Anyone else getting annoying Bluetooth audio lag?
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Hi,
So I’ve been messing around with my RetroPie setup on a Pi 4 (running the latest image as of a few weeks ago), and I finally got my Bluetooth speaker connected. Great, right? Except… the audio delay is super noticeable. Like, menu clicks are delayed, and in-game sounds don’t match what’s happening on screen — maybe half a second off, but enough to be distracting.
I’ve tried a bunch of stuff: turned off onboard audio, messed with raspi-config, played with PulseAudio (which honestly just made things worse), and even tried a different speaker. Same issue.
Wired audio works fine, but I was hoping to keep things wireless for a cleaner setup — this is for a little living room project, and I wanted to avoid extra cables if possible.
Is this just a Pi/Bluetooth limitation I have to live with? Or has anyone figured out a workaround or specific speaker/setup that actually works with minimal lag?
Appreciate any help or insight — or even just to know I’m not the only one running into this.
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M mitu moved this topic from General Discussion and Gaming
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I think for the best Bluetooth Audio experience you may need the latest RaspiOS (not the version which is included in the RetroPie image) and - instead of PulseAudio - use Pipewire as audio server.
You can easily test for latency/lag by writing the latest RaspiOS Destkop image and connnect your speakers via Bluetooth to test things.
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