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How can I tell if Bluetooth audio is using lossless AptX coded on my Windows 10? My computer - Lenovo T430s - is connected to a Philips AEA2700 receiver.

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    Windows doesn’t offer an indicator and neither does your BT audio receiver. So you can’t tell, unfortunately.
    – Daniel B
    Aug 12, 2016 at 15:28

6 Answers 6

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My LG HBS-730 headset supports aptX and it has a indirect indication to tell whether the headset is connected with aptX codec. Just press and hold the volume up and down buttons simultaneously for 1 second, this is supposed to switch EQs, but has no effect if aptX is working, although you can still hear the beep sound.

Using this method, I found that my regular Intel Bluetooth adapter in Skull Canyon NUC on Windows 10 is actually connected to my headset with aptX codec.

I've no idea whether this has restriction on the Bluetooth adapter hardware, but the built-in adapter of NUC is such a common chipset which is widely used in most Windows laptops.

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First of all, your bluetooth audio receiver (Philips AEA2700) supports decoding aptX. That's listed in its specification.

Then it comes to the transmitter. AFAIK there are two types of transmitter for bluetooth audio.

The first type is a USB audio class device (i.e. a USB sound card) with hardware codec. Examples are the ones from Creative, such as BT-W2.

For this type of transmitter, you can safely assume that it will automatically use the "best" codec (i.e. aptX Low-Latency > aptX > SBC) available on both itself and the receiver. And I don't suppose you have ways other than checking its specification to know whether aptX is available.

The second type is a general bluetooth transmitter that supports the A2DP profile. The ones that are equipped in laptops are pretty much always of this type.

This type of transmitter usually relies on software codec(s), which are provided its driver / software stack, such as CSR Harmony.

Take CSR Harmony as an example, when it is used to connect to a aptX-capable receiver, an aptX logo with text such as "You are now connected to an aptX-enabled headset" will pop up for a while.

It appears to me that CSR Harmony has been discontinued though. If true, one of the reasons could be the fact that Windows 10 has aptX codec built in, according to this. I have yet to notice any other indication that aptX will be used if you use the Windows-builtin bluetooth driver / stack though.

P.S. aptX is NOT a lossless codec.

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    Just a note on your last statement, while you are right that plain aptX is not a lossless codec, there is a lossless variant, aptX Lossless, which was introduced in 2009: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AptX#aptX_Lossless
    – user125355
    Jul 26, 2017 at 18:15
  • apt-X Lossless was indeed a thing. But it was not a *bluetooth* codec? Perhaps aptX HD (the highest quality you can get in this case) is directly based on its "hybrid constrained scheme", and perhaps that has been described as "near lossless", but if you want to be accurate that's still actually lossy.
    – mirh
    Sep 30, 2020 at 19:08
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It's an old thread, but the situation hasn't changed much since then. So here you go.

I created an application that displays CODEC information (device capability and the OS selection). It's still in beta, but if you're interested, you can download from the following site: https://www.bluetoothgoodies.com/tweaker/

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  • Looks interesting. Thanks for developing this tool. I noticed that my Sony SRS-XB30 that supports both AAC and LDAC is listed as supporting only SBC in the app. I clicked the refresh codec information button but nothing changed.
    – Vinayak
    Feb 9, 2019 at 17:24
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    I don't know about XB30, but some Sony headphones have "sound quality modes". My ZX770BN was shipped with SBC only mode and I needed to switch the mode to enable AAC and AptX. Please check the documentation of your device . Feb 10, 2019 at 18:20
  • You're right. I had to switch to “Priority on sound quality” mode, after which your application detected both AAC and LDAC as supported codecs. However, Windows selected codec was still SBC though. I guess QCA9377 only supports SBC.
    – Vinayak
    Feb 12, 2019 at 14:43
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    Actually, it's Windows 10's limitation. Windows 10 supports SBC and AptX (regarless of which USB-Bluetooth dongle you are sing). Feb 13, 2019 at 19:50
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You can log which codec is being used with the Windows Performance Toolkit in the Windows ADK

https://helgeklein.com/blog/2020/09/how-to-check-which-bluetooth-a2dp-audio-codec-is-used-on-windows/

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  • I tried the steps from that page, but it didn't work. When I searched in performance analyzer, I only got 1 event - the important second event was not found. And none of the important fields were listed either.
    – Marc
    Jan 24, 2021 at 3:06
  • You are right, that was also the case for me. I can see all the potential codecs in the A2dpAvailableRemoteCodec event, but after A2dpStreamingStart I have no A2dpStreaming for the actual one. Other people didn't have problems though, so I guess it must be either that I'm not using Microsoft default Bluetooth stack, or that more specifically my Atheros/Qualcomm driver has something broken.
    – mirh
    May 4, 2021 at 10:13
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    Ok so, little update. I'm here testing for the bluetooth capabilities of the module integrated in my Intel AX201 card, and I was pretty disheartened yet again not to see the A2dpStreaming line in the logs. Just for the lulz and desperation, I disconnected my WH-1000XM2 and I tried to start tracing before powering them on in the first place.. and it turns out it popped up this time. No shit the devices aren't re-negotiating the codec every time you start a new track, duh? I can now happily confirm this configuration (at least with the drivers Acer ships) supports aptX :)
    – mirh
    Apr 14, 2022 at 21:57
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I have the same problem, there is no indication of aptX. Here is my work around. Watching youtube video, e.g. drummer, piano... If video/audio delay is minimal, aptX is working. Is there a visible difference between audio and video, then aptX is off. My results:

LG G4 + Philips AEA2700 = aptX ON!

Medion 1232t with Win10 and original Microsoft bluetooth driver + Philips AEA2700 = aptX OFF

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    Thanks, but I'm looking for something definite and accurate.
    – White hawk
    Aug 1, 2016 at 12:41
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There are two requirements to have the AptX codec working. First, you must have a bluetooth driver of Windows 10 supporting AptX codec from Lenovo company. Second, your Philips AEA2700 receiver can support the AptX codec. You can tell from the specification of the receiver, or see if there is a AptX mark on the receiver or not.

If there is no AptX mark, then your receiver is not support the AptX codec. If Lenovo company does not provide the bluetooth driver supporting AptX codec, then the AptX codec can not work. Only if these two requirements are meeting, you can hear music through the AptX codec. If one of them is missing, you can not.

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    There're a number of conditions that must be met, that's why I'm looking for an actual indication.
    – White hawk
    Jun 24, 2016 at 15:42

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