Unfortunately, there are two major problems with the stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) support of iPhone OS 3. 1.) Many of you have already posted the previous/next remote controls not working. This, unfortunately, is a fundamental problem with the AVRCP implementation of OS3. Hope they’ll fix it in a next update. 2.) I’ve found a very hard-to-track and really annoying problem. A lot of (mostly older; that is, older than about two years) A2DP headphone models don’t work acceptably with the iPhone 3G while listening to / watching streamed contents (incl. YouTube) via Wi-Fi. (Local playback and cellular [GPRS etc.] streaming works.) Please check out http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=320285 for more info on this issue (particularly the last two updates; they are NOT in the original post but are posted later as separate posts at 06/24/2009 23.47 CET and 06/25/2009 13:47CET). The, in this respect, useless headphones also include the Plantronics Pulsar 590 (an, otherwise, excellent model).
Yes this was an extreme disappointment for me. I have the Jaybird JB200 bluetooth headphones which worked flawlessly before the iphone 3.0 update with the included attachment that came with the headphones. Now after the 3.0 update, I can connect my headphones without the wireless attachment that was included with the headphones, but when watching a video, the audio has about 1/2 second of lag and it's not synced. Very annoying
UPDATE (06/26/2009): In the meantime, another, major problem has been found out: the encoding lag. This means if you play back any kind of video (either streamed – including YouTube – or local) using A2DP (stereo Bluetooth), the sound will be only heard about half a second (!) later than the video. Yes, the lag introduced by the A2DP encoding is THAT bad. Give for example THIS clip a try. Pay special attention to John Krasinski’s short sentences (“right” etc.) Unfortunately, this makes watching videos via A2DP almost completely useless. Needless to say, I’ve never encountered anything like this on competing, alternative mobile platforms (at least not on Windows Mobile). There, the engineers paid attention to synchronizing the video with the A2DP audio – unlike at Apple. Bad, very bad, Apple! Programmatically, delaying video playback couldn’t have been THAT hard... If Apple doesn’t fix this, I’m afraid we’ll have to wait for video players with settable audio/video synchronization / lag settings to be released. For example, the very famous CorePlayer, which is slated for July-August this year (hope it’ll really be released – after all, it’s been promised for the iPhone well over a year…) – for a Cydia release (if Apple won’t let it into the AppStore). Too bad the YouTube support of the current, 1.3.2 version on other platforms is definitely inferior to the iPhone YouTube client, particularly in OS3 where you can read the comments / enter comments, can have access to your YouTube account and can see the other videos uploaded by the same user – all this isn’t possible in the (again, current) CorePlayer. In the meantime, all you can do is going straight for a pair of headphones that comes with a 3.5 mm stereo Bluetooth dongle. The one coming with the BackBeat 906 (which, otherwise, also receives my highest recommendation because it doesn’t have any kind of Wi-Fi interoperability problem, unlike several other models) introduced much less lag than the native A2DP encoder of iPhone. The lag is certainly visible – but in no way as bad as with the built-in A2DP. Fortunately, the dongle has been made with the original iPhone in mind; this also means you won’t have problems connecting it to the 3G either if you have a case on it. (For example, I use the SwitchEasy Capsule Rebel case for my 3G, which, basically, only lets you insert the original 2G/3G headphones. The dongle coming with the BackBeat 906 inserts into the jack without problems.)
UPDATE: Anyone on AT&T with iPhone 3G, stereo BT headphones and another A2DP phone (or a 3GS)? See http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=322299
yup, for some reason, It has been deleted. A crosspost: http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=12751478&postcount=18
I just got the brand new motorola s305 and these also have the half second lag when using with youtube wifi on my iphone 3g. In fact when wifi is on there is common stuttering of the sound when doing anything on the phone.
Do you encounter any kind of long pauses while playing back YouTube over Wi-Fi? I don't mean 0.3-0.4 sec long pauses happening at most twice per 3-4 minutes but really bad and considerably longer pauses happening almost every 10 sec. (The 0.5 sec audio lag has nothing to do with this - the lag is because Apple's not delaying video playback to take the A2DP encoding lag into account.)
iPhone OS 3.1.2 Bluetooth audio update, concerning both the 3G and the 3G S, posted to http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=566292
