Terrible audio & video when using Communication Apps only

[Dannyh2290]

Has anyone else experienced audio & video problems over social media apps such as Skype, Discord, Whatsapp etc with regards to sound & video quality being received by the other party?

I have just 'upgraded' from an Xperia XZ Premium and my partner who I speak with regularly over Skype & Discord has been complaining about how terrible the general quality is in comparison.

I have done my own tests by creating multiple accounts and calling my PC from each phone to test the quality and the Xperia 1 II is significantly worse than the XZ Premium in all aspects of call quality.

What made it more interesting, however, is that when I am recording audio or video directly into the phone via apps such as 'Camera' (to record video) or 'Cinema Pro', the microphone quality is absolutely fine and crisp and the video is smooth. It leaves me with the conclusion that something in the phone is causing these problems when working with these apps and transmitting data. The issues include:

1. - Noise gating which persists even when noise gating is turned off in the app (also wind filter in audio settings)
   
   
2. Muffled sound with a significant reduction in treble above 4-6kHz
   
   
3. Unintelligible voice audio when stood more than 2 feet away from the phone
   
   
4. Occasional squeaks which sound like a quick feedback loop when the other party speaks to me.
5. Video is laggy and does not have good overall quality.
   
   

All phone audio tests come back with no issues and I've followed tech support in doing factory reset. All they can suggest is sending it off to the repair centre, but this doesn't make sense as the mic & camera clearly works fine when recording directly into the phone.

Before we jump to the conclusion that it is the apps which are the problem, I just want to point out that I am literally using both an Xperia 1 II and a Xperia XZ Premium side by side and I can clearly see that the apps are not causing this. Something is going on with the way this phone interacts with these apps and it's not good.

I was actually so surprised about this phone. Aside from the Xperia 1 II looking and feeling beautiful, the camera quality and audio issues for other parties when using voice communication apps is a real drop in performance. The Xperia XZ Premium right now gives me a much clearer image & audio experience. 

[Dannyh2290]

So I think I have found the problem causing this: 'Creator Mode' in Display settings. 

When Creator mode is turned on (I'm assuming from the description the screen is in 4k resolution constantly) there is static noise and squeaks when using social media communication tools. Reverting this to 'Standard Mode' removes those noises and static sounds. 

I don't know if there is also some improvement to the camera smoothness as well now. I guess that in 4k mode the phone struggles to deal with the power consumption or something or CPU overheats? 

I'm able to toggle between these two settings and reproduce the same issue, so if anyone from tech support reads this, please have a look at this option. 

I found the easiest way to see it is actually in 'Discord', because the audio settings allow you to see a volume level coming into the microphone. You'll be able to see the level of static noise being generated by phone without speaking quite clearly in these settings and you'll see that no noise is generated at all when the setting is 'Standard Mode'. 

I don't suppose anything can be done about this... probably a hardware issue. Hope that this helps anyone else out there who may encounter the same problems I have with the phone.

[RottenFoxBreath]

Spoiler

Creator mode is for colour range, not resolution.

And the phones screen is 4k all the time, otherwise you would be using your phone in a small window in the centre of the screen.

So 720p or 1080p material, is upscaled to the phone screens native resolution, which is 4k.

What phone is it? a 1 or 1II, as I can't replicate it on the latest Android 11 1 II update, 58.1.A.1.178

[Dannyh2290]

It's an Xperia 1 II

The resolution of the phone doesn't change. I mean, I'm only drawing my conclusion from the description of 'creator mode' in the settings and I believed it's something like pixel density. But you know in 'Display settings' you can set display size etc and I know that does actually change the resolution of the phone. I've used programs like minimal ADB & Fastboot to check the resolution sizes before and I know that they do change. 

At any rate, the issues with audio are fixed when this option is set to Standard Mode. Perhaps the explanation isn't conclusive but perhaps it's something that can be tested by professionals.