2.1 and Call Quality

gregg098 · Dec 31, 2009

I am one of the lucky ones dealing with muffled sounding calls and was wondering if anyone else who has had this problem AND installed 2.1 has noticed a difference?

PS: I've read all the other posts about call quality issues, Vocodes, privacy settings, etc. Verizon just had me do a factory reset to try it out for a few days before they will let me exchange it.

clemarr · Dec 31, 2009

gregg098 said:
I am one of the lucky ones dealing with muffled sounding calls and was wondering if anyone else who has had this problem AND installed 2.1 has noticed a difference?

PS: I've read all the other posts about call quality issues, Vocodes, privacy settings, etc. Verizon just had me do a factory reset to try it out for a few days before they will let me exchange it.

There is a big thread over on the Motorola forums. I personally am on my 3rd Droid because of this and it has not got any better. Did the hard reset and all that and did not help. I know I seen where people say it's the best sounding phone they ever had. But for me it's been the worse. Look at the forums on the Motorola site and I am not alone. Also a friend of mine just got the Droid and his also has the muffled sound.

shark1987 · Jan 1, 2010

I never realized this was an issue, I've had problems with people having problems hearing me, saying it sounded like I was underwater, I had just switched to verizon so I thought it was a network problem, didn't realize it could be my phone...

Is that what you mean by muffled, as in people can't hear you or you can't hear other people well?

clemarr · Jan 1, 2010

shark1987 said:
I never realized this was an issue, I've had problems with people having problems hearing me, saying it sounded like I was underwater, I had just switched to verizon so I thought it was a network problem, didn't realize it could be my phone...

Is that what you mean by muffled, as in people can't hear you or you can't hear other people well?

Yep. Incoming and outgoing sound on my Droid has the muffled sound. I find myself having to repeat words when talking to people. They tell me I sound like my voice is muffled and some of my words are being clipped.

On my earpiece they also sound muffled. That's the best way I can explain it. Also it sounds like there's way to much bass and no treble. My wife's freebie LG and my son's Env3 sounds fine so I don't think it's my area.

travva · Jan 1, 2010

did you guys ever stop to think maybe it's your area? maybe it's not the droid itself, which would explain the randomness as far as who has it and who doesn't. it sounds better than my storm does from here so idk what to tell you guys. if you have replaced 3 phones, maybe it's time to look into other possible culprits. check w/ other droid owners in your area and see what they say.

FrayAdjacent · Jan 1, 2010

Dial ##PROGRAM and enter 000000 as the passcode.

Select option 4 (vocode) and change it to EVRC-B.

Restart the phone

sortaslow · Jan 1, 2010

Did he evrcb setting. Did nothing. Turned off voice privacy. Did nothing. It is not the network. Have 5 friends with this phone and in the same spot they sound fine.
This issue only affects sound for the person on the other end. Warbled, muddy, muffled clipped and echoy sounding is what everyone says. Got a new Droid today and this one is much better. Motorola forgot this was also a phone. Pathetic

shademar · Jan 1, 2010

sortaslow said:
Did he evrcb setting. Did nothing. Turned off voice privacy. Did nothing. It is not the network. Have 5 friends with this phone and in the same spot they sound fine.
This issue only affects sound for the person on the other end. Warbled, muddy, muffled clipped and echoy sounding is what everyone says. Got a new Droid today and this one is much better. Motorola forgot this was also a phone. Pathetic

Exchange the hardware and may you'll.....oh wait, you did.

Congrats on your new pathetic phone I guess?
I hope you don't spend the next two years annoyed as yell....
Or find a phone you like?

Happy new year.

kraze0g · Jan 1, 2010

so this issue is widespread? i was thinking about getting the droid within the next couple days but i need it to be a phone. everyone getting this problem?

sghere · Jan 1, 2010

I don't have this problem. Crystal clear quality on both ends...and I use about 1800 min a month.

There have been a few times it echo'ed, however it's a VZW problem....not a phone issue. They located a bad tower.

