Ubuntu chooses worst quality when connecting to bluetooth headset

[Ketil]

I have a set of bluetooth headphones, model Arctic P311. When I connect to these with Ubuntu, the selected mode is Telephony Duplex (HSP/HFP). I always want High Fidelity Playback (A2DP). My Android phone and my Windows computer both select the best mode (A2DP), in my experience. At least I don't need to fiddle about to change the mode when using either of those systems.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: unity-control-center 14.04.3+14.04.20140922-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-43.72-generic 3.13.11.11
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-43-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Jan 10 21:14:12 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-10-19 (83 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
SourcePackage: unity-control-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
usr_lib_unity-control-center:
 activity-log-manager 0.9.7-0ubuntu14
 deja-dup 30.0-0ubuntu4
 gnome-control-center 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu56.1

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks, that seems a bit similar to https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=600430 which is an old bug. Can you change the quality in the settings after connecting?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could you also include your /var/log/messages log to the bug, after connecting the device

[Ryan Lee Sipes (ryanleesipes)]

This is still a problem. There is more than one facet to this bug. The first is that in bluetooth-client.c it tries to connect via the order in which the connection types are listed. 'HSP' is the first type and so it is selected. This should be changed and 'HSP', which is the lower quality setting, should be moved down the list.

The other, interested side of this bug (which is probably PulseAudio's fault), is that in my experience the headset has to be power-cycled in order to properly receive audio even when the correct audio sync is selected by default.