hp Now Shipping Bluetooth Headphones [Archive]

Jason Dunn

11-27-2004, 07:11 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/home/store_access.jsp?product_code=FA303A%23AC3&template_type=product_detail&script_name=product.cgi' target='_blank'>http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/...ame=product.cgi</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Turn your HP iPAQ Pocket PC into a wireless audio player with high-quality, stereo sound with these Bluetooth® headphones! You can listen to MP3s, videos, and any audio files at up to 30' from your iPAQ. Carrying bag and AC adapter (which charges your iPAQ, too) included; each headphone charge provides up to 8 hours of listening."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://hpshopping.speedera.net/www.shopping.hp.com/shopping/images/products/fa303a_150.gif" /><br /><br />If you've been waiting for the new hp Bluetooth headphones, the wait is over: several people have informed us that they're now available from the hp online store (presumably only to people in the US) for $99. I'd be interested in hearing back from people who have purchased them - how good are they? What was the setup like?

DaleReeck

11-27-2004, 07:27 PM

I ordered it. A couple of reviews I saw were pretty good. I use a Jabra phone headset currently to listen to audio books. It works OK, but the Jabra sensitivity if rather weak - putting the iPaq in your left coat pocket while the Jabra on the right side ear causes bad static. And even the right coat pocket gets some static. The internal antenna of the HP headphones must be a pretty good size. Hopefully, reception will be better.

Kevin Daly

11-27-2004, 07:27 PM

And most importantly of course, when might they be available in the civilsed world?
Ditto for the keyboard...I'm suffering from serious HP Goody Withdrawal.

Sigh.

And while I'm whining, I'd like to say that online stores that only cater for a limited geophraphical area or national entity fail abysmally to live up to the potential of the internet (and that goes double for MSN Music).

Double sigh.

jfreiman

11-27-2004, 08:11 PM

Any thoughts on whether the drivers work on other devices besides HP's?

I have an iPAQ 4150, but since I got my Windows Mobile Smartphone (Audiovox SMT5600) I find myself listening to music on that device more and more...

Both of the devices I currently own are made by HTC - any chance that HTC created the 4150 driver for HP?

Jorlin

11-27-2004, 08:27 PM

Is there a review of those headphones with a non-HP-PPC?

DavesiPAQ

11-27-2004, 09:21 PM

Its not going to work. I have tried it on a dell and no luck. You need software on the iPAQ in order for it to work.

wolwol

11-27-2004, 09:32 PM

Its not going to work. I have tried it on a dell and no luck. You need software on the iPAQ in order for it to work.dave, can't you just install the driver provided by hp *if they do provide a cd with a driver* to axim instead? just a thought

jcsickz

11-27-2004, 09:34 PM

those are awesome but I would love to see a model with a mic for the h6315 users.

socrguy74

11-27-2004, 09:57 PM

Any chance these would work on a 5455?

DavesiPAQ

11-27-2004, 10:00 PM

No luck on the 5xxx series. And I tried to install the driver on the dell and it was a no go.

delfuhd

11-27-2004, 10:23 PM

Quick question: Has anyone tried this with an h2215? It says it's compatible, sure, but I remember a while back people saying bluetooth headphones would sound crappy/wouldn't work with the 2215's BT profile. I just want some good ol' fashion confirmation before I let out a hundred bucks for these

ctmagnus

11-27-2004, 10:59 PM

Sniff

11-27-2004, 11:03 PM

Does these headphone have the blue BT lights? I'm hoping not. Just personal preference... :)

ctmagnus

11-27-2004, 11:18 PM

Ok, I'm searching HP's US site for units that mention support for these in their driver pages, and apparently you can get a hx4700 with Pocket PC 2002 on it (http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/family/model/6089.html?locale=en_US&prodSeriesId=420534). :silly:

shawnc

11-27-2004, 11:35 PM

This will be my first official foray into the BT world. I just convinced my wife that this would make a perfect Xmas present from my mother-in-law. Here's hoping that the installation/connection is simple and straight-forward enough for a non-techie to be able to figure out without investing the entire Xmas day.

drj

11-28-2004, 12:04 AM

JPack

11-28-2004, 12:14 AM

MadBison

11-28-2004, 12:54 AM

Dazbot

11-28-2004, 01:23 AM

OK, quick question, what does the driver actually do, I assume it uses the onboard bluetooth to transfer compressed audio to the headphone and doesn't require a dongle like the bluetake headphones do.

Does it add the Stereo Headphones profile to the device?

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

11-28-2004, 01:40 AM

Over the years, I've gotten more and more hesitant of buying any kind of 1st generation device as there are usually a load of "gotchas" that I have to deal with. It appears that this headset is looking more and more like that kind of device.

I have HP's BT keyboard and was disappointed enough that the keyboard doesn't utilize the standard HID profile (though the HP driver software at least works on other PPCs), but for these headsets to be limited to iPaqs and Windows Media. That's just a HUGE HUGE deal breaker for me!

Sven Johannsen

11-28-2004, 02:47 AM

The HP unique driver is terribly short sighted IMHO. I just can't see folks running out an buying a HP PPC just to use these. I can certainly see folks with Dells and Toshibas buying the headsets. So they wouldn't be losing potential PPC sales but gaining Headphone sales. Same goes for their keyboard. Though someone indicated it worked with other PPCs, it certainly isn't advertised as doing so.

