Just remembered it could be the double profile setting (means it might be discovered as headset). Read this post and the following
Ok a bit out of ideas here. Try to remove/unpair in MyOSMC and also in bluetoothctl. Then start fresh with scan on, agent on, pair, trust, connect
Thanks, I’ll give that a try, and also test with the Eniskin bluetooth-to-phono/3.5mm receiver
Hi,
I now have this working.
I wondered if the Anker Soundcore needed resetting, and found the internal list of paired devices can be cleared by holding volume up and down together for 3 seconds.
I had already removed paired devices via My OSMC and bluetoothctl, then uninstalled a2dp.
I reinstalled a2dp, rebooted, then used the Network menu in My OSMC to select Bluetooth (where Bluetooth was already enabled).
I powered on the bluetooth speaker (which entered pairing mode automatically), then enabled ‘start/stop discovery’ in OSMC.
The Soundcore 2 was detected. I was able to then select the device and pair (without pin).
Audio automatically directed to the bluetooth speaker.
It’s worth noting that my system always outputs using Pulse audio, as I use the vero’s 3.5mm audio jack to connect to my main speakers), so I didn’t need to change the Audio Output setting.
Thanks for your assistance @fzinken, it’s much appreciated.
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Okay, I tried doing
pactl list cards short
and then
pactl set-card-profile X a2dp_sink
where X is the listed ID.
That made the audio start working. But I was still getting the video freezing up. Serendipitously I discovered that this is in some way linked to it being a standard-definition video decoded in software: if I switch to hardware decoding, then it works okay.
So I’m set for now; but it might be worth looking into why software decoding doesn’t seem to be compatible with Bluetooth audio (maybe just lack of CPU power, but it could be something else); and it would definitely be better if there were a way of automating the process of getting the headset working as an A2DP sink.
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Hmm. One thing that’s still a bit weird is that the sync between audio and video is all over the map.
I might expect Bluetooth/A2DP to introduce some audio lag - as much as half a second sometimes - but usually it’s uniform lag. Here, I’m seeing anything between 200ms and 1800ms, and the lag often varying within the same video file, sometimes even while it’s playing.
Can you check CPU use during this process?
PulseAudio introduces a lot of buffer bloat.
Well, this is awkward: it seems to have stopped doing the freezing thing now, even in software mode. 
If it starts doing it again, I’ll get back to you.
Keep me posted.
In an effort to install my Anker Soundcore mini bluetooth speaker I installed the a2dp package via
sudo apt-get install a2dp-app-osmc
as suggested in this topic. That did help me to connect my speaker to my Vero but it caused lag during playback even when not using the speaker. Then I disabled bluetooth which made it run smoother but i still experienced lag after 2 minutes of playback on various files.
In order to get back to a properly functioning system I uninstalled a2dp via
sudo apt-get remove --purge a2dp-app-osmc
which made the video files run smooth again, but the audio settings are not back to normal as they still show “Playback/recording through the Pulseaudio sound server” and “AML-M8AUDIO, HDMI”
and when I select AML-M8AUDIO I get weird static hissing sound instead of the normal menu sounds.
You need to purge the PulseAudio package.
@sam_nazarko Just setup some new bluetooth headphones, after installing the pulse audio stuff everything seems to be connected and working fine, just the sound quality doesn’t seem quite up to scratch, eg noticeably not as good quality as im getting when connected to my phone.
Is there any setting anywhere that could affect this?
Depends on the supported profiles by the headphones. This might be configurable via PulseAudio.
@sam_nazarko from what I understand (not a great deal) is that on Linux the SBC audio codec is normally used for BT audio which is pretty low quality, my headphones definitely support AAC.
A bit of googling brings this up:
Am I on the right path or wasting my time here?
You can try editing the PulseAudio configuration, but I don’t know enough about it to recommend any specific changes
Sam Ive had a fiddle with pulse audio configuration, and tbh I’m not sure how I’ve solved it, or even if I’ve solved it or if it is just placebo, but the quality seems better now.
The only issue I have now with the bluetooth audio is the overall volume just seems low…I can adjust the ‘Volume amplification’ setting when playing a video and get it to an acceptable level, but this needs to be done for every video/tv channel I watch.
Im aware of the ‘set default for all media’ option, but am hesitant to use that as it will affect things when I’m not using bluetooth audio.
Is there any way to adjust the bluetooth/pulseaudio ‘base’ volume level that you are aware of…ive googled it but my search has been fruitless thus far.
Try pactl or pamixer via command line
Sam
Thanks Sam…Ive tried both but nothing I try there makes any positive difference.
pactl set-sink-volume 1 x
just kills the bt audio altogether.
pamixer --set-volume x
will only go up to 100, even after issuing:
pamixer --allow-boost
Edit:
Even though the command:
pactl set-sink-volume 1 x
is supposed to accept integer values, that doesn’t work for me, however if you enter:
pactl set-sink-volume 1 120%
That works, and will give an extra 20%.
It goes without saying you could probably damage your headphones/speakers doing this so I’d recommend anyone trying this to be careful, and work your way up in 5% increments.
I’ve found 120% is perfect for my headphones…makes them much closer to the volume I’m getting when they’re connected to my iPhone/MacBook.
@sam_nazarko
There’s an issue on my Vero4k where if I use MyOSMC to connect/disconnect/enable/disable any bluetooth settings, the ui leaves me stuck on that bluetooth screen for a while, if I leave it for a minute or so I can get out back into the Kodi UI.
Do u want me to start a new thread with logs?
That’s expected – as the Bluetooth code is synchronous. There can be a bit of a delay when configuring BT. It will be re-worked in My OSMC 2.