Another RPi3 Bluetooth troubleshooting qn

  • I've been scratching my head a lot trying to get this working, and at first I thought I might have similar issues as the thread:

    thread-2982.html

    but I can't get anywhere, so I don't know if it's a different issue hence a new thread. I must admit I'm a bit of a noob with this stuff. I mean, I'm happy to follow instructions and research to learn about Linux/RPi to try fixing stuff, but honestly I'm a bit disappointed how hard it is to just play music on a BT speaker out of the box given the experience I'm having.

    Let's see. I'm running a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with LibreELEC 8.0.0 Kodi 17.0. This thing is brand new, I've just set up my media libraries. (OK I lie, I set up the Estuary Mod skin too.)

    I switched on Bluetooth and I've got a Logitech UE Megaboom. Also I've got a UE Miniboom speaker. For some reason the Bluetooth screen shows the Megaboom speaker but not the Miniboom, so I can't even connect to the one I wanted (setting this up for my mum as it's her speaker). I'd have thought they'd work exactly the same, but I experiment with my megaboom anyway.

    The thing pairs after a few attempts and Kodi runs as normal while audio is over HDMI. I switch to BT/PULSE as instructed (which I find this whole procedure annoying and not exactly user friendly for someone wanting a media centre for their parents), and then everything starts running slow.

    The sync gets delayed as in previous threads - I notice this by counting the seconds between the 'click' sound as I navigate menu buttons. Eventually they're 2-3 sec behind. And when I try watching movies I get more and more "Buffering" dialogues, and eventually the ability to play video stops altogether (it pauses or goes black), and then all my audio goes mute. I can return to the home screen but any navigation is at a snail's pace. So, like the previous threads the sync gets delayed, but I'm not sure I should see the entire system slowing down and the audio failing altogether. If I switch off BT the audio never returns either, nor does the system return to speed -- I just have to physically reboot.

    So I tried the suggestions about disabling internal wifi in case it is this:

    thread-661.html

    and I confirmed the wireless network is gone but it hasn't changed a thing with BT audio. So.... is this some other problem, or does Bluetooth on RPi just really suck that much? I'm pretty much minutes from giving up on it altogether, but feel a bit cheated as I bought this knowing I could set up that feature. If anyone can help diagnose, or just tell me if an external dongle works better, at least I don't lose that functionality.

    Thanks in advance!


  • Going by reports here and in other forums, the BT on RPi3 is not its best feature.

    Haha, thanks for the reply and yes it seems that way!

    I still want to be able to do this so I'm tossing up whether to just buy an external BT dongle. But I only want to do that if I know it will work independently (at proper speed) on its own, and not cause me more trouble getting the dongle connected/paired or slowing the system down ... i.e. I was worried there is something else on-board in the RPi system or LibreELEC that makes the audio lag even if it's coming out of a USB adapter.

    As I said I'm not really expert on the architecture of this stuff.. happy to get one as long as I don't just create another problem!

    :)