They did the same silly thing with their CF camera in the Jornada days. Driver and software only worked on the J. Shame too, because it was the best one available even after it quit being the only one.

Guess it never occured to them, that non-HP users, that bought a headphone, or keyboard, or camera, and were suitably impressed by the quality and support, might just consider an HP PPC for their next purchase.

felixdd

11-28-2004, 03:10 AM

AndAnd while I'm whining, I'd like to say that online stores that only cater for a limited geophraphical area or national entity fail abysmally to live up to the potential of the internet (and that goes double for MSN Music).

Double sigh.

I know! Why the heck does it take so long for goods and gadgets from Japan to reach North American shores!? ;)

ctmagnus

11-28-2004, 03:55 AM

They'll be $180CAD.

HP.ca product search (http://search.hp.com/gwcaeng/query.html?hpvc=CA+-+English&lang=en&submit.x=4&submit.y=4&qt=FA303A%23AC3&la=en&cc=ca)

The model # is FA303A#AC3; just do a search for that on your local HP site if you're outside the US.

Umm no, they are $129 CND$ on hp.ca shopping site.
they are also listed on compusmart.ca for $129 CND

$129 makes much more sense. :wink:

:oops: The first two hits in the search I linked to mention $179 but the actual links returned database errors, and the last two links are to spreadsheets but I didn't feel like firing up Excel. $130CAD for a $100USD item does make more sense, considering the dollars at the moment.

foebea

11-28-2004, 04:17 AM

Has anyone noticed that these headphones:

1) Only work with selected HP iPAQs, and no other bluetooth capeable devices.

2) ONLY work with the built in Windows Media Player, no other media players.

The first I could live with, although they lock me into iPAQs that support these headsets in the future.

The second I cannot live with. Windows Media player is too limiting as a player for me. I use BetaPlayer. It allows me to listen to my spoken word MP3's at a variable speed (I use 150%). There is also support to skip forward and backward by 10 minutes (or other user defined time), which helps with skipping stiff I am not interested in, and going back if I miss something.

If these headphones supported BetaPlayer, and allowed me to set the hard keys on them to my own preferred functions in Betaplayer, I would buy them in a heartbeat.

WTF?? Is this true?

Thats like buying a car that only goes to the grocery store.

The only reason I would get these is for betaplayer, and spoken word/music with pocketmusic player. Windows Media player in my opinion does not work and i will not go back to it for any reason.

Pleas esomeone tell me this is not the case and the headphones work with any sound output, and the play and pause act as generic play and pause for any program that uses those functions.

I have been waiting since logitech announced these to purchase a set and now inside the first minute of the possibility of doing so I hear this.

If HP bothers to read any of this, please fix the product and make them usable. in the mean time :evil: :evil: :bad-words:

And until this is corrected, I will hold onto my HP money. That new Dell is looking better all the time.

lapchinj

11-28-2004, 04:45 AM

Over the years, I've gotten more and more hesitant of buying any kind of 1st generation device as there are usually a load of "gotchas" that I have to deal with. It appears that this headset is looking more and more like that kind of device.
Yeah me too. I bought the BT foldable keyboard from hp and have yet had it work. There was a notice packed along with the keyboard for all h4100 users that they would have to upgrade the driver from their site but there is none. When I asked them they said that they were having trouble getting it (whatever that means). I wouldn't take the chance anymore with any v1 products.

Jeff

CESkins

11-28-2004, 06:51 AM

Yeah me too. I bought the BT foldable keyboard from hp and have yet had it work. I wouldn't take the chance anymore with any v1 products.
That's why I bought my Bluetooth keyboard from ThinkOutside. I refuse to buy any product handicapped to just work with one line of PocPC's and being forced to repurchase all my peripherals with each new device. If HP releases drivers to work with other PDAs, I will consider picking up a set of the headphones. Until then I will wait to see what else comes out from other manufacturers.

shawnc

11-28-2004, 07:29 AM

Surprisingly (for me anyway) I had actually thought about most of the dissenting opinions expressed prior to committing to these headphones. I don't like, or understand, the fact that these seem proprietary and will work only on HP products. Somehow that seems to go against the whole concept of what BT was supposed to be about. Shame on HP. However, since I own an Ipaq, and seriously doubt whether I'll ever purchase another PPC, the fact that these will only work on HP products was not a significant factor for me.

My biggest concern is the ease of set-up and how well they work. I've NEVER used BT so I'm wading into the unknown. If the set-up is any more complicated than it was connecting to my home network, back they go. After the set-up, I don't want to have to make a series of comprimises. They don't work while jogging, can't use them on the subway, etc. If that happens, back they go. I've already advised the wife to make sure that the motherin-law SAVES THE RECEIPT because (unfortunately) I'm a little skeptical. Downloading drivers, performing hard-resets, or updating registries is not how I plan on spending my Xmas.

We'll see.....

packetstorm

11-28-2004, 07:30 AM

CESkins

11-28-2004, 08:06 AM

lapchinj

11-28-2004, 02:31 PM

That's why I bought my Bluetooth keyboard from ThinkOutside...
The keyboard (IMHO) is really nice and fits my needs. I waited a long time for a keyboard with a numbers row and I jumped at the chance when HP came up with it. Maybe I jumped a little too soon but I guess without something better I can wait a little longer for a driver to become available. But a numbers row I think is a must and that's the only reason why I'm putting up with this C*%p.

