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Streamer Pro 1.3 Can pair, but not use Windows 7 Bluetooth

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I just joined this forum just to ask this question.

My HP 8460p laptop can pair with the streamer, but it does not show in playback or recording devices, so it cannot be used.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

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@Don said:

Have you contacted HP about it? There may be an update to the Bluetooth driver?

I have a Dell computer that has the same issue I can pair to it but is still does not work. I found it true with both windows 7 and 8/8.1

I also just joined this forum and having the very same problem using Windows 7.

Reviewing my setup, it’s a Streamer Pro 1.3 using an Alta2 hearing aid and trying to get the Bluetooth wireless feature to work with a Dell Latitude E6430.

There’s a work-around to permit using a PC that some may find acceptable using a wired connection with Oticon included “mini-jack” cable but this is not wireless Bluetooth. As mentioned the Streamer can be discovered by Windows and will pair as a wireless Bluetooth connection but doesn’t work. I prefer to a wireless connection over a wired connection. This is a feature claimed to be available by Oticon. I’ll detail what I’ve done so far.

After Bluetooth pairing, the Streamer is recognized as a Bluetooth headset by my laptop and as labeled “Streamer Pro 1.3” with a headset icon that’s viewed in the Printer and Devices window. When checking properties there’s no Bluetooth Peripheral Device driver for the Streamer and when trying to locate or upgrade the driver, I cannot find any driver from either Oticon or Windows that works correctly as a wireless Bluetooth device. If I understand correctly, the Streamer Pro should use Audio Profiles A2DP and connected as a Bluetooth headset. The Aux button located on the side of the Streamer offers 4 priority levels with the mini-jack is the top priority and is #2 and Wireless Bluetooth is #3. loop is the 4th priority and it’s necessary to hold the Aux button for 2 seconds for that device. I assume if the mini-jack cable is not used the the wireless Bluetooth facility should work but it doesn’t. It’s not always necessary to have a Bluetooth driver for a device to operate but Win7 troubleshooter advises a driver is needed and there’s no driver loaded.

The Streamer can also be connected to a laptop using included hardwired USB cable. The Streamer is recognized as a “Wireless Device” then Windows installs “Standard Serial over Bluetooth line (COM 5)” and “Standard Serial over Bluetooth line (COM 9)” but fails to operate as a wireless Bluetooth device. COM9 is redundant and not needed but neither will work for the Streamer BT functionality.

The Streamer Bluetooth will pair and works fine as a BT device with my HTC One M8. I installed the Oticon ConnectLine app which works but has limited features at first glance and I can’t locate any details about the app. I also have the TV Bluetooth box and it pairs and also works really well as a BT device. The ConnectLine app displays an icon for the mini-jack, cell phone and TV but doesn’t have an icon for a computer (or PC) which leads me to believe the PC aspect of the Streamer has not been completely developed.

Searching the Oticon website there are links for Streamer Pro and Streamer Pro 1.2 but no link or mention of Version 1.3. There’s limited instructions for connecting to a PC or other devices.

If I learn how to make this work I’ll post the solution here.

~Mike

@Bluesea said:

After Bluetooth pairing, the Streamer is recognized as a Bluetooth headset by my laptop and as labeled “Streamer Pro 1.3” with a headset icon that’s viewed in the Printer and Devices window.

Did you select your Dell Bluetooth adapter as the Playback and Recording device in Control Panel, Sound?

Edited
@rasmus_braun said:

Did you select your Dell Bluetooth adapter as the Playback and Recording device in Control Panel, Sound?

Thank you for your reply rasmus_braun.

I don’t believe my Latitude E6430 laptop has a Dell Bluetooth adapter. Device Manager reports (2) Sound devices; IDT High Deinition Audio CODEC and Intel (R) Display Audio.
Reviewing Device Manager, my Latitude has a Dell Wireless 380 Bluetooth 4.0 Module and separate entry under with a BT enumerator. Both are reported as working.
I checked the Dell Support website (you’ll need a Dell Service Tag # to use their service) and Dell System Detect will automatically run driver and diagnostic tests.
Screen Shot of BT properties from Device Manager:


This was the proceedure I used to add a Bluetooth device: From Control Panel, selected Hardware and Sound then the selection at the top (“Devices and Printers”), has a link to “add a Bluetooth device”. When the add link is selected, a window appears initiating discovery of Bluetooth devices within range of the laptop. Then I highlighted Streamer Pro 1.3 Icon, confirmed by clicking on “Next” button.

