[How to do instruction] Pi Zero 2 W: Fix choppy bluetooth playback (updated firmware package now available)

[Tim Curtis]

Newbie alert... have had moodeaudio running for only an hour or so.

S Y S T E M   P A R A M E T E R S
moOde release   = 8.3.7 2023-12-07
RaspiOS         = 11.8
Linux kernel    = 6.1.21-v8+ #1642
Platform        = Pi-Zero 2 W 1.0 512MB
Architecture    = aarch64 (64-bit)

I had the same stuttering audio when using a bluetooth loudspeaker or a pair of bluetooth headphones.   The stutter was once every half second.

@jenzd

Try to remove just the last switch "--sbc-quality=xq+" and see if this already solves the issue (after a final reboot).

No effect at all.

@jenzd

If this is the case, it would be interesting if "--sbc-quality=xq" (without the "+") would work instead.

Next, I tried this line.   It made a massive improvement, with stutters now once every 1 - 5 minutes.   Almost solved the problem.

Interesting if frustrating.

Here are the params for bluez-alsa
https://github.com/arkq/bluez-alsa/blob/...alsa.8.rst

Code:

--sbc-quality=MODE
    
Set SBC encoder quality. Default value is high.

The MODE can be one of:

low - low audio quality (mono: 114 kbps, stereo: 213 kbps)
medium - medium audio quality (mono: 132 kbps, stereo: 237 kbps)
high - high audio quality (mono: 198 kbps, stereo: 345 kbps)
xq - SBC Dual Channel HD (SBC XQ) (452 kbps)
xq+ - SBC Dual Channel HD (SBC XQ+) (551 kbps)

Maybe try high, medium or low.

If one of these is glitch free, I can add to the TODO list to put an option "SBC quality" on Bluetooth Control screen.