I know the other that's pumping Fitaly and I'm giving it a big effort to master but for me it would be for use when a keyboard is not practical since a keyboard is a natural for me.

I haven't seen the ThinkOutside keyboard in person but if it had a numbers row I would have bought it for the $150 (way too expensive). But having a keyboard without a numbers row is like having a car without passenger seats.

Jeff-

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

11-28-2004, 03:45 PM

The keyboard (IMHO) is really nice and fits my needs. I waited a long time for a keyboard with a numbers row and I jumped at the chance when HP came up with it. Maybe I jumped a little too soon but I guess without something better I can wait a little longer for a driver to become available. But a numbers row I think is a must and that's the only reason why I'm putting up with this C*%p.
Agreed. I'm using the HP BT keyboard and it's a fantastic keyboard. So when they eventually do release the right drivers, I think you'll be pleased... and in terms of other BT keyboards w/ a numbers row, there are no other options (except for the Brando, which doesn't appeal to me).

HP just messed up by not supporting standard HID drivers.

But that's nothing compared to the reported issues behind this headset.

I know the other that's pumping Fitaly and I'm giving it a big effort to master but for me it would be for use when a keyboard is not practical since a keyboard is a natural for me.
That's a terrific investment of time BTW. Once mastered, you won't be dissapointed.

shawnc

11-28-2004, 06:34 PM

shawnc you may want to take a look at this review of the headphones (http://davesipaq.com/articles/iPAQ_HP_Bluetooth_headphones.html) (assuming you haven't already). It addresses some of your concerns/questions.

CESkins - thanx for link. Now I'm even more excited. What a great review. I didn't realize that you can control all the functions thorugh the headset. I'm on the bus and can pause my player without removing it from the bag. Get off the bus, hit play and wala, music again. All without removing my Ipaq from my bag.

Installation appears to be easy enough for even a simple-minded person such as myself. Sound quality appears to be pretty good as well. Hopefully my experience will be similar to the reviewer's.

Thanx again,

delfuhd

11-28-2004, 06:48 PM

Maybe all y'all boycotting this because "it only works with WMP" :boohoo: will lower the price for me when I get them. :wink: And I will get them, because they are not multiple hundreds of dollars, and are bluetooth headphones, which I have been waiting for for a long time.

sponge

11-28-2004, 07:13 PM

Next up from HP? A keyboard that only works with Pocket Excel.

Sven Johannsen

11-28-2004, 07:17 PM

HP just messed up by not supporting standard HID drivers.

So, how many of you have a PPC that supports the HID profile, or whatever profile supports stereo headphones (not headset or handsfree, that's different)

Fact is that that keyboards, mice and stereo headphones require additional drivers to be loaded. Would be nice if HP were to develop drivers that would load on anyones PPC and support any BT HID. I expect that you'd just run out and buy a Logitech BT keyboard and mouse and download the HP drivers, wouldn't you.

They aren't in as much danger with the headphones as there are only the HP and Bluetakes out there that I am aware of. Of course if you could use the Bluetakes without the dongle by loading HP drivers, wouldn't you? I wonder when the headphones will show up on their own, since they are built by Logitech (http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5377.html). I assume there is some agreement between them and HP to be exclusive for a while, but I can't imagine that Logitech agreed to exclusivity forever. I would guess that if Logitech releases them, they would provide more universal drivers, to include desktops I would imagine.

disconnected

11-28-2004, 07:32 PM

Some of the comments attached to that review at DavesiPAQ say that it works with apps other than WMP. I'm waiting for more people to test this. If it works with Betaplayer and Conduits Pocket Player, I want them. I'd also like to get a better idea of the size. Also, they don't look adjustable? I have a small head. :D

x999x

11-28-2004, 11:36 PM

:oops:

I finally caved in and had to order these...

Rereading that review out of sheer boredom has convinced me that my current headphones are nothing more than ear warmers...

I must say, I can understand the fuss about these headphones being exclusive to HP devices, because they're pretty darned cool. If I had opted for an Axim, I could see myself writing this post along the lines of "why oh why doesn't HP release a generic driver for these?!?"

Regarding the headphone's only working with WMP, I suppose it's all a matter of preference. Having only around 500 megs of mp3s, pathetic I know, there's little reason for me to venture beyond what's packed into my ROM by default.

In any case, thanks again to ppct for bringing these headphones to my attention, they're going to make office life even more tolerable.

alabij

11-29-2004, 12:11 AM

Does anyone have any input on how loud they are?

Sven Johannsen

11-29-2004, 12:37 AM

Hey, how about someone write an app to take the ambient noise from the PPC microphone, phase shift that 180 deg, and mix it with the MP3/wma stream going to the headset? Whalaa, a noise cancelling BT headset. ;) You could even allow the user to adjust the noise cancelling with volume and equalizer. You put on the headsets, null out the background noise and turn on the tunes. Ahhh, heaven. I should patent that idea. Then I can come out tof the woodwork in 10 years when it is commonplace technology.

alabij

11-29-2004, 12:42 AM

Does anyone have any input on how loud they are?

blazio

11-29-2004, 01:50 AM

the headphones are pretty loud. I couldn't hear my wife yell at me the other day (hmm...i'm seeing another use for the headphones...)

