edmundmk
commented
8 years ago Today I've tried with an external Bluetooth dongle and it's working much better.
I think it's ultimately a problem with bluetooth/wifi 2.4GHz interference, and unlike the radios in my MacBook the Intel 3165 combined bluetooth/wifi chip in the Nen does a really bad job of managing the conflict. At least using the iwlwifi driver in SteamOS (I haven't tried Windows).
I tried setting:
bt_coex_active=0
in the module parameters for iwlwifi, but it made no difference.
Trying to use a Skullcandy SB2 wireless headset with a Zotac Nen Steam Machine.
Bluetooth pairing works ok using the Steam client. I can select the headset as an audio-out device in the Steam client interface section, (only A2DP mode). Voice input from the headset microphone can be selected but does not work.
At best, there is a large delay between the console and the headset - maybe a second of lag? Audio frequently gets choppy and cuts out. Eventually the headset will give up and beep at me (presumably it's dropped the connection). Unlike other devices I have used this headset with, the headset will not reconnect to the paired console automatically - I have to re-pair it every time it cuts out, even though the Steam Machine is still showing it in the Bluetooth list as connected.
It's pretty much unusable.
It looks like other people have had similar problems with Bluetooth and pulseaudio?
http://askubuntu.com/questions/145935/get-rid-of-0-5s-latency-when-playing-audio-over-bluetooth-with-a2dp