Headphones bluetooth sound is muted in starcraft

Bug Report
1

Hello,

Blizzard really needs to make quick work of the ancient problem of bluetooth headsets etc being completely mute in starcraft.

In 2013, i noticed a problem specific to starcraft when i started using bluetooth devices. it is now 23 hours and 40 minutes shy of 2020 and the problem still has not been fixed. in the meanwhile, i finished school, got a premanent job, a mortgage and bought a home, then found a girl to call my girlfriend, raised a cat, witnessed the release of heart of the swarm and legacy of the void, and am sad to report blizzard has not adressed the issue over the course of this life segment.

back at the previous forum comunity someone named pizzaguy found a workaround in 2015.

the workaround tackles something that has to do with the core of the problem: bluetooth devices connect with both a “media” signal and a “hands free” signal.
the hands free connection seems to cause the issue back in the day it used to help to disable the bluetooth device listed as your hands free device within the windows settings.
meanwhile, windows 10 came forcing down our throats, and now the hands free connection can’t be seperately disconnected within the windows settings. a real bummer for us who need that to workaround a problem that is not even being caused by windows itself.

even if it were still possible to use this workaround and get audio working via bluetooth, it would still not be a solution. some of us want to be able to talk to alies via the built in microphone in our bluetooth (gaming) headsets. and not have the SFX and music switch to crappy low kbps quality…

in 2013-2015, i were still kinda OK with blizzard not having time to adress the issue as the bluetooth market was pretty marginal back then. i bought a new laptop and got a decent non-bluetooth headset which i used up to today. today my newly bought €400 worth nuraphones arrived, and proves to be superb quality for not only music but also gaming, and i intent to fully terrify of the dreadful bass in Amon’s voice as i navigate Artanis’s army around the koprulu sector.

it is 2020 (in 23 hours 30 minutes). you have to have noticed this in 7 years time. i bought all sc2 content (except warchests) uptil now and intent to contue doing so if anything (RELEASE A SHOOTER GAME: REMAKE STARCRAFT NOVAAAAAAA) is made in the future. please don’t squander my perfect headphones

ps: i found a workaround to the workaround: in android, i can tab the cog wheel to seperately connect the VoIP connection, forcing the VoIP connection to disconnect from the pc. this completes the workaround to have at least media quality audio in starcraft yet still is not a solution. am still unable to use headphone’s built in microphone as VoIP is now not connected…

4 Likes
2

So can you give more description to this work around? I just got my first blue tooth headphones and I’m trying to figure out how to make them not sound so muffled while playing. I actually returned a pair of headphones thinking something was wrong with them.

Also please Blizzard address this issue.

3

Hi
I had the same issue, but fixed it by going to the Voice Chat options in the SC menu, and changed my Output device from my Bluetooth Headphones and to my sounddriver.

1 Like
4

Same problem here. I tried the Voice Chat trick but got no results :frowning:

5

I can’t believe this is an issue, this was driving me crazy, I had a LG HBS730 Headphones, with multipoint, perfect to connect to PC (Headset mode) and still can answer your cellphone (Handfree mode) at the same time

but i couldn’t get it work properly with SC2, i had to use the Handfree mode with the PC, because the headsets was dead, no sound, the problems is in handfree mode, the sound sucks vs Headseat mode

so, the solution is still (we are in 2020) use my old cable headsets, if you have some update, let me know

6

I’m on: Mac OSX High Sierra, using bluetooth active noise-cancelling headphones.

I had the same issue for a while and I just fixed it with a workaround. It seems to be related to the mic input (as implied by the other fixes which involved changing Voice Chat options in sc2 - those didn’t work for me though). In OSX Sound preferences I set the Input to be the Internal mic (Built-in). If I toggle between the internal mic and my headphone mic outside of sc2 I hear the same change in sound quality that I get when I enter sc2.
Now with the input set to the internal mic, sc2 sounds great again.

Note that before I found this workaround I just attached my headphones to the computer with an audio cable, which also solved the problem - just FYI in case the above fix doesn’t work for you.

1 Like
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blizzard knows of the problem but, according to a post on the support forum: they will not solve it.

8

Solved!

Hey everyone, I had the same issue. I had to figure out the solution on my own, and I want the Blizzard community to have some help on this issue!