I absolutely love the headphone!! I do wish they were adjustable, but other than that i can't complain!

0X

piperpilot

11-29-2004, 03:16 PM

Any chance these would work on a 5455?

That's what I want to know as well.

shawnc

11-29-2004, 04:48 PM

the headphones are pretty loud. I couldn't hear my wife yell at me the other day (hmm...i'm seeing another use for the headphones...)
0X

Never thought of that........this just keeps getting better and better :wink: .

foebea

11-29-2004, 05:40 PM

looks like i overreacted again :oops:

Some more comments have been posted ni the forum which point that this device is not locked to WMP. While they do not give a list of programs it does work with, they do give a list of programs where it did not work on thiers (high memory usage programs).

I would like to know how BetaPlayer works with this, is that too much memory usage for the phones to work or not.

I will let you know tomorrow morning when my set arrives :mrgreen:

Here's hoping.

picard

11-29-2004, 07:25 PM

I definitly want to buy one too ( and i don't have an ipaq ppc :twisted: ), but I will probably wait until it's available here (Hungary). Still in the meantime report any compability issues with BetaPlayer. I will try to solve them.

foebea

11-29-2004, 08:46 PM

hey picard..

did you ever know that your my hero? :D

I will work with all the various encodings I have at various bitrates and formats to see if this is a workable piece of kit.

Also my tests will include number of minutes till 20% battery low warning while watching pocketdivx encoder output from a microdrive.

edit: i am using ipaq 2215 with 1 gig sd and 5 gif microdrive. test will be done with normal battery once with sd once with cf using same movie.

If i can get a full movie out of this setup I will be a happy fool, even if the buttons dont work. I am sure there is some way to intercept the signal somehow that maybe some wonderful person could integrate to betaplayer, or better yet code as a standalone app to make buttons work with any program.

I need to learn to code. :mrgreen:

Dazbot

11-30-2004, 12:02 AM

I am sure there is some way to intercept the signal somehow that maybe some wonderful person could integrate to betaplayer, or better yet code as a standalone app to make buttons work with any program.

I need to learn to code. :mrgreen:

I have been playing with controlling Media Player through another app, and depending on how the signals get back to the device, eg bluetooth serial profile, listening for messages and updating betaplayer to react to them should be easy.

Anyone one want to send me their headphones to see if its possible? :wink:

bblock

11-30-2004, 12:39 AM

I just got an HP Tablet PC TC1100, with bluetooth. Although I haven't heard specifically, it definitely seems these will not work with it, and I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH HOW CHOKED I AM!!! Why on earth would HP cripple these units like this? I use my tablet for over 3 hrs a day on the bus, which is actually a bus/skytrain/bus trip twice a day. To be able to leave the tablet run in my bag and not have to mess with headphones three seperate times per trip would have been a Godsend, but NO - now I have to look elsewhere. I only hope that a) I'm proven wrong or b) HP changes the driver requirements on the client, and that that client can be a tablet/laptop in the future.

windmiller

11-30-2004, 04:54 AM

I am pretty disapointed that HP crippled these new headphones as well. I know of at least 10+ people who would have bought these if they werent crippled. Pretty lame HP!!!

foebea

11-30-2004, 06:29 AM

I am pretty disapointed that HP crippled these new headphones as well. I know of at least 10+ people who would have bought these if they werent crippled. Pretty lame HP!!!

Heyyas windmiller, it look's like the jury may still be out on that.

I took the plunge in the name of science and will let you guys know exactly what does and does not work with these devices. From some very short reports it seems they are not crippled at all, unless you count the hp device only. but all that means is someone needs to code a driver to make it work with other devices. not impossible for a dedicated soul. look at linux, they do that stuff all the time.

They are supposed to arrive between 8 and noon today (just 8 hours of sleep away) EST and I will give them a work over and let you know how they fare. As soon as they are charged i will try betaplayer, and various non-WMP mp3 players and give a quick report. Assuming that goes well I will then watch a movie to see how battery life is in betaplayer with a microdrive.

If they do not perform satisfactorily, they will go right back in the box and you guys will definately know conclusivly because I will surely complain for days and days. :twisted:

G'Nite all! 0X

MadBison

11-30-2004, 01:08 PM

foebea

Thats great that you will test it out for us. Kudos.

Could I possibly get you to run these tests?

1) Does Betaplayer play through them (obviously)
2) Do the hard keys on the headphones work with betaplayer?
3) Can you control betaplayer with the headphone hard keys when something like Pocket word is in the foreground. (I use that to take notes while listening
4) Do you see any way to re-map the hard keys to perform other functions than their default vol, play, track. In particular, I want to change track forward, backward to skip 10 sec forward, reverse. And maybe the stop and play to the speed up, normal speed function in BetaPlayer.

And to picard, your BetaPlayer is the best audio player out there. When you accept donations, I definately will donate. This app has made my listening to the hundreds of hours of tech MP3s I have much much easier. If these headphones work with Betaplayer, and pass all the tests above, I will have the ideal setup.

I am pretty disapointed that HP crippled these new headphones as well. I know of at least 10+ people who would have bought these if they werent crippled. Pretty lame HP!!!

Heyyas windmiller, it look's like the jury may still be out on that.

