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Help HD Voice? Not so fast

hsh.shawn

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2010
123
124
Columbus, Oh
So after reading this:
About that HD Voice

I am left to wonder about Sprint's strategy. Why go with the Wideband audio when no other carrier is moving in that direction and it is an older technology? Also if they do not even plan to begin the roll out on it until the end of the year or early next year why even release a phone now that can not take advantage of it? It feels like Wimax all over again I see them upgrading to Wideband slowly until they abandon it and switch to VoLTE or something else down the road. Do they not learn from their mistakes? If no other carrier is adopting this and it takes both sides of the phone call to take advantage what is the point?

That being said it is not a criticism of the phone I am excited to scoop this up I just do not understand what is going on over at Sprint sometimes sorry if this has been discussed I had not seen it yet
 
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I can see family members being able to take advantage of it, early on.

Otherwise, maybe it's marketing? Perhaps like, Sprint has it and so have the phones since 2012?

I suppose it would be great if it catches on.

Can't say that I am all that excited about VoLTE. I have used a VOIP service at home until fairly recently. Once packets get scrambled, it sounds like you're talking to Donald Duck and then you have to redial.

And until someone shows me that the battery will last as long using 4G for a phone call, I am going to have a lot of doubt here.

The Evo, for me, provided great service. I used a wired headset and was always told that I sounded like I was in the room with them, and they were realistic sounding to me in return.

You know, I am almost reminded of Directv's transition from SD to HDTV. Upon HD schedule approach, they started over-compressing SD until it looked terrible. I still see some of their HD content that simply doesn't compare in quality to the older SD stuff. Yet subscribers insist that HD is full of win.

Given that my 3vo sounded unacceptable until I tweaked the vocoder settings, and that HD Voice is a vocoder trip, I wonder if you aren't on to something.
 
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I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions I have about HD Voice.

It's my understanding that the LTEvo is going to be the first HD Voice-enabled phone on Sprint's network. Everyone says it sounds fantastic.

Which bluetooth devices support this, and do you guys have any certain one that you'd recommend based off of reviews or experience with other devices? (I have no clue if ATT/VZW/etc have any HD Voice devices out yet)
 
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I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions I have about HD Voice.

It's my understanding that the LTEvo is going to be the first HD Voice-enabled phone on Sprint's network. Everyone says it sounds fantastic.

Which bluetooth devices support this, and do you guys have any certain one that you'd recommend based off of reviews or experience with other devices? (I have no clue if ATT/VZW/etc have any HD Voice devices out yet)

Sprint is the only carrier with HD voice, and you can only do it with an HD capable devices! Meaning if you and love on are on the phone and you have the Evo 4G LTE (LTEvo) which is HD voice capable, and your love one has a non HD capable phone on Sprint network....It won't work! Both need of you need HD phone, which at this time is the Evo 4G LTE! To my knowledge there's no Bluetooth (while wearing) will support HD voice....in the near future if Bluetooth manufacturers embed tech to support it we'll be notified, as Sprint want to advertise these feature!
 
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To my knowledge there's no Bluetooth (while wearing) will support HD voice....in the near future if Bluetooth manufacturers embed tech to support it we'll be notified, as Sprint want to advertise these feature!

I am an uninformed idiot when it comes to cell technologies, so please keep that in mind. Having said that, wouldn't HD Voice support be downstream from the Bluetooth headset? Seems to me that it's all about the network and the phones making voice calls over it. I would imagine that the Bluetooth headset is sending a reasonably high quality audio stream to the phone, and then the phone is downsampling it before shooting it over the network.

That is, of course, unless all Bluetooth headsets are sending audio to the phone that is only as good as the network can support. I suppose that is possible but I find that hard to believe.
 
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I am an uninformed idiot when it comes to cell technologies, so please keep that in mind. Having said that, wouldn't HD Voice support be downstream from the phone? Seems to me that it's all about the network and the phones making voice calls over it. I would imagine that the Bluetooth headset is sending a reasonably high quality audio stream to the phone, and then the phone is downsampling it before shooting it over the network.

That is, of course, unless all Bluetooth headsets are sending audio to the phone that is only as good as the network can support. I suppose that is possible but I find that hard to believe.

About HD Voice and Bluetooth

HD Voice == phone <-> network <-> phone

There's a wide range of audio quality in Bluetooth headsets and audio codecs supported for Bluetooth.

The LTEvo supports the highest Bluetooth standard and you can get an HTC dongle that plugs into your car's auxiliary port and get CD-quality music from your phone to your car stereo for the LTEvo (that doesn't apply to earlier Evos).

So, I think it all comes down to how much you want to spend on a Bluetooth rig for your headsets.

~~~~~~~

About sound quality

I use a _wired_ fabric-sheathed monobud from the Sprint store, available for $15 - it doesn't have a model id that I can give.

When I used that on my Evo, everyone - and I mean everyone - kept remarking that they'd never heard me, or possibly anyone, sound so clear on a phone call, including land lines, ever. They didn't say that about my 3vo and I tried a lot of headsets.

Short version - something in the audio circuit of Evo was done extremely right, and they haven't repeated it on other phones (and it took a particular headset to get it).

So, I think that the real point of HD Voice is to get everyone to that standard, but it will still take quality components in the phone and however you use it, naked, BT, or wired.

~~~~~~~

About audio sampling and HD Voice

The sampling method used for a cell phone is called a vocoder.

You could change the 3vo's vocoder to improve its voice quality and I definitely did that.

The older phones supported the EVRC vocoder, and some of us upgraded our settings to EVRC-B.

HD Voice is using the EVRC-WB vocoder.

Details at - Mobile Wireless HD Voice Today and VoLTE in the Future | SONLTE

Hope this helps! :)
 
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If the voice quality is as good as it is on my Photon, then it's a win. Honestly, I've always looked at these devices as phones first and hand-held computers second. If it doesn't have good voice quality I don't want it.

Everyone who hears me on my Photon has said I'm coming in crystal clear. Even with my Motorola bluetooth headset, the call quality is superb. I just wish the noice cancelling technology were better for my bluetooth...

If the EL TEvo has excellent call quality this phone (and I mean phone) will be a grand slam!
 
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So idk about all you guys but everyone always tell me how clear and crisp I sound during calls (opposed to how horrible I used to sound on the 3vo)... It is extremely loud at my job, the ltevo does a really good job at back round noise cancelation. But I have a question. When exactly do we get HD voice? With lte? Will there be a way to toggle it on and off. Or will it just be there and you would never even know. I know this might be a little ahead of itself but I'm really interested in this feature :thumbup:
 
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