then reconnect.

Any ideas? Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Ok, I'm not going to mark my own answer as correct, as it is only a workaround which makes it much easier to overcome the crackling without the drawn out process of opening devices, disconnecting and reconnecting.

I downloaded Bluetooth Command Line Tools, and added the installation directory to the path environment variable.

Then I used btdiscovery.exe to list available devices and noted the MAC address of the speaker.

I downloaded the repo from https://github.com/stanleyguevara/win10-bluetooth-headphones

Props to stanleyguevara for his hard work here

The repo has a mac.txt file where you insert the mac of your device. I merged the contents from the disconnect and connect scripts (both vbs and bat) to create a disconnectReconnect script as follows:

set /p mac=<"D:\Programs\Bluetooth Audio Toggle\mac.txt
btcom -b"(%mac%)" -r -s110b
btcom -b"(%mac%)" -c -s110b

s110b is the serial port service to be switched off and on, and corresponds to Bluetooth's A2DP capabilities (audio).

Then I downloaded AutoHotkey and created a script as follows:

#noTrayIcon

^r::
Run "D:\Programs\Bluetooth Audio Toggle\disconnectReconnect.vbs"
return

Focussing only on what this script does, ^r:: says trigger the script when CTRL+R is pressed. I placed this script in the shell:startup folder so it's loaded when I logon.

Now, when I switch my soundbar on, I simply press CTRL+r and after a few seconds the device has disconnected and reconnected with Windows initiating the connection and the sound is fine. Hope this helps someone, but if you know of the exact reason why this happens, or a better solution, please do share!