I took the plunge in the name of science and will let you guys know exactly what does and does not work with these devices. From some very short reports it seems they are not crippled at all, unless you count the hp device only. but all that means is someone needs to code a driver to make it work with other devices. not impossible for a dedicated soul. look at linux, they do that stuff all the time.

They are supposed to arrive between 8 and noon today (just 8 hours of sleep away) EST and I will give them a work over and let you know how they fare. As soon as they are charged i will try betaplayer, and various non-WMP mp3 players and give a quick report. Assuming that goes well I will then watch a movie to see how battery life is in betaplayer with a microdrive.

If they do not perform satisfactorily, they will go right back in the box and you guys will definately know conclusivly because I will surely complain for days and days. :twisted:

G'Nite all! 0X

delfuhd

11-30-2004, 04:48 PM

Just put in my order :D

Hopefully these make listening to music from now on as good as I think it's going to be

kevin_Trace

11-30-2004, 05:17 PM

I just got mine today....

I will post my review once I test them out :lol:!

Kevin

foebea

11-30-2004, 05:56 PM

Welp i got em. charging now, since the battery is not user relpacable i will not play with them before fully charged (4 hours) just in case.

As for driver, i dont think it would be easy at all for someone to hack one together. What i got on cd was a complete rewrite of the bluetooth stack (all dlls and executables and other files) everything dealing with bluetooth was replaced. The replacement stack is from Widcomm, which i think is the maker of the builtin bluetooth of the ipaq. If dell does not use widcomm bluetooth this may be why it will not work with them.

As for not being adjustable, the fit snugly and very comfortably against the head. I do not see extended use being a problem as far as that is concerned. i am curious as to the effects of bluetooth over extended use.. i keep thinking of Spider from Johnny Mnemonic ranting about what causes NAS (the black shakes).

The non folding headband is not brittle at all, seems very giving and forgiving so as long as you dont drop 75 books on them i think they will survive many twistings and oopsies.

foebea

11-30-2004, 06:02 PM

Aw crap. there is something I forgot to do, and dont know if it can be done. This might help in remapping functions if there is a way to do it.

Can registry be watched for changes? Like someone who hasnt installed this yet could set up something to report registry changes?

If this is the case please let me know and someone who hasnt installed this yet could test it out and maybe there are keys added that control the buttons of the device.

just a thought. probably wrong.

surur

11-30-2004, 07:16 PM

You could back-up, hard reset, watch the registry, install, record the changes and then restore the backup - no harm done (although an hour probably lost :) )

All in the quest of knowledge.

Btw, the widcomm stack is quite hackable... Just look at xda-developers.com

Surur

kevin_Trace

11-30-2004, 08:16 PM

The headphones had some power when first got them because they turned on. I started charging them right away and they took just under 3 hours to charge fully.

I can't test them because I am at work and I can't install the drivers :twisted:. I forgot to bring my sync cable with me. Just have to wait till I get home :cry:.

Kevin

foebea

11-30-2004, 08:34 PM

k heres the initial word.

HP recommends these be used with wmp for the same reason we dont generally like wmp. It has no features. as such it is very low memory usage.

with betaplayer using a 219kbps wmv movie it played, but was very choppy video, and no free ram. a 300 meg dvd movie would not play at all.

So unless betaplayer memory usage can be optimized either this will not work unless very low quality video is used. I will find out how low quality is needed
:evil:

I am making a backup and then i will do a hard reset and try this with only bluetooth and betaplayer installed

I think this is an excellent arguement for the need for more ram in pocketpcs :)

foebea

11-30-2004, 08:58 PM

Fresh install with only bluetooth and betaplayer works perfectly.
So it is definatelty a ram issue. It looks like it uses about 20 megs of ram to do this, so should not be too hard to weedle my system down.

as expected the next, previous, and the multifunction play and pause button has no effect. but volume control does work just fine.

Film at 11.

foebea

11-30-2004, 11:24 PM

for all you PC buffs out there, the pc is able to pair without problem with the headphones, however it does not recognize any available services on the phones.

looks like driver again.

right now i am scouring the net for a profile that I may be able to plug into my pc bluetooth stack to get it working. that would be sweet. My pc bluetooth card has an external antenna and can reach about 500 feet. serious rock.

I will continue testing with the ppc and as soon as i get off work i will test movie runtime for battery life and whatnot.

If I have any major breakthroughs with other devices I will report them here, minor breakthroughs and status updates I will not post here, but will rather annoy the crap out of everyone around me : "Hey check this out!" - "what again? why dont you get a life" - "no really check it out its cool!" :D

foebea

11-30-2004, 11:50 PM

new feature found! woo!

I was worried about the problem of disconnections, if i have to take a phone call, or turn off the pda (while watching a movie, for example, to finish it later)

When you turn the pda off the speakers give a little beep after a few seconds to let you know there is no input. after turning the pda on it does not automatically reconnect, and from the userguide i was led to think that i had to go to bluetooth manager to restart the connection.

Not So! :D

When the pda is turned back on, i just push the multifunction button and wait a couple seconds, this restarts the connection without even putting betaplayer into the background.

