Trouble with Phonak Paradise bluetooth audio on PC

Hearing Aids
#1

It was no trouble at all to get my Phonak Paradise HAs connected to my computer, but getting my PC to play audio through my HAs once they’re connected has been very inconsistent. I’ve tried rebooting both the HAs and the computer and sometimes that works, when those things don’t work I’ve tried disconnecting and reconnecting the HAs and sometimes that works, and I’ve tried disabling and re-enabling the HAs in the control panel’s audio devices menu and sometimes that works.

While all the solutions I’ve tried have worked once or twice, I cannot figure out what is the cause of this issue, and I cannot find a consistent solution. I know the hearing aids are fine because they work wonderfully with my phone, but I just cannot get them to reliably play audio from my PC.

I would really appreciate any help or insights.

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#2

My wild guess is that it’s the Bluetooth in the computer. I’d try getting a USB Bluetooth dongle and see if that helps. Sennheiser is supposed to be the best, but are fairly expensive. I bought an Insignia one from BestBuy and it works great. I suspect the issues is drivers that aren’t quite up to snuff.

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#3

You can also plug in the phonak TV connector and stream nicely from computers. Works well for music or video and badly for conference calls.

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#4

Agree with MDB & Neville. I’ve had the exact same problem. I connect easily to most of my phones, tablets, and computers But connecting to my Microsoft Surface Pro makes me crazy. Sometimes I can do it if I unpair from everything else but other times I can’t. I’ve loaded all the newest drivers and tried all the recommended fixes. Bluetooth can get weird. I have one super cheap dongle that works and one expensive one that doesn’t. The TV connector works great. I only have one and move it around - got to buy another one.

#5

So, how they behave, by my findings.

First, there’s no instant connection.
Once connected to the computer, they hold the connection.
However, phone stream still has precedence!

So, if you get a phone notification while something plays on your pc, aids will switch back and forth, but signal will stop transmitting. Solution is to stop video on pc and start it again. So pause / play works.

If you don’t want to be interrupted by phone streaming (notifications), then shut down bt streaming profile for aids on the phone (audio, a2dp or whatever the name is), whilst keeping call (handsfree) profile connected (if you worry about phone calls that might come in).
Then you shouldn’t have any issues with playing and pausing video on the computer.

In other words, as long as I’m disciplined and aware where I send something, I have zero issues with listening and switching between my phone and laptop.

Idea with BT dongle on laptop would make sense if you couldn’t get the connection or transmission. I don’t think that’s the cause, but your expectation of speedy change (at least, that was my issue, now I’m pretending to be a snail, and no frustrations :D)