Wanting to eliminate the audio cable running across the living room floor between my PC (Windows 7 64-bit) and my speaker system, and having tried other solutions that didn't work, I recently bought a Sony BM10 receiver for its aptx capability, needed to keep video and audio in sync. For the transmitter I bought the Azio BTD-V401 and installed the CSR Harmony software that came with it on the Windows 7 PC. Although it connected to the BM10 there was no indication of aptx working (supposedly an aptx pop-up appears), nor any indication anywhere of how to coax aptx into life. Without aptx the audio gradually drifted out of sync from the video, as much as 5 seconds latency, which is insane. Also I could not get the PC to accept my Microsoft Wedge bluetooth keyboard's pairing code when typed on the keyboard, though the Wedge mouse connected fine.
So then I uninstalled the CSR Harmony software and tried it with the native Windows bluetooth software. Again no aptx (since Windows doesn't have it), but the latency was only a second and the keyboard connected fine.
I tried it on several other PCs running variously Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 8 64-bit, and even Windows 10. On none of them did I ever see an aptx connection with the BM10.
Range is not an issue for the BM10, which is able to maintain a (non-aptx) connection with my laptop 80' away. My tests of the BTD-V401 have been with it as close as a couple of feet from the BM10, varying the distance makes no difference.
I've been hoping to run across a review of the combination of BTD-V401 transmitter and BM10 receiver to see what others are experiencing, so far without success.
Has anyone found a combination of transmitter and receiver that (a) works with aptx, (b) stays within the promised 32 ms latency, (c) stays connected, (d) has acceptable audio quality (no clicks, hum, etc.)?
Alternatively can anyone recommend a non-bluetooth solution to the problem of sending audio without a cable? A transmitter that gets the audio from the 3.5 mm audio jack of the PC and transmits it via radio, infrared, anything cable-free while meeting (b)-(d) above, would be fine.
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UPDATE December 1, 2014: Success! Following up on a clue posted on a BM10 blog, I found that the V401 connects and pops up the apt-X flag after clicking on the BM10 about two seconds after clicking on Connect, while it's trying to connect as indicated by the green bar scrolling to the right. This is the point in the procedure where you've just paired with the BM10, the blinking blue light goes solid for a split second then goes white, and then when you attempt to connect it times out and fails if you don't click on the BM10.
The great news is that the audio is terrific: very hi fi, and a latency somewhere between the promised 32 ms and 100 ms. That's already good enough unless you're super fussy, in which case Netflix has a sync option where you hold Alt-Shift and click on the movie to bring up a menu. Click on the last menu item and drag the slider to the right to sync audio and video. I found that around 100 ms gave satisfactory sync, i.e. latency indistinguishable from zero. Don't know if YouTube has a counterpart.
The bad news, at least for the BM10, is that if it disconnects for any reason, whether at random (sometimes happens) or because you've turned your computer off and back on later, you have to do the connect thing again including getting the timing right. This means that if you were planning to hide the receiver it's awkward to click on it. Also it's a skill that other family members may take a while to acquire; when I'm away from home for the evening I preemptively replace the Bluetooth audio connection by a simple audio cable.
The other good news is that if you already had bluetooth on your computer (e.g. if it's a laptop, or the Gigabyte BRIX in my case), and were using it for mouse, keyboard, etc., you can continue to use it for those purposes and use the AZIO exclusively for audio. After installing the CSR Harmony drivers, an additional Bluetooth icon will appear in the task bar, labeled CSR Harmony when you hover over it. If you already had one Bluetooth before then you can treat the two as independent. One good consequence is that the high bitrate of the audio won't slow down your other bluetooth any, important mainly for the mouse which otherwise can be locked out and freeze due to the audio hogging the channel, at least when apt-X isn't running. Another is that your keyboard will continue to work, which it didn't in my case when I tried pairing it with the AZIO: the CSR Harmony driver or whatever told me to type a long number on the keyboard (a Microsoft Wedge) when it paired, but typing had no effect. Keeping the keyboard paired with the built-in bluetooth was the easy solution.
| Brand | Azio |
|---|---|
| Item model number | BTD-V401 |
| Operating System | Windows XP, vista, 7 |
| Item Weight | 0.96 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 0.87 x 0.3 x 0.59 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 0.87 x 0.3 x 0.59 inches |
| Color | Black |
| Computer Memory Type | L2 cache |
| Manufacturer | Azio |
| ASIN | B00JAZGSXY |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | April 15, 2014 |
