Call Quality

[Rudy]

(is quietly waiting for one of them to draw a weapon, looks in jsb's general direction)

 

[thelion]

Whoa boys. Simmer down, ok?

Jsb, could it perhaps be a device issue you are having? I know for me, I had no sound quality issues with music or on my end after my second device and after the update and doing the *228. The problem was how I sounded to other folks.

As for all of you let's take a deep breath and focus on the real problem: figuring out if I want to go back to the Droid or not

 

[Rudy]

short answer yes.

long answer... take it away jsb.

 

[darreno1]

My belief is that the relatively poor audio quality is inherent in the current hardware/firmware setup. Hopefully it's a firmware issue that can/will be resolved soon - that's what I was hoping for when I decided to keep the Droid past the 30 day return window.

With all due respect to Viperboy, who seems to be quite knowledgeable and very eager to help, switching to another codec does not and will not solve the problem There is an audio processing problem with the device, that manifests in "noise" on both phone calls and music playing (mp3's, Pandora, etc.). I've experienced BOTH on 100% of the phones I've tried (about 15) and unless all the bad devices were shipped to New England, New York, and at least one to TX (where my first Droid was FedEx'd from) - it's just the way the thing is right now. The only reason there aren't more complaints...frankly, we're just too particular -and the majority of people either don't notice/aren't bothered by the noise, or they came from a combination of device/provider that was worse and so this really is an improvement for them. I've had a Blackberry on VZW for years and they've always been practically "pin drop" clear just about everywhere I went. If the Droid can't even come close to that - it's a Droid-Motorola and/or Android-Google problem, plain and simple.

I keep an eye on many forums and have tried all the fixes I've come across (it still cracks me up when people suggest dialing *228 to update their towers, I know they're trying to be helpful, but come on....)

Again, this is just a summary of my experience, and a distillation of what I've gathered online...but until I get a Droid in my hands that sounds clean, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

You obviously speak for yourself. I have no such audio quality problems. My mp3s sound crystal clear and I've called and listen to myself a few times on various phones and the quality was very good. Also no one has complained as of yet. I also use ORB via 3g and it sounds extremely clear. If you're getting noise on so many different phones, maybe it's a problem with your area. Or I have a 'special' Droid.

Yes, I do speak for myself, in fact, I noted very clearly "this is just a summary of my experience". I never claimed to speak for the Droid Owners Association of New England/New York. However I did mention that I've gathered a fair amount of research online and I can say that I am absolutely not the only person with call quality issues or concerns.

I'm thrilled that you have a crystal clear device. Maybe as you say it is a problem with my area - if by my area you mean Boston, suburban Boston, Rhode Island, NYC and Long Island. Then again, as I said pretty clearly USING ANOTHER VZW PHONE IN THE EXACT SAME LOCATIONS, I GET NO NOISE. And to repeat the other point - I still get the noise playing music, even in airplane mode, which I failed to mention earlier but really shouldn't have any bearing on music quality.

I guess there will always be fanboys that will take personal offense to any criticism of their beloved toys, but some people do have issues with the Droid and come to forums like this occasionally to try to resolve them.

Neither you nor Masters answered my question about whether you've done either of my repeatable tests and had heard absolutely no noise.

Do you even read what you write? Your statements were far from 'you speaking for yourself'. You seemed to imply that ALL Droids have an issue. Start with your very first paragraph again. Because you've had some strange problem with your Droid(s) doesn't mean it's an inherent problem with all of them.

And BTW the 'fanboys' have just as much right to post and to disagree.

 

[viperboy]

I did the option 2 on *228 as well. Le sigh.

I looked into the solution in that link. Question: I was told by a few reps that doing this could cause my phone not to work in some areas. True? Not true? Too few areas to care about?

I really want my Droid back but not if it cannot call people...

