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Are Bluetooth transmitters rubbish?
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Are Bluetooth transmitters rubbish?
QI noticed your reply to Tony Fleming’s question on page 65 of Issue 567’s Problems Solved section, about using wireless earphones to listen to his TV. You advised using a Bluetooth transmitter, but I think the information given is lacking. I bought two, one Bluetooth 4 and the other Bluetooth 5 – but I found both hopeless. First, you need a low- latency Bluetooth transmitter. You also need low-latency headphones or the sound will be out of sync, making programmes unwatchable. In addition, this Bluetooth transmitter works using a rechargeable battery. To save power it switches off when there’s no sound, kicking back to life with a click as the volume rises again. I returned the Bluetooth 4 model after the company assured me the newer Bluetooth 5 model stayed on all the time, but it doesn’t. Please don’t recommend these. Mike Welsh
AThere’s a fair few points here. First, the specific Taotronics device we mentioned ( www. snipca.com/32985) does support the lowlatency Bluetooth 5 standard, aptx. You’re right that it needs ideally to be paired with similarly specified headphones, and we should have emphasised that point.
However, the level of latency (or ‘lag’) varies greatly between differing product combinations but also in perception: some people are more attuned to lip-sync annoyance than others. This is not to dismiss your personal experience. Rather, it is to highlight that a different person with a different setup – even if only different headphones – is likely to report a different experience. Regardless, we are happy to relay your concerns to readers.
On the battery issue, we explicitly advised Tony that the transmitter could be powered by a USB cable from a TV socket or mains adapter. This permanent flow of electricity would prevent the particular problem you had.
QFollowing an appearance on Antiques Roadshow, I’ve tried various ways to download Get_ iplayer to my PC, as recommended in a Workshop in Issue 566. However, I’ve not succeeded. After initially struggling with your www.snipca.com/33015 address, I eventually ended up on the Github website, but all releases from the latest version (3.22, you said) back to the earliest (v3.13) are marked as “NO LONGER SUPPORTED”. What’s going on? Don White
AWe pointed out that version 3.22 was the latest release at the time of writing. By the time you got to the Github site, 3.22 had been ‘deprecated’ and replaced by version 3.23. Version 3.23 is now the latest but, again, that’s also at the time of us writing this. So, when you look again at the Github site, the latest version might be, for example, 3.24.
Older versions are then ‘deprecated’, meaning they’re no longer supported.
So, all you need to do is click the ‘Windows installer’ link (see screenshot above) directly below whatever is the current latest version – near the very top of the download site. Now return to the instructions in our Workshop.
However, to be clear, the older versions being replaced by a newer one doesn’t mean they’ll stop working, or that you can’t download them: the “NO LONGER SUPPORTED” heading indicates that there’s a newer version, so the older versions will no longer be getting updates.
QI tried to follow the advice on page 57 of Issue 560 to turn my old phone into a dash cam using Aviva Drive. It’s a Huawei U8815 with Android 2.3.6. Download attempts told me the app wasn’t compatible. Is there a different version of the app that would do the trick, or perhaps a different app altogether? Interestingly, I found plenty of negative reviews of Aviva Drive, despite your statement that it is one of the highest rated! Alan Turk
AAviva Drive has thousands of reviews, the vast majority of which score it at four or five stars. Yes, there are numerous one-star reviews, but this is the nature of reviews – not everyone likes the same things. But Aviva Drive is overall one of the highestrated dash-cam apps in the Google Play Store, so we stand by our recommendation.
However, this app requires Android 6.0 or later, so it’s not compatible with earlier Android editions. Your phone is quite old now, in technology terms but, depending on the original provider, you might be able to update it to Android 4.0.3.
To do this, tap Settings, followed by ‘About phone’ (see screenshot above), and then ‘System update’. Android 4.0.3 is pretty dated, but it would open up access to a handful of highly rated dash-cam apps – such as Drive Recorder: www. snipca.com/33481.