Opening Sound from Control Panel then clicking on Playback Tab shows 2 entries; Speakers/Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC) as default Device and Communication Headphones (IDT High Definition CODEC) as the 2nd selection but disabled. Both reference left panel 3.5mm jack. I looked at properties and configuration but didn’t see anything related to Bluetooth.

Recording Tab selection shows 4 devices; Doc Mic, Jack Mic, Microphone Array (IDT Hi-Def CODEC) as active default device and the 4th device is a Record Playback which is active but not the default.

Below is a screen shot of the Sound window:


Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Devices and Printers displays Streamer Pro 1.3 Icon.

Reviewing Streamer Pro 1.3 Properties, 4 Tabs are shown; General, Hardware, Services and Bluetooth.
Services tab reveals 5 Bluetooth selections that can be selected; Audio Sink, Handsfree Telephony, Headset, Remote Control and Serial Port (SSP) COM5. I have everything checked except Handsfree Telephony

Below is a screen shot of Bluetooth Icon for Streamer Pro 1.3 and Bluetooth tab display of Streamer Pro 1.3 properties on my laptop:


~Mike

Edited
@Bluesea said:

Thank you for your reply rasmus_braun.

I don’t believe my Latitude E6430 laptop has a Dell Bluetooth adapter. Device Manager reports (2) Sound devices; IDT High Deinition Audio CODEC and Intel (R) Display Audio.
Reviewing Device Manager, my Latitude has a Dell Wireless 380 Bluetooth 4.0 Module and separate entry under BT with a BT enumerator. Both are reported as working.
I checked the Dell Support website (you’ll need a Dell Service Tag # to use their service) and Dell System Detect will automatically run driver and diagnostic tests.
Screen Shot of BT properties from Device Manager:


This was the proceedure I used to add a Bluetooth device: From Control Panel, selected Hardware and Sound then the selection at the top (“Devices and Printers”), has a link to “add a Bluetooth device”. When the add link is selected, a window appears initiating discovery of Bluetooth devices within range of the laptop. Then I highlighted Streamer Pro 1.3 Icon, confirmed by clicking on “Next” button.

Opening Sound from Control Panel then clicking on Playback Tab shows 2 entries; Speakers/Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC) as default Device and Communication Headphones (IDT High Definition CODEC) as the 2nd selection but disabled. Both reference left panel 3.5mm jack. I looked at properties and configuration but didn’t see anything related to Bluetooth.

Recording Tab selection shows 4 devices; Doc Mic, Jack Mic, Microphone Array (IDT Hi-Def CODEC) as active default device and the 4th device is a Record Playback which is active but not the default.

Below is a screen shot of the Sound window:


Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Devices and Printers displays Streamer Pro 1.3 Icon.

Reviewing Streamer Pro 1.3 Properties, 4 Tabs are shown; General, Hardware, Services and Bluetooth.
Services tab reveals 5 Bluetooth selections that can be selected; Audio Sink, Handsfree Telephony, Headset, Remote Control and Serial Port (SSP) COM5. I have everything checked except Handsfree Telephony

Below is a screen shot of Bluetooth Icon for Streamer Pro 1.3 and Bluetooth tab display of Streamer Pro 1.3 properties on my laptop:


~Mike

Probably time to get Dell involved. If it doesn’t show up in playback devices you will not be able to use it.

@Don said:

Probably time to get Dell involved. If it doesn’t show up in playback devices you will not be able to use it.

Thanks for your reply Don.

I contacted Dell after running online test diagnostics to confirm my Bluetooth module was working. The long and short of it was to contact the mfg (Oticon) for a device driver. I’m going to contact the hearing aid pro before y 45 day trial runs out to see what can be suggested.