It is possible that it could not work depending on the tower you're on. However, almost all of them support this codec now. There is something odd with it not working if you had Alltel from what I saw people saying on the forums. I'm not in an area where there was previously Alltel, so I couldn't confirm first hand.

My belief is that the relatively poor audio quality is inherent in the current hardware/firmware setup. Hopefully it's a firmware issue that can/will be resolved soon - that's what I was hoping for when I decided to keep the Droid past the 30 day return window.

Right, it does seem to be something in the SW.

With all due respect to Viperboy, who seems to be quite knowledgeable and very eager to help, switching to another codec does not and will not solve the problem...

It might not completely solve the problem, but it really does help (Read my Tech thread, if you'd like).

I keep an eye on many forums and have tried all the fixes I've come across (it still cracks me up when people suggest dialing *228 to update their towers, I know they're trying to be helpful, but come on....)

What's funny about that? *228-2 DOES update the PRL which contains the list of available towers. Doing it every day isn't going to do anything for you, but it is good to do it about once a month - atleast that's what I do.

 

[jsh1120]

I've never been so thankful for my declining ability to hear. My DROID sounds great.

 

[subguy812]

I know the "in and out" issue you are talking about. It does not appear to be a phone for lazy phone talking. I have often questioned the mic...I have tried 3 Droid's and on each people say they can not hear me well, I go in and out. This seems to happen most when I dont hold the phone exactly against my face. On speaker it works as a speaker phone should. Try to notice a pattern of when people are complaining. I decided to keep my Droid although I went against my own advice..that being it is a phone for talking first and foremost.

 

[thelion]

Sub, I know what you mean.

I told my friends I was going back to the Droid and 1/2 threatened to boycott me

They really hated it. But I need a phone that can do everything Droid Does *AND* not have to be charged every few hours like my Eris. Honestly, if I could get decent battery life out of Eris I would not be going back due to the fear of the sound quality issues.

 

[jsb432]

You obviously speak for yourself. I have no such audio quality problems. My mp3s sound crystal clear and I've called and listen to myself a few times on various phones and the quality was very good. Also no one has complained as of yet. I also use ORB via 3g and it sounds extremely clear. If you're getting noise on so many different phones, maybe it's a problem with your area. Or I have a 'special' Droid.

Yes, I do speak for myself, in fact, I noted very clearly "this is just a summary of my experience". I never claimed to speak for the Droid Owners Association of New England/New York. However I did mention that I've gathered a fair amount of research online and I can say that I am absolutely not the only person with call quality issues or concerns.

I'm thrilled that you have a crystal clear device. Maybe as you say it is a problem with my area - if by my area you mean Boston, suburban Boston, Rhode Island, NYC and Long Island. Then again, as I said pretty clearly USING ANOTHER VZW PHONE IN THE EXACT SAME LOCATIONS, I GET NO NOISE. And to repeat the other point - I still get the noise playing music, even in airplane mode, which I failed to mention earlier but really shouldn't have any bearing on music quality.

I guess there will always be fanboys that will take personal offense to any criticism of their beloved toys, but some people do have issues with the Droid and come to forums like this occasionally to try to resolve them.

Neither you nor Masters answered my question about whether you've done either of my repeatable tests and had heard absolutely no noise.

Do you even read what you write? Your statements were far from 'you speaking for yourself'. You seemed to imply that ALL Droids have an issue. Start with your very first paragraph again. Because you've had some strange problem with your Droid(s) doesn't mean it's an inherent problem with all of them.

And BTW the 'fanboys' have just as much right to post and to disagree.

I'll leave the high caliber weapons in the case (sorry Rudy ), but I just want to defend myself a bit here. I reread everything I wrote. I don't even have to start with the first paragraph, how about the first 2 words - "my belief"?!? Who cares what you took my message to imply? Stop taking it so personally. I never said "your Droid sucks and you suck for not noticing it". I have an issue with the device, and you just have to deal with it. Whatever implications you may have drawn, I clearly stated that ALL DROIDS I TESTED HAD THE PROBLEM, but I never said that I tested all 1,000,000+ droids. Again, thrilled that you love yours and it's perfect.

