Recommendations for a Bluetooth dongle for a specific setup?

[GlacierTuba]

Hello.

I'm looking to get recommendations for some sort of Bluetooth dongle or transmitter to attach to a non-Bluetooth capable/enabled device (not a soundbar or other piece of home theatre kit but something more specialised, doesn't really matter what at this stage).

I'd like for it to fit a 1/4" headphone jack and be able to transmit audio to a pair of decent wireless earbuds (not sure what yet, but something juicy and noise cancelling, maybe a pair of Sony WF's).

Main thing is there must be no noticeable lag as it would be for watching films, tv shows, discs and so on so obviously I don't want anything out of sync there. Also I'd be looking for decent audio quality too. Highest available if possible, don't even know what that is presently?

Thanks all.

[DickieT]

There are many bluetooth transmitters available. Never seen one plugged into a head phone jack. does said mystery device have rca analog outs? as for sync issues, that's an unknown until the devices are connected

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by DickieT

There are many bluetooth transmitters available. Never seen one plugged into a head phone jack. does said mystery device have rca analog outs? as for sync issues, that's an unknown until the devices are connected

Cheers for the reply. I was having a look round and ended up getting this device from 1Mii (doubt it's Nintendo-related).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08R5TK9RQ

It's really good except for one thing... it doesn't work with DTS and also certain Dolby audio tracks. Which kind of wrecks the intended use case, though not just yet as I've not tested it on the device I want to use it with, a Sony HMZ-T3.

I did test it with my Laserdisc setup though and did get it working, but with the audio caveats aforementioned. To work with my Laserdisc setup, I used the SPDIF output on my DVDO VP50 Pro and fed that to the 1mii and connected my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones to it. Fuss-free and set up in seconds.

Whipped out a Tina Turner DTS laserdisc (Live In Amsterdam, great Laserdisc DTS demo disc) and all I got was the undecoded noise track. I have a Yamaha AC-3 demodulator too, was going to test True Lies AC-3 Laserdisc but figured if the 1mii won't decode or pass through DTS then I doubt AC-3 will work. That said, if it's been demodulated and the demodulator is spitting out demodulated AC-3 over coax and/or spdif then I dunno, it should pass through the 1mii spdif and out to the Bluetooth cans as demodulated AC-3? Feck it, I'll test it and update this post at some stage.

I shoved in the Star Wars THX Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set next. That worked perfectly with Dolby Digital audio and also the analogue commentary tracks and so on. I could confirm this with the information screens from the DVDO unit OSD.

So in essence it looks like the 1Mii can pretty much do everything up to DTS and probably AC-3 (I'll confirm), without having to have any dedicated on-board hardware on the TX/RX device. Not great for my use case.

What about the HMZ-T3? The head unit has on-board 3.5mm headphone output. Not ideal if you were to stick a 3.5mm car BT dongle in to it (and wouldn't fit anyway, any device would be too big to house on the side of the device). So what was I planning to do to get BT headphones/earphones working with it?

My idea was to use the processor unit that connects to the Blu Ray player. The processor unit can do everything except the more modern stuff, namely DTS:X and Dolby Atmos. Think it does it all up to 7.1 both DTS and Dolby. It spits out HDMI only, but does have a 1/4" headphone output on board.

With that in mind I wanted to use the 1/4" headphone out to the 3.5mm analogue IN on the 1mii and broadcast that. Keeping in mind that whatever is spat out of the headphone jack has already been processed no matter if it's DTS Super-HD-MA or Dolby 9572.1. Only thing of concern would be it's headphone out and not a proper line out. The 1mii does come with 3.5mm and also RCA to 3.5mm cables as well as a spdif. I've yet to try this out, but will give it a shot and see, I just haven't had as much time and my Laserdisc setup was just ready to go.

The other option if this doesn't work, is to use the processor HDMI out, feed it to the DVDO VP50 Pro and use the spdif again, like the Laserdisc idea. But the DVDO only has a single HDMI out so I'd need to split that to feed the headset.

One last option I was thinking about was to just get something like the Peakdo 3S and just use the 3.5mm out anyway (which at least reduces the need for the long hardwired HDMI cable from head unit to processor):

https://www.peakdo.com/Millimeter-wa...itter-Receiver

The Peakdo fits the bill as it's proven and works (the new 4K Mini S model is even better but about 300 lids). For what it's worth, Sony did make a wireless HMZ-T3, namely the HMZ-T3W but it's harder to find and probably doesn't work on WiGig, meaning it's probably old technology circa 2010-2013 and likely crap.

Could add an HDMI audio extractor and use the 1mii for Bluetooth that way, but I would imagine all this stuff added to the chain would absolutely introduce significant lag, so you'd be back to square one and a few hundred quid out of pocket.

At least with the 1mii I bought I have a second use for it to connect to my turntable setup for Bluetooth audio from my non-Bluetooth headphone amp (I imagine if anyone bothered reading this far and is an audiophile that they were just violently ill with rage ).

Bonus option: Buy a pair of nreal Air glasses and be happy (yet unable to properly play 3D Blu Ray without beta software). The HMZ-T3 is still the headset to beat though imho. It's designed from the ground up purely for film; designed for 24fps, properly configurable, works properly with and designed for 3D films and also the Japanese head unit, which is what I have, used different, better OLED panels solely available for the Japanese market. Plus I don't want Zuck harvesting my eyeballs for his endless quest for world supremacy.



TL;DR?

The Prodigy - Poison (Official Video) - YouTube

Super bonus feature:

The guy to contact at Peakdo is named Bruce Li. Surely it cannot be?

https://www.peakdo.com/contact-peakdo

[GlacierTuba]

Just by way of update. Yer man Bruce Li got back to me. Those Peakdo things wouldn't be of any use as they conform to HDMI 1.2 apparently, which is a bit odd and outdated no?

Anyway, I'll keep looking for another solution.

[GlacierTuba]

Just by way of update again, in case it helps someone searching online in the future.

I bagged the DVDO Air 3c today from the USA. Supposedly brand new in the box, according to the Gr€€dBay seller. Import tax wasn't too bad, but the shipping was just soul destroying.

The thing with the DVDO Air 3c, that I can see from the research I've conducted, is that yes, this is a 10 year old technology (about the same age as the HMZ-T3W oddly enough), but it's also proven and well reviewed across the board it would appear.

Key points also being that this system operates on WiGig, works with all the audio and video formats I'm looking for (sure the HMZ-T3 OLED panels output 720p so 1080p/60 is more than sufficient) and uncompressed/lossless with near-zero latency including full fat, untouched 3D Blu Ray. This should meet all the criteria I'm looking for (minus BT audio) at a 'reasonable' price.

Only thing I can't get from this is Bluetooth audio (that can handle DTS, AC-3 and so on), so I might have to see can I add an audio extractor but I've a feeling it will add lag so the on-board 3.5mm jack is probably going to stay in use for a while yet.

We'll see how it goes. I'll update this post once the DVDO Air 3c arrives (which knowing international post from the USA will take about 37 years to arrive).

Here's some juicy news on the DVDO Air 3c if you are keen:

https://www.audioholics.com/gadget-r...ss-hdmi-review

DVDO Air3: Wireless HDMI That Works! (HD Nation) - YouTube