Yay progress!

herrflip

12-01-2004, 11:03 AM

hi foebea,

do you think you could send me the bluetooth drivers for the hp headphones or put them on a server somewhere (in the name of science, of course ;))? i own the bluetake stereo headphones, and i'd love to try pairing them with my hw4700 via those hp drivers. i am able to listen to mp3s from my pda right now with the headset profile, but the sound quality is frankly crap.

foebea

12-01-2004, 06:51 PM

Thats a great point. HP does not have these drivers on the site, i hope they add them soon, what if my cd breaks? :) (PM me with email and i will send them if they arent too large, or work something else out, in the name of science, after all i have already tried your drivers to get them to work with the pc (no go))

R E S U L T S so far . . .

Watching a movie off the CF card on my 2215 i had to switch batteries halfway through the movie, BUT it was after an hour and 45 minutes that the battery had to be changed, which is more than yer average movie. I think if i rad off solid state memory instead of microdrive this would likely be good for over 3 hours of movie.

Personally i think this is fine for movies, and if i wanted to do an extended viewing without changing batteries i would just order the 2000 mAh extended battery from that site whose name i cant remember :lol:

The sound quality is superb, and it buffers on the headphones, so if you get interference from excessive bodies or walls between you and the device you dont miss anything. this did result in a small amount of audio separation from video while watching a movie, but it did not last more than about 5 seconds (the headphones will play the buffered audio slightly faster in order to catch up with stream) Neato!

Usually when watching a movie from a microdrive, it has to buffer for about 15-20 seconds when i first start then it is good for the rest of the movie. with my current setup it had to buffer for about 20 seconds every 10 minutes or so. (when this happens it only runs at about 2 frames a second) When I ran the earlier test with only betaplayer and the phones installed this did not happen, so its all about the ram. i need to free more space up still. those of you with 128 or 256(??) ram will not have a problem with this. I am sure that when i work out exactly what the buffer length should be this issue will be resolved.

(Picard: is there any way that betaplayer can buffer to the SD card? or would that be too slow? this would let me prebuffer a large amount of movie without taking up ram, so it would buffer 50 megs to the sd card, then the sd card would buffer say, 7 megs to the main memory for playback. i think this might resolve the problem of excessive ram usage, though i may be totally wrong :D )

I would recommend these to anyone with a compatible device. Like i said, about an hour and 45 minutes on 1 2215 iPaq battery watching a movie from a microdrive. without the bluetooth headphones the time i got with the same setup was 2 hours and 10 minutes, so this is a satisfactory loss of time for what i get in exchange. (running from sd card or solid cf card gives me about 3 hours 45 minutes to 4 hours)

All times are from full charge until the 20% battery warning goes off.

herrflip

12-01-2004, 08:42 PM

just to let everybody know: i tried the hp drivers with my bluetake iphono headphones, and it actually works! range is only a couple meters, and the bluetake headphones don't have next/previous controls, but sound quality is perfect with mort player and wmp. there is no great advantage in using the bluetake headphones over the hp ones (the former are actually more expensive anyway), but they do have a foldable microphone and you can use them as a handsfree set with your mobile.

chrisloker

12-01-2004, 11:42 PM

Got mine today . . the sound quality is great when I don't get choppiness. It seems to drop audio every 10 seconds or so (just a slight click). If I turn on Wifi they are unusable - the Wifi really messes with it.

I assume it is the Wifi in my house or cell phone or something that is causing the other clicking. I wouldn't think it would be a problem - especailly at close distance (1 meter or so). But it is a problem.

I'll try a hard reset and fresh boot but so far I am not very impressed.

charliew

12-02-2004, 02:38 AM

Has anyone had any sucess loading the bluetooth driver in iPaq File Store or on a SD card?

chrisloker

12-02-2004, 02:49 AM

Well cutting off my wireless router and unplugging my 2.4ghz cordless phone did help with the problems. However, there were still infrequent clicks/drops. Practically every home near me has a wireless router so I pickup like 4 other signals besides my own 802.11x. So maybe they are interfering as well - although that is a little rediculous as the signal strenght is not that high (I'm in a single family home - not apartment complex or anything). Only thing I haven't done is turn off my plasma TV (which the kids are watching).

Anyhow, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that something is just strange at my house. I'll try them as I'm out and about tomorrow. If they give me any drops/issues they are going back.

ptjulie

12-02-2004, 05:29 AM

I also received them today. They charged in1 ½ hours but forgot my cable to load the software using Activesync. So I decided to sync using my Bluetooth and loaded the BT headphone drivers (could have used IR as well). After about 5 minutes and a reset I was ready to go. I have only used them for several hours and the quality is very nice while listening to mp3s but can be choppy when I put it in my coat front pocket. Don’t know if it’s a signal problem or something else. I can walk 30 feet away from the unit and they work fine and have WiFi all through my house with no interference. With my IPAQ4355 I can view television programs with my BeyondTV setup (www.snapstream.com) and was streaming and watching several shows without a problem. I had a full charge on my IPAQ and with WiFi and Bluetooth running the battery drained in about 2 ½ hours.
I only wish that the headphones had worked with my laptop as it has Bluetooth. That was rather short sighted on HP’s part. I hope they include the drivers for laptops in the future.

foebea

12-02-2004, 05:43 AM

Interference: this does happen, bluetooth is not like wifi unfortunately, which means if you have somthing solid between the receiver (right earphone) and the transmitter (pocket pc) there will be heavy to excessive interference.