BTW, yet again, you did not answer the question of whether you tried my two tests and whether you heard anything. If you had said "I tried your tests and got no noise on either" or "I tried your tests and kind of hear something, but it's so minimal that there's nothing to complain about", or anything else, that might have moved the discussion forward.

And of course fanboys have every right. It just gets a little counterproductive when they act like they gave birth to the Droid or that their entire 401k is split between Verizon and Motorola stock by dismissing that there might be a problem. If you're not experiencing it, then surely there must be plenty of other threads of more interest to you, no?

Jsb, could it perhaps be a device issue you are having?

If by "device" you mean my ears and/or brain, then definitely yes.:laugh: It's more than clear to you guys by now that I have a little touch of OCD, but the fact that I've tested quite a few devices in quite a few locations (with other people standing next to me and hearing the same thing) convinces me that in this particular case, the issue is real.

Frankly, the fact that this thing can do all the things it does is amazing. The fact that they released a firmware update that addressed so many things within weeks of launch is amazing. Every 1st gen device/car/whatever has it's bugs and this one so far is exceptional in the fact that they're relatively few, minor and quickly fixed. (Hopefully that makes the fanboys happy for a second.)

So again, it all boils down to what compromises you're willing to accept and as MANY people have said, this thing is first and foremost a phone....but I've made the decision to take a step back a few years in phone call quality in order to take 3 steps forward in "smartphone device" technology.

BTW, my brother-in-law's brother is an engineer at Motorola and he's looking in to my issue. If I find anything out - and I haven't been kicked off this forum by then - I'll be glad to let you know what I hear.

 

[jsb432]

My belief is that the relatively poor audio quality is inherent in the current hardware/firmware setup. Hopefully it's a firmware issue that can/will be resolved soon - that's what I was hoping for when I decided to keep the Droid past the 30 day return window.

Right, it does seem to be something in the SW.

ViperBoy, I'm not sure I'm reading your response correctly, are you saying that you agree with my comment and that you think there is an underlying audio quality issue that is in the soft/firmware? It seems like that's what you're saying, but I haven't heard anyone of "authority" agree to that so far. (And I say "authority" with the utmost respect, it's a very nice thing you're doing for this forum.)

With all due respect to Viperboy, who seems to be quite knowledgeable and very eager to help, switching to another codec does not and will not solve the problem...

It might not completely solve the problem, but it really does help (Read my Tech thread, if you'd like).

Sorry, perhaps I should have been more clear and said that I have/do read your thread (at least up till about page 50 or so, haven't read it in a little bit). Like you said, it probably does help (despite the potential tower conflict issues in some areas) in many cases and with certain aspects of the call - I never meant to imply that it was pointless to attempt it - just that based on the brief description in the OP, it wouldn't solve the problem.

There's a lot of info out there and the knowledgebase grows exponentially - so it's impossible to know everything that's out there, but it's my opinion that people ought to at least take a few minutes to try to solve the problem on their own and get familiar their issue on the forum before posting questions or suggestions. Not exactly the case with this thread, but the people that come to your thread and ask how to set up a gmail account or to adjust the brightness on the phone have no business posting, and probably no business owning a device like this....

I keep an eye on many forums and have tried all the fixes I've come across (it still cracks me up when people suggest dialing *228 to update their towers, I know they're trying to be helpful, but come on....)

What's funny about that? *228-2 DOES update the PRL which contains the list of available towers. Doing it every day isn't going to do anything for you, but it is good to do it about once a month - atleast that's what I do.

Sorry again, you're correct about this issue and it's probably a good habit to get in to. I just said that in my earlier response in a frustrated response to the constantly repeated response to call quality complaints of "hey, update your towers".

