Recording Bluetooth Audio w/ Video

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

My impression is that he has decided what he wants to do, and now he wants us to tell him how to do it. Yet I still don't understand basic details, e.g. is he willing to use a phone to shoot audio+video if that's possible; and if so, is he willing to buy a dedicated phone for this purpose? Etc.

It is an interesting scenario. Maybe someone in this forum has already tackled shooting on a sailboat and can advise him. I would love to help him move toward a solution, simply because I enjoy problem solving. But when I mentioned double system using phone for audio only, he quickly dismissed that idea (even 'though it's the second option on his list of four). He says that if he has to use double system, he would use an iPhone for that; yet he seems opposed to using an iPhone for video because of various types of restrictions within that system. He doesn't like a lav because it's "unsightly" and, besides, someone might fall overboard with the mic. (What if someone falls overboard with his camera or phone? That would certainly make an interesting video!)

So he doesn't actually want advice on anything, he just wants an answer to this one question: how, after linking a BT earbud/mic to a phone, can he then feed audio from the phone into his camera (whatever he's using for that).

I wonder how Ryan is doing these days.

Most people who ask these type of questions already have decided what they're going to do. All they want is to fix the issues which is often the result of a bad approach. Rather than change their approach they continue banging away.

Even if there was a way to link bluetooth earbuds with your camera why would you. There are numerous of wireless mic systems on the market its odd to want to use a phone. People are either going to record audio and video directly into the phone or not at all. Anything near the water the primary concern should be dealing with wind noise. In this case an inexpensive recorder with lav mic and fuzzy is all you need. How much effort you want to conceal the mic is up to you.

Yeah this thread gave me Ryan vibes... Did he ever take any advice from all those threads?

[Andrew Smith]

I was mildly surprised that example YouTube clips of this sort of audio setup were never supplied. Thought it would have been the easiest thing to do.

Andrew

[Larrie Easterly]

Originally Posted by George Weaver

This is one of the first Internet resources I read when I started my quest for a solution over a month ago. It applies only to Apple devices, is limited to video originating in the IOS or in one case supplied by hardwired USB connection & in at least one case recording can only be done in Apple's proprietary MOV format requiring editing on an Apple device to maintain recorded quality.

The MOV format is actually a wrapper for the video file. There are several ways to change the wrapper so that the file plays on there devices. 1. Change the file extension to .m4v. 2. Download the VLC media player, . Load the file and then select Convert/Stream from the file menu. There are several options to choose from. 3. Download the Handbrake video transcoder, https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php. Handbrake has more file conversion options than VLC.

[Greg Miller]

It seems that Bluetooth, and particularly Bluetooth audio, is not a simple matter. I would refer anyone interested to the following thread which contains a concise summary:
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/...uetooth_audio/

Unless there are exceptions which are not mentioned in that article, it may be that using off-the-shelf earbuds as a microphone will not result in good audio quality.

Now I hasten to say that I have some Bluetooth devices that can transmit "reasonably good" audio quality. The Wii line of products (a few years old) comes to mind. This comprises a system with a xmtr and a rcvr that are designed to work together. Models are available in various combinations of mic, line, mono, stereo. There are also some lower price "air bridge" systems, again with xmtr and rcvr that are designed to work together. There are even some very inexpensive consumer Bluetooth audio devices. But, based on the info in the above link, none of the devices I mention will be compatible with sending audio directly to a smartphone, and none of them includes any sort of wireless remote control capability. (Of course some such BT devices may exist, but I'm not familiar with them.)

Going back to the OP specific inquiry... The links that I cited from Google certainly don't address recording single-system. They don't even offer a good solution for audio-only recording (on a phone); in fact some of them were designed for older versions of Android and are not compatible with current Android devices. So, despite a lot of Google results, actual simple solutions are not common.

If I were shooting video on a sailboat, I think the examples posted above by Gary Nattrass would be the most reasonable solution. They are pretty much designed to do what the OP wants to do.

I'm curious now, and will spend some more time looking for a solution using an off-the-shelf BT earbud/mic combo. But based on the above linked summary of BT profiles, that may be very unlikely. If anyone has any info to the contrary, I'd be interested in hearing the details.

[Greg Miller]

ADDENDUM TO ABOVE

Subsequently I've found another article which is more recent and more detailed than the article cited above.
The new article is https://habr.com/en/articles/456182/

It appears that there may be some codecs that do support better 2-way audio quality. The article even includes a few audio samples. In theory, if someone has earbuds and a phone, both of which support these better codecs, then it might be reasonable to use an earbud's mic as an audio source for a narration-quality track (certainly not for feature film dialog). This still leaves some variables: the quality of the mic on the earbud; the wind resistance of the mic on the earbud; the position of the mic relative to the talent's mouth.

I don't know which earbuds, or which phones, might support these codecs. I leave it to the OP (or anyone else interested) to do the research to ascertain which brand(s) and model(s) might be suitable for any specific use. If anyone pursues this, and comes up with appropriate lists, please feel free to post the info here. I'd be curious to know what such equipment (if any) exists at the present time.