As for wearing on your person while walking around, i find that a left breast pocket has too much interference to be workable, left pants pocket is right out. the right pants pocket would be fine if it were above my belt so that is out too. The only way i got this to work satisfactorily was to put the ppc in the right breast pocket.

Now i know many people do not have right breast pockets, as the traditional place is left side. Also not everyone (myself included) can justify a scottevest. I found a workaround for this in a 35$ coat from a clothing store call Kohls with 7 pockets (inside and outside left breast, inside right breast, outside hand pockets on each side, inside cdplayer (or headphone) sized pocket on the lower right side and an outside right arm pocket near the wrist.) The coat is by Sonoma of the 'pro-active' series. Until i can come up with 300 bucks for Three.0 stealth evest, this will do nicely :) and theres no body interference. Treat the thing like GPS. it likes line of sight. for the superb quality when it has line of sight, i cant fault it for this.

chrisloker

12-02-2004, 03:11 PM

Well have them at work now. We do not have any wi-fi in the office or anything that should interfere.

I get results pretty similiar to when I cut of my phone and wireless at home. They sound great - but every 10-15 seconds I'll get a crackle.

I even hard reset my 4700 last night (bringing up another issue I have to get Pocket Informant working again - upgrade didn't take right).

Maybe it is a driver issue - as I can't believe they would release a product that was not capable of playing without crackling/etc.

Very disappointed so far - I'll give it a week or so to see how things pan out but I have the feeling they are going back.

shawnc

12-02-2004, 06:36 PM

delfuhd

12-02-2004, 09:16 PM

Well.. My experience with Bluetooth is that I can connect to dcevices while they are across a room and/or in peoples pockets.. Also, you can bluetooth through water, so it doesn't necessarily need to be line of sight, but I'm not sure what would constitute for making a loss of signal.. Maybe you do need line of sight with these headphones..

btw, for proof of bluetooth-through-water, check this video out:
Click Here (Link will not work after 25 downloads...) (http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=281A703F3DBB7DBB3A7493D64F37CB1F)

rmac

12-03-2004, 12:11 AM

I don't seem to have any problem losing the signal through cloth or leather. I have a Vaja case for my 2210, put it in the right pocket of my jacket and went for a run. I had no problems except when I turned my head all the way to the right to look for traffic. Then it would cut out. Apparently, the signal won't go through your body and the antenna is on the right side. Just keep your briefcase on your right side

foebea

12-03-2004, 12:29 AM

i was able to recreate the every 10 - 15 second click today.
By any chance are you using windows media player with a microdrive? when i tried this i was getting short pauses every 10 seconds or so. very very annoying. a soft reset took care of the issue. after a couple more soft resets it had the same problem again and a soft reset did not fix it, but another soft reset did.

I have no idea.

interestingly enough, any program which has support for microdrive buffering does not have this problem. (try pocketmind's pocketmusic, its free). this of course makes the buttons not work, but someday that may be fixed. If you go back to regular headphones you will definately have to push buttons on the ipaq to control it, so this is not so bad.

My favorite thing so far is the complete and utter lack of wires wrapped about my head scraping across my face and neck every time i move. also i no longer worry about forgetting the headphones are on and making a sudden movement, thus launching my ipaq into the air (happened 2 times already) :mrgreen:

foebea

12-03-2004, 12:36 AM

Interference: this does happen, bluetooth is not like wifi unfortunately, which means if you have somthing solid between the receiver (right earphone) and the transmitter (pocket pc) there will be heavy to excessive interference.

foebea, would this prevent me from having my ipaq in my briefcase/bookbag while using these headphones? My briefcase is a Tumi (soft leather) and the bookbag a Victorinox (Swiss Army Ballistic Nylon).

Nope you should be fine.

let me test this right now . . . . . . . . . . .k

I tested it through a 2" tabletop, a bag of ball bearings, an active wireless router, 4 coats, and a 12 pack of mountain dew. no problems with any of them. all tests were done by placing the ipaq in rhinoskin, the putting the test object so it completely covered the ipaq. i put myself in various positions and angles around it and the only problem was when my head was directly in between the receiver and the ipaq. this however may be due to the massive amounts of grey matter inside my head, moreso than my haircut. i think this was a good test 8)

edit: the head or body bit is not a 100% problem at all times. when it is sitting on my desk about a foot away from me there is no problem receiving a signal. if the ipaq is on my person then it can become a problem. maybe it needs some room to spread the signal. hmmm.. wonder what happens to the bluetooth bits that dont make it past me. . . . . must buy popcorn

chrisloker

12-03-2004, 03:35 AM

Unfortunately no I'm not using a Microdrive. I am running of of SD card. I'll try running it straight from main memory tommorw just in case my SD card is not fast enough or something.

bleeman

12-03-2004, 04:22 AM

I just received mine today, but when I attempted to load the drivers the install routine says it can't find a supported PocketPC device. I have a 5555 with the latest firmware and bluetooth drivers from HP. According to the documentation on their website and on the packaging the headphones came in, my 5555 should be supported.

Has anyone else encountered this and if so, have you found a way to resolve it?