The Alta2 is a terrific device and the Streamer will work with the wired fix I mentioned earlier. Then again considering the expense (even though I have insurance), I think they should back up their advertised claim for .

I’m new to this and this is my first hearing aid acquisition so pardon my ignorance.

Have you had any luck since these posts. Bluesea?

I’ve just gotten a Streamer Pro 1.3 and paired it to my laptop via bluetooth. Maybe because I used to have a phonak compilot on this machine it has the drivers it needs already. use a softphone at work and it actually works no problem at all (at reasonable sound levels). But i was trying to play back music and couldn’t hear anything at all, even though according to the volume mixer sound was playing. I had a suspicion that it was playing but was coming through very faintly. I used a graphic EQ extension I have called P.E.A.C.E to add a +30db pre-amp gain to the signal and then suddenly i could hear music coming in from the computer over bluetooth. Even at maximum volume on every option though it comes through quietly and because there is so much amplification, the sound quality isn’t good.

Any ideas on how to get a windows laptop to work better with the streamer pro for streaming sound (not calls) from the computer?

Then again considering the expense (even though I have insurance), I think they should back up their advertised claim for .

Just to check I thought I’d pair mine and see what the problem is.

Computer 1. Macbook Air: Seamless pairing, opened YouTube and listened to several tunes no problem.
Computer 2. HP ProBook running Win 7. Seamless pairing. Go to printers and devices and see the Streamer listed as paired. Clicked connect, opened YouTube and listened to a couple of tunes, no problem.

I also have it paired to a Toshiba sound bar (sound is not that great) and the Oticon TV connect which sounds very good. And I have to get two rooms away before I lose the connection with the TV connect. <shrug>

So as far as I can see there is no problem with the Oticon blue tooth advertised claim. You need to look at your computer for the problem

In reply to @Syncros

@Syncros said:

But i was trying to play back music and couldn’t hear anything at all, even though according to the volume mixer sound was playing. I had a suspicion that it was playing but was coming through very faintly. I used a graphic EQ extension I have called P.E.A.C.E to add a +30db pre-amp gain to the signal and then suddenly i could hear music coming in from the computer over bluetooth. Even at maximum volume on every option though it comes through quietly and because there is so much amplification, the sound quality isn’t good.

Any ideas on how to get a windows laptop to work better with the streamer pro for streaming sound (not calls) from the computer?

By the way I found a solution to this - sharing in case anyone else runs into this - when the computer output sound level is really low, the fix for me was to use the Oticon Connectline app on my PHONE. Once the phone was also paired to the aids, i went into the Streaming Levels option, and found the slider was down at the bottom. Push slider up and voila, full sound output on my laptop!

Hopefully it sticks.

I just purchased a pair of Oticon Alta2 Pros and the Streamer Pro 1.3, and I was originally seeing the same issues as the original poster and Bluesea, and maybe some others might have… But I resolved it, and I thought I would share how I did that. Please forgive my long description, but hopefully there’s some detail here that will help somebody.

My problem was that although the Streamer was pairing with my Android phone for cellular calls and using the ConnectLine remote control app, I also wanted to be able to pair it with my Windows 7 desktop PC that I use for work. Prior to getting the hearing aids, all of my work calls were through a Skype number, and I used a wired headset connected to the PC for all audio mic and headphone functions… worked fine. With the hearing aids, I was hoping to be able to replace the headset with the Streamer + . I found that I could get it to work by plugging an audio cable with 3.5mm plug from the PC into the Streamer, but the “wired” approach is a little cumbersome, so I wanted it to work with Bluetooth.

My PC never had any Bluetooth adapter previously, so I purchased an inexpensive USB/Bluetooth “dongle” adapter from Amazon to try this… specifically, a Kinivo BTD-400… there are many USB/ adapters that are similar.

I plugged the BT adapter into a USB port on my PC, and Windows immediately went to look for an appropriate BT driver for the adapter, and found one… it downloaded and installed successfully. I was able to put the Streamer into pairing mode and get it to be recognized by the computer + BT adapter. The computer recognized it as a “Streamer Pro 1.3” in the Device Manager… But, it didn’t show up in the headphone/mic options in the Sound control panel, and it was marked with the yellow triangle + question mark in the Device Manager. When selecting it in the Device Manager, it said that it needed a driver to be downloaded for the Streamer Pro 1.3.