Here it is for all of you:
Go into Settings >
Sound >
Output Device >
Select your headphones (NOT hands free)

Go to Voice Chat (even if it is disabled)
Enable Voice Chat (even if you won’t use it)

Output Device >
    Select your device (again, NOT hands free)

Enable Talking (again, even if you won't be talking)
    Input Device >
        Select anything that is not your headphones (note: you cannot select hands free, or standard)

This is a weird work-around, but it does work. If you are worried about chatting by accident, make sure the device you select in talk is muted in your sound settings, and make sure push-to-talk is enabled. If you are actually trying to talk to people, this will still work if the selected input device works.

FYI, this same work around works for Overwatch, for those of you who have a similarly muted computer when you try to join chat.

I just want to listen to music while playing games. Hope this helps you guys out too.

-Enjoy

14 Likes
9

I had the same frustration. But I got you! I posted my solution, but wanted to reply to you so it would ping you for the solution.

I just saw that Feanor posted a similar response for MAC, if that is you.

10

Hi all,

also was facing this issue. In general was very easy to solve it for me (nevertheless Blizzard should try to solve it one day).

Solution: Windows 10 - Settings - Sound - Play: Disabled Handsfree (only real bluetooth audio source bluetooth headset active) - !!! Record: !! Disable Handsfree or anything esle that is active. Even better disable all recording devices!!! - SC II works immidiately like charm (for sure only with sound, no voice chat possible with that!!)

Good luck!

5 Likes
11

I logged in just to tell you that you’re awesome as hell man. Awesome as hell. Thank you man.

12

Thanks a lot man, it works for me now, I can not understnad that they would not fix that in that amount of time, but your solution works for me so great work.

13

wow!! it worked … You are the MAN!

Thanks a lot :slight_smile:

14

Thank you very much! It worked perfectly!!

15

This works!!! 2021 and this works!!!

16

It’s Work, Thank you!

17

You’re awesome, thanks a lot.

18

Hi all, just wanted to reply in here because I recently got Bose QC35 II Quiet Comfort Gaming Headphones and was having the same issue - Starcraft II only works if I use the “Bose QC35 AG audio” which is the poor quality audio meant to be for voice calls only.

I was able to solve the problem, but merely changing the microphone input didn’t solve it. Instead I did this:

In Windows 10:

I changed NOTHING in the Starcraft II settings. In other words, both “Sound” and “Voice Chat” settings were left as “default” how I normally leave it.

Then, in Windows 10 I opened the Sound Control Panel:

+On the Playback tab, right click Bose QC35 II Stereo Headset (or whatever your bluetooth headset is called) and set it as the “Default Device.” It does not have to be the default communication device.
+On the Recording tab, right click your Bose QC35 AG Audio device (this is how it labels the lower quality audio channel Bose uses for voice calls) and DISABLE it.

Now, my Starcraft II works properly (high quality audio as expected when listening to the game). Keep in mind that I don’t care to use voice chat when playing this game, so didn’t care to try or test it. Technically speaking, it should not be able to handle the mic input at the same time. That’s why Bose now sells the QC35 Gamign Headest which is basically the same as the QC35 but they added an optional wired microphone attachment if you want to use the mic-in feature.

I doubt Blizzard will do anything about this, but if they were to do something, it would be to not let Starcraft get confused by the having the microphone input “enabled.”

Hope this helps anyone else out there…

EDIT: Quick update - if it still doesn’t work, you may actually have to also set the QuietComfort 35 Stereo as “default communications device.” And if it still doesn’t work, you may have to go into starcraft’s Options and change the sound/voice chat settings then change them back to default and hit save…seems like fiddling with that screen sometimes re-trigger starcraft to update the settings…

1 Like
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They don’t seem to be reading this forum. Since the problem is almost two years old and is being ignored. I always have to go into the sound system settings before and after play Starcraft in order to enable and disable ALL input devices. What is this nonsense? This is the only game with this problem.

I am very unhappy with starting a conversation, for example on Skype, and suddenly discover that I forgot to turn on the input devices back after last play of Starcraft!

Maybe we are writing in the wrong place? But how I see this is Bug Report forum.

1 Like
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You’re the best! and… other stuff