There is a way for you to contact tech support and they will give you a code to enter after every call you make that is "bad". It will show what towers you were connected to, if you were passed off to another, signal quality and where the problem is at. You'll need to get past the level 1 tech support...they probably don't know too much about it, but I overwhelmed them with information (dates/times/phone numbers/location etc.) and she just said it was over her head. Once I was passed on to Lvl 2, they tracked all the calls I had, a ticket was opened and problem was solved.

You may be in an area that they need to replace a few antenna's rather than swapping out handsets all the time.

Good luck!
Happy New Year

-S

kraze0g · Jan 1, 2010

ah well thats good to hear. if i do get a phone though and it has this bad quality and cannot be fixed, i will demand an exchange or refund because i need a phone first and foremost.

jen

jlawson · Jan 1, 2010

It's NOT the area, it's NOT the tower. It's the phone. The Motorola site's thread on poor call quality is 27 pages (last I saw) -- one of their longest. Verizon still pleads ignorance about it, but when I spoke with Motorola tech support, they were very well aware of the problem -- made no bones about it, actually. They said they're trying to get as many details from customers as possible for their engineers who are working on it. They "expect to have some call issues addressed in 2.1 (Gregg098, I assume you were referring to 2.0.1) and other upcoming updates." However, no promises. As someone on the Motorola site wrote, if they find it's a hardware issue I don't expect we'll hear anything about a solution. I'm turning my THIRD in.

teschoen · Jan 1, 2010

Just a question for all you folks who have poor call quality. How do you hold your phone, where do your fingers go? AND have you tried plugging a earphone/microphone into the jack and made a call?

I can see where it would be easy to put a finger over the built in mic and that would make it sound bad.

shark1987 · Jan 1, 2010

teschoen said:
Just a question for all you folks who have poor call quality. How do you hold your phone, where do your fingers go? AND have you tried plugging a earphone/microphone into the jack and made a call?

I can see where it would be easy to put a finger over the built in mic and that would make it sound bad.

That's what I thought was the culprit for the most part, because it would be when I was laying down or something that, and when I sat up it would be good. But then it started happening all the time people would tell me that they couldn't hear me randomly, but I could always hear them perfectly.

I hadn't really read anyone else having the problems before this thread, so I thought it was just me and my brother. He has the same problems I do, and we got our droids at the same time. Maybe we should go and swap them out? Not sure.

Also, I'm not on 2.1, I'm still on 2.0.1.

jlawson · Jan 1, 2010

Please. I've now had 3 Droids in 42 days (my store gave me a 15 day extension for trade in since I was leaving town -- they were great). It's not hair, it's not how we hold it, it's not the area, it's not the screen protector. Turning off the privacy setting helped some, but didn't fix it. Changing from the EVRC setting helped some people; I found it affected the ability of both sides of the call to speak over each other and didn't help that much with the quality. Other than the PHONE part of the phone, it's an excellent device. I'm delighted for those of you who got a good one, but accept it -- the Droid's got a totally crappy record on phone quality. Read the threads. If those of us with bad phones keep turning them in, they'll fix it. One tech support person said it's primary function is as a data device; phone is secondary. OK, but I need both, so I'll switch to something else -- still trying to decide what.

teschoen · Jan 1, 2010

Have you tried a different mic?

Because I have just done a test to my voice mail at home and work with both the internal and external mic and my Droid and they both sounded fine.

I find it very hard to believe that their manufacturing is so bad that you would have that many bad devices.

jlawson · Jan 1, 2010

Motorola readily admits they have a problem so, I'm sorry, but whether you believe it or not is not the issue. Look at the threads. I'm one of many who are on their 3rd devices. And, by the way, I don't use an external mic. And I don't believe I should need to in order to have a decent phone.

gnowak2 · Jan 1, 2010

I have the droid. Lg and i phone in my family and droid is by far the clearest with lg second and i phone the poorest.

gregg098 · Jan 1, 2010

jlawson said:
It's NOT the area, it's NOT the tower. It's the phone. The Motorola site's thread on poor call quality is 27 pages (last I saw) -- one of their longest. Verizon still pleads ignorance about it, but when I spoke with Motorola tech support, they were very well aware of the problem -- made no bones about it, actually. They said they're trying to get as many details from customers as possible for their engineers who are working on it. They "expect to have some call issues addressed in 2.1 (Gregg098, I assume you were referring to 2.0.1) and other upcoming updates." However, no promises. As someone on the Motorola site wrote, if they find it's a hardware issue I don't expect we'll hear anything about a solution. I'm turning my THIRD in.

