05Apr New Bluetooth Combo Video test.
I’m still sick, but as promised, here is that video test of the new Bluetooth transmitter setup in action. I have to say these are the best results I’ve had. This setup is completely usable and very clean. In the test I’m simply recording audio directly into the built in mic on my zoom h1 and transmitting Bluetooth audio back to the receiver plugged directly into the t2i.
The first test is the Clip-on Bluetooth receiver with the generic Bluetooth transmitter. The results, as you can see, are great. No delay, very clean audio, and no hissing noise floor. The clip on receiver also has a built in amplifier with volume control, so you can boost your signal into the camera without any problem. In fact I turned the gain to zero for this first test and still had great signal level.
The second test is the Jabra Bluetooth transmitter with the . Again the results worked out great. The volume control on that clip on receiver may have won me over, but the little generic receiver still worked great.
The last test is the Jabra Bluetooth transmitter and Clip-on Bluetooth receiver, this was the combination I was expecting to be the best. In testing, it seemed to me like there was a noticeable delay. I’ve watched to footage 3 or 4 times and it seems like the words come slightly after my mouth moves. I think that the delay isn’t extremely noticeable, but i’m disappointed that the extra money spent didn’t equal better performance.
It’s clear to me that after all of my Bluetooth testing, I still don’t have a firm grasp on what causes which problem. Or why one setup works great and another does not, but I am glad to have finally found a combination of results that delivers the goods
If you have the money to spend, you still might want to consider a proper wireless setup, but at under $50 the above combinations work much better then I ever expected.
April 5th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I watched the video a few times and I can safely say that I cannot detect any delay with the third combination. Actually all three sounded good with no problems. Are you sure it’s not something else?
What I would realy like to know is which of the above combinations has the longest range and how much that is.
Do you think it will work from 30-50ft away?
I have an Audiotechnica VHF Pro 88W/T but I rarely use it as it has low range and suffers from interference (not always but quite often)
April 5th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
My girl friend said the same thing about the delay, maybe I’m imagining things. The video was recorded at about 8 feet from the camera. I tested the generic black unit’s out and was able to get good results from one end of my house to the other line of site (about 65 feet). But I haven’t tried these out in an area with a high concentration of cell phones. All those bluetooth devices might knock that range down fast.
I plan to use it for headphone monitoring and sending stereo field recorder audio back to the camera.
May 19th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
What about the power required for the bluetooth devices? If they take batteries, what kind? How long do they last?
Thanks,
Matt
August 13th, 2011 at 3:49 am
Hows the range on the transmitter and receiver? and which combo do you think is the best?
August 13th, 2011 at 8:57 am
The range usually works well to about 50 feet line of site before it starts getting dodgy. If you are being paid, I wouldn’t recommend bluetooth. Sometimes it works great, sometimes it doesn’t. Out of all the units I tested, it didn’t seem like there was any real rhyme or reason to which one worked and which one didn’t.
February 21st, 2012 at 9:45 am
[…] thing that my Bluetooth wireless audio experiments taught me is that latency can be a real pain. Thankfully audio for video is much more forgiving in […]
March 26th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
[…] the blog for awhile, you’ll probably recognize the bluetooth receiver from some of my wireless audio tests last year. The receiver allows me to use any headphones I like to monitor audio and has a built in […]
April 22nd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Finally I received my 2 generic bluetooth receiver 2.1 & transmitter 2.0 from china, the quality of the receiver has surprised me, crystal clear sound from bluetooth audio source (iphone for example), but the transmitter has a little background noise when it’s activated by the sound, but 0 noise when no audio is emitted.
Does yours also does the same?
Thx for the this tip and the fiio tip, works great with my setup:
hand mic / lapel mic -> zoon h1 -> audio splitter
split 1: headphone monitoring
split 2: fiio 6 -> canon 600d (I put the volume to minimum on the canon and then control the volume on the fiio)
The first time I used this setup I thought the audio of the canon would be only for reference, but it’s perfect. Anyway I have the h1 for backup.
Keep it up the good work
April 26th, 2012 at 6:15 am
The units I have will go into idle mode after about 3 min with no audio. When they come out of idle mode there is a slight hiss for a second. Once they are out of idle mode I don’t have any noise issues.
May 4th, 2012 at 7:54 am
http://cl.ly/3n0h3c2z2x303M1e061V
This is me saying “YEP” xD
When there’s incoming audio the noise is terrible
February 8th, 2014 at 1:29 am
Want to use a bluetooth headphones wireless to a high end metal detector which has a very fast reactivity , but so far the devices used are to slow and the delay is noticeable, apart from being restricted to wired head phones ,any suggestions would be appreciated………
February 8th, 2014 at 8:24 am
If you don’t mind spending a more money, you might want to check out the WI digital WI audiolink. A lot less latency than bluetooth and a much more reliable connection, but the set is $170 which is quite a bit more than bluetooth rigs.
May 17th, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Hi Deejay, I took a few minutes to test out my stuff, and I think I found a pretty good config. Using a HTDZ ht-81 (NADY Knockoff) shotgun mic, with XLR to 3.5mm stereo cable plugged into an indigo bluetooth transmitter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQUNODQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, and this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JRWGPEW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 to receive the audio. Audio quality was great if I could say so myself. Mic was in the kitchenette of my apartment and I walked to the bedroom so it worked through one wall and about 10 feet
February 8th, 2016 at 8:29 am
Hi that was a great video, thanks. I have the same eBay transmitter, can i use that to hook into the zoom h1 and directly record the sound in my phone while recording a video? I was thinking that could save Audio syncing process. I’ll try it myself but do let me know your expert view please.