At first I took Windows at its word, and looked for a Streamer Pro Windows device driver from Oticon… But such a thing didn’t seem to exist.
I also tried another LG Bluetooth headset I have and previously used with my phone, to see if it would get set up correctly. But the same thing happened with it… it could connect and be recognized in the Device Manager, but wasn’t usable and didn’t show up in Windows’ Sound control panel. Then, after reading Mark’s post above and recalling some prior experiences with Bluetooth, I realized that it probably just needed some additional ‘generic’ Bluetooth software / middleware.

So I then went to the manual for the Kinivo Bluetooth adapter. It said it used a Broadcom Bluetooth engine, and that ‘drivers’ could be downloaded or updated from the Broadcom web site. So I went to the Broadcom web site at Bluetooth Software29. There I downloaded the “WIDDCOMM Bluetooth Windows Software”, which I think includes all of the Bluetooth protocol stack software that the system really needs to support different types of Bluetooth devices.

Once that software installed, the yellow triangle + question mark disappeared from the Device Manager, and a bunch of Bluetooth protocols (Remote control, hands-free, headset, etc.) showed up under the Streamer Pro 1.3 ‘properties’ in the Windows Device Manager, under ‘Devices and Printers’. Also, I was then able to see the Streamer + HAs as both microphone and headphones in the Windows Sound control panel (SUCCESS!).

After doing all of this, it seems to do pretty much everything I wanted it to do:

  • I can pair the Streamer with both my cellphone and the PC, and don’t have to “re-pair” it when going from one to the other;
  • I can leave it connected to the cell phone in normal use, for using the ConnectLine app for remote control and/or for making and receiving cellular calls;
  • If I want to make or receive a VOIP call through Skype on the PC, or watch a YouTube video on the PC, the ‘Aux’ button on the side of the streamer will switch it from being connected to the phone to being connected to the PC’s audio.
  • If I’m talking on Skype with the PC, or watching a video on the PC, and a cellular call comes in, the Streamer will ring and alert me, and if I answer the audio will switch over automatically to the cellular call… Then when I end the cellular call it appears that it will switch automatically back to the PC audio source.

Right now my only issue is that I wish the volume could go a little higher in the PC/Bluetooth-Streamer connection… If I set the computer sound level, the HAs, and the Streamer’s “streaming levels” at maximum, the volume seems pretty good, but I’d rather have a little more “headroom” to raise volume on audio sources that are quiet. My HAs are not yet adjusted to full gain, since I just got them last week and the audiologist told me they were going to start out with a bit lower than max setting, but it really only seems to be the computer/BT connection volume that seems a bit weak. Somebody mentioned a “gain boost” in their Windows sound control they were able to set, but I don’t see that option anywhere. I will keep poking around to see if I can increase the available volume.

@hf037 said:

Right now my only issue is that I wish the volume could go a little higher in the PC/Bluetooth-Streamer connection… If I set the computer sound level, the HAs, and the Streamer’s “streaming levels” at maximum, the volume seems pretty good, but I’d rather have a little more “headroom” to raise volume on audio sources that are quiet. My HAs are not yet adjusted to full gain, since I just got them last week and the audiologist told me they were going to start out with a bit lower than max setting, but it really only seems to be the computer/BT connection volume that seems a bit weak. Somebody mentioned a “gain boost” in their Windows sound control they were able to set, but I don’t see that option anywhere. I will keep poking around to see if I can increase the available volume.

Glad you got things working - I have a very similar setup, with the streamer pro paired to my laptop for VOIP and to my mobile at the same time. Works fine.

To boost the sound from your PC even when its at maximum, and even do some funky graphical equalizing, look into Equalizer APO and specifically the PEACE plugin to give you graphical control. It’s open source and free and works for me on my VOIP calls via laptop : Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO download | SourceForge.net6

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