Thanks!

shawnc

12-03-2004, 04:05 PM

I tested it through a 2" tabletop, a bag of ball bearings, an active wireless router, 4 coats, and a 12 pack of mountain dew. no problems with any of them. all tests were done by placing the ipaq in rhinoskin, the putting the test object so it completely covered the ipaq. i put myself in various positions and angles around it and the only problem was when my head was directly in between the receiver and the ipaq. this however may be due to the massive amounts of grey matter inside my head, moreso than my haircut. i think this was a good test 8)

You are the man :way to go: . Popcorns on me :wink: .Thanx!

delfuhd

12-03-2004, 05:40 PM

rmasinag

12-03-2004, 06:33 PM

So would you guys recommend these to 2210 users None of the official reviews seem to have tested it on WM2003 only ipaqs. So any input would be nice. I'm really looking forward to having one of these babies for christmas :D

My end of semester! reward

delfuhd

12-03-2004, 11:57 PM

Hopefully they work wondrously with 2215s. I spent 15 bucks to get them here YESTERDAY but since the mail system here at UCONN obviously blows I haven't even recieved notification that any mail room has the package, even though it shows that the package has been shipped and signed for, which happned Thursday. I am so pissed, even more at the lazy kids who sit in the mailroom and pretend to see if they have my package.

Enough of my rant! can't wait to get these babies! too bad it doesnt look like thats going to happen uintil monday :( :( :( :evil:

again, i hope they work with my 2215

shawnc

12-04-2004, 03:18 AM

We act like kids at christmas when we're waiting for our new toys. It's easy to say 'be patient', but I've been there so I know what you're going through.

jalm1

12-04-2004, 04:29 AM

Anyone notice that these when they were first posted they worked with the 6300 series, and now the 6300 series is not listed. anyone know what happened, or has tried to use these on a 6315?

delfuhd

12-04-2004, 06:36 AM

Posted on the Daves iPAQ Bluetooth Headphone review here. (http://davesipaq.com/articles/iPAQ_HP_Bluetooth_headphones.html)

got them today "THEY STINK!!" THEY POP AND HISS ABOUT EVERY 3 SECONDS.........SOFT RESET DOES NOTHING! BETWEEN THIS AND THE ENDLESS SEARCH MODE ON MY 6315 I SAY GOOD BYE TO HP GARBAGE!!
Posted by thesmith, Tuesday, Nov. 30th, 2004

The posts then go on...

(Scroll down to see the user comments)

jalm1

12-04-2004, 03:55 PM

ahh, thanks.

foebea

12-05-2004, 12:34 AM

20 minutes until I can pick up the headphones.. I'm sooo excited. This is almost as bad as waiting for your brand new PDA to charge fully before you use it :)

Well, anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has tried these with 2215's yet, and their results.. I dont think I saw any posts about it.

All of my tests are with 2215 (with very very little space free on main memory).

Out of box, they worked with music, but not movies. after uninstalling about 12 megs of crap i didnt need in main memory it works fine with everything.

These are new tech, and they are wireless, so there is an occaisional glitch. for me this is very rare (once every 3-15 minutes) but others say they are getting them much more often (every few seconds). as far as i can tell this does not have anything to do with memory as it does with device placement. Also, with the extra ram taken up by the bluetooth connection i recommend if you do movies, try to run them from solid state flash cards (instead of microdrive) it seems to have problems keeping the buffer full from the microdrive, but it seems fine from solid cards.

again, i use a 2215. i am having almost no problems, and the very few problems i have are nothing compared to the usefulness of these things. no more tripping on a cord and sending the ipaq flying, and though i always hated it, i am using windows media player for books and music. not my ideal, but it is very nice to be able to pause simply by pressing one button on the headphones, without taking the ppc out of my pocket, opening the case, turning on the screen and hitting pause.

I have seen some remarks about the 7 step process to connect these to the ppc. this is not needed. once the headphones have been paired, simply leave bluetooth turned on (or turn it on manually when you want to use the headphones, whatever) then turn on the headphones by holding in the button 2-3 seconds. it will beep. after that beep wait half a second or 2 then press the button again. it will pause for a second or so then it will give back a longer beep to let you know it connected. after this, wait a second then push the button again to start playing (start playing requires that windows media player is running already, preferably with the playlist of your choice all set up and ready to go.

If you can accept that wireless things are prone to occaisional interference, this should be an easy choice. the quality is very nice, and if enough people complain to HP, they may give us a button manager :)

ps: if you are getting very frequent and annoying interference, this is not normal, contact hp tech support as you may not have enough free resources, or try moving the ppc to a different angle or place around you, or maybe there are just dud headphones that dont work. i have heard lots of horror stories and cant see how this many people could have these problems.

Good Luck! :mrgreen:

chrisloker

12-05-2004, 06:46 PM

From suggestions on other forums, I installed bot Vito SoundExplorer and PocketMusic. Both players cleared up most popping issues I had (even in my house where I previously had very bad luck). So it sound like it is more of a Media Player problem vs. all headphone problems.

darthandy

12-08-2004, 04:38 PM

Hi,

Just got a hold of these in the uk, wont focus of the headphones as that is already well discussed.

What is also interesting is the new bluetooth stack, version 1.6 instead of 1.4. The first thing I noticed was the new HID profile, but I have not been able to get this to work with my SE S700i phone which can act as a HID. Does this profile work with any of the proper bluetooth keyboards that support HID?

Secondly does anyone know how to get the headset profile working in this version of the stack, I tried the previous method for the 2210 but it does not seem to work for me.

Andy