Losing System audio if VoiceAttack is running.

[iceblast]

Losing System audio if VoiceAttack is running. I just bought a new Bluetooth headset with mic. The mic works great with VA, but VA kills all sound going to the headset.

I've tried changing settings in VA, and nothing matters.

I do find it interesting though, that when I hit the wrench to go into settings, that the audio on the headset starts working again, but as soon as I exit settings, it kills the sound again.

So right now, the only way to be able to use my headset to hear system sound is to turn off VA.

I'm really hoping someone knows a way to fix this. 

[iceblast]

There are 2 audio options for most bluetooth.

Bluetooth Audio Renderer, which is for high quality sound output.

And

Bluetooth Hands-Free Audio, which is telephone 8k audio quality. Apparently, this works with VA, but not the High quality sound option.

The problem with Hands-Free though is, it lags big time, so what it does to try to fix that is load up a buffer. Let's say you're listening to a book, or watching a tv show, and you pause it, well, the headset will just keep playing, because it's running off a buffer, and it will keep playing for a few minutes too. It's just not a mode you want to use. Audio Renderer mode is the best. You pause it, or skip forward or back, and the audio keeps up.

But if I use that mode in VA, I can't hear anything.

[iceblast]

I thought you could tell VA to use a audio device other than the default device. I tried to select Hands-free only for VA, because I don't use the audio for VA that often, and when I do, it's short audio things, so the lag wouldn't really be a issue, but when I try to set it for Hands-free, it either switches back to the system default, or switches the system to Hands-free again.

When you set VA to say something, there appears to be a option to change audio channel, but that's grayed out. I don't know if that would have fix it or not.

Well, I think I've run out of things to try now.

[iceblast]

Ok, I figured out that ‘Integrated Components’ option turns on the ability to have VA speech choose the hands-free option, which at least gives me some form of audio, and allows me to use VA again, without kill system audio.

It would still be nice to use the High Quality Audio Renderer though.

[iceblast]

Looks like I spoke to soon. I thought you can set the audio out for VA to something other than the Default audio settings. You can set the Text to Speech to run a different channel, but VA it's self apparently doesn't seem to be able too. So, I'm back where I started, if I'm running my system default on Audio Renderer, VA kills all audio.

I can change VA to my Main Speakers, and have only my Text to Speech to Hands-Free mode, and that works fine, but I have to close VA to use Audio Renderer, which means I lose VA Functionality on my system, just so I can hear properly on my headset.

[iceblast]

Hope there is a fix for this, but might there be a way to turn off audio out function in VA, so it doesn't even try to send audio out. It wouldn't solve my problem exactly, but it would solve my ability to use VA, and not have VA kill sound to Audio Renderer.

I don't know, just trying to figure out some kind of work around for now.

[Gary]

Do either of these help?

https://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=1740

https://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=1386

[iceblast]

I found the problem. Apparently, bluetooth headsets can't listen to High Quality sound and use the mic at the same time. So if you have both Audio Renderer and Hands-Free set to run at the same time, it kills the audio to the headphone speaker automatically.

Apparently, there are a handful of bluetooth headphones that can do both, but the bluetooth dongle, and the headset with mic has to be a matching set, with special protocols. My headset is nice, but apparently not that nice.

It's not that big of a problem, it's just a bit inconvenient, but at least I have full access to VA again.

Thanks