No, my question is geared for those who flashed to the new modified 2.1 versions. Even though its not an official release, Id really like to know if anyone who had a problem who installed 2.1 has had any better results.

Also, to respond to some other posts, I travel A LOT and I have problems everywhere. So its not a VZW problem, its a phone problem. My old LG VX8600 dumb phone never had issues with voice anywhere. Even with an external headset I have problems because it seems to pick up every little noise around. The same headset worked ok with my LG as well.

gnowak2 · Jan 1, 2010

The sound quality in Grand RApids Mi is excellent, my son is selling his I Phone and getting the Droid. It is as clear as can be. I have had many phones and this has the clearest sound in this area. I used to oversee 160 cell phone and this is better than any of the ones I over saw It may be this area Jerry

teschoen · Jan 1, 2010

jlawson said:
Motorola readily admits they have a problem so, I'm sorry, but whether you believe it or not is not the issue. Look at the threads. I'm one of many who are on their 3rd devices. And, by the way, I don't use an external mic. And I don't believe I should need to in order to have a decent phone.

It was just a question as part of logical testing. If you try an external mic AND it works well THEN you have a bum mic OR the issue is how the mic interfaces with your mouth. never once did I suggest that you use an external mic as a fix.

I'm finding that this is one of the least friendly boards I've been on, I'm trying to help and you are being an ingreat.

jlawson · Jan 1, 2010

,Sorry, but for those of you lucky enough to get good phones, the first reaction is naturally to assume the problem is with anything but the phone. I don't think it's that we're unfriendly, we're extremely frustrated. I've had a dozen solutions suggested. I guess I'm weary of suggestions for the users. I'm anxious to know what Motorola is going to do, since they have accepted they have a problem.

Gregg098, I didn't know that 2.1 was an option. Thanks for the clarification.

quietgirl75 · Jan 5, 2010

i just called verizon telling them how ppl say i sound muffled....well...he had me dial *228 and hit option 2 and my calls actually sound a little better...hope this helps a little....

jlawson · Jan 5, 2010

Check out the posting by yfscooby (Jan 4, 6:15 pm) on the Motorola support site's "Phone quality is not great". After a month of trying to figure this out, this sounds like it might actually provide some significant help! He writes:

"I have a French Motorola Milestone and here is what I noticed about the bad sound quality received by the other person.

The fact is the Milestone (and I guess the Droid too) uses a two-microphones system for noice cancelling. One microphone records the voice; the other records the ambiant noise. The latter is located behind the phone, near the jack plug (there is a really tiny hole). I think the noise cancelling algorithm tries to suppress the ambiant noise from the voice... but apparently also suppresses a part of the voice itself for some users.....
What I tried was to put something like a tissue on top of this noise cancelling microphone, so that the algorithm has nothing to suppress to the voice. And that worked pretty well. Attached are recordings I made to show this. Sorry, they are in French, but I think there is no need to understand to see the difference."

Go on the site:

https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/99025#99025

to check out his recordings.

AND I finally gave up and turned in my phone (end of trial period) on Sunday, argh. I miss my Droid, but I'm delighted to have clear and reliable calls again on my old Samsung pda.

Good luck to those of you still working on it. Hope this helps.

gregg098 · Jan 5, 2010

Interesting. I should get a new Droid (well, "certified as new") tomorrow. Lets see if theres any improvement.

I did look for the hole on the back and didnt see anything near the 3.5mm jack. I wonder how that affects those of us with cases, bodygloves, shell/holster combo, etc.

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