 

[jsb432]

...But I need a phone that can do everything Droid Does *AND* not have to be charged every few hours like my Eris. Honestly, if I could get decent battery life out of Eris I would not be going back due to the fear of the sound quality issues.

A little off topic - and not the ideal/most elegant solution - but I ordered a Zagg Sparq a few days ago (about $56 with shipping) and am anxiously awaiting delivery.

Seems like you could charge that, and the Droid (or Eris) overnight and then talk nonstop the following day - with relatively little inconvenience.

I think there's a thread on here discussing it, but here's a link to the unit:

ZAGG | ZAGGsparq | 4 full iPhone charges, mobile battery, device charger, cellphone charger, portable battery pack, 6000 mAh lithium polymer battery, USB x2 at 1000 mAh output, AC 100-240 v/50/60 Hz

 

[johfiner]

I know you said you tested 15 droids, but perhaps they've changed something in the hardware recently and those phones are now being rolled out. I purchased mine on the 23rd and haven't experienced any issues. I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile, so I don't think I'm just being oblivious. I also have been using the droid as my main mp3 player and haven't noticed anything there.

Sorry to be one of "those guys," but I wanted to throw in my two cents.

 

[jsb432]

I know you said you tested 15 droids, but perhaps they've changed something in the hardware recently and those phones are now being rolled out. I purchased mine on the 23rd and haven't experienced any issues. I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile, so I don't think I'm just being oblivious. I also have been using the droid as my main mp3 player and haven't noticed anything there.

Sorry to be one of "those guys," but I wanted to throw in my two cents.

No apology necessary, thanks for your $0.02 - the more people that confirm they don't have a problem, the more encouraged I am that there's a solution out there - even if that solution is sending it back to Motorola to get a new chipset/motherboard/whatever.

If you don't mind, would you check 2 quick things for me?

1) Behind your battery, there's a white sticker with some phone info on it. Below the MSN, there should be something that looks like 40/09, 45/09 or something similar....what does yours say?

2) Could you do that music player test where you play a song, use the volume rocker to turn the volume all the way down, then hold the speakerphone to your ear and see if you hear anything? I hear a faint static hiss - if yours is completely dead silent, that will be very good news to me.

Thanks!!

 

[darreno1]

I'll leave the high caliber weapons in the case (sorry Rudy ), but I just want to defend myself a bit here. I reread everything I wrote. I don't even have to start with the first paragraph, how about the first 2 words - "my belief"?!? Who cares what you took my message to imply? Stop taking it so personally. I never said "your Droid sucks and you suck for not noticing it". I have an issue with the device, and you just have to deal with it. Whatever implications you may have drawn, I clearly stated that ALL DROIDS I TESTED HAD THE PROBLEM, but I never said that I tested all 1,000,000+ droids. Again, thrilled that you love yours and it's perfect.

BTW, yet again, you did not answer the question of whether you tried my two tests and whether you heard anything. If you had said "I tried your tests and got no noise on either" or "I tried your tests and kind of hear something, but it's so minimal that there's nothing to complain about", or anything else, that might have moved the discussion forward.

And of course fanboys have every right. It just gets a little counterproductive when they act like they gave birth to the Droid or that their entire 401k is split between Verizon and Motorola stock by dismissing that there might be a problem. If you're not experiencing it, then surely there must be plenty of other threads of more interest to you, no?

LOL, it's equally as important for people without a problem to voice their opinion. In fact the OP said clearly he has no problems playing MP3s or with the speaker on his end. It's you who derailed this thread with your 'beliefs'.


Anyway just to humor you, I found the quietest place I can and did your music test. I heard no hiss whatsoever just dead silence.

BTW I purchased my Droid on the 11th Nov.

 

[BigNunz6]

Well after a few weeks of ownership I've had many people tell me that my phone sounds like crap, including the wife, but that could be a good thing cause she calls me less. . . . Everything else works just fine and thats why I)have and love it.