Recently I purchased a VTECH usb7100 Skype phone. As a regular cordless phone, using it for landline calls it is great however I am experiencing distorted sound on Skype-to-Skype calls ..

I phone my wife from my work computer (I use Skype with a regular headset with boom mic), when she talks on the usb7100 I can hear her ok but the sound is very distorted. If she speaks very quietly the sound is perfectly ok. She can hear me ok on the usb7100; my voice comes over ok without distortion.

It seems that the microphone sensitivity is not set correctly, however in the sound setup for the computer I have made sure the record and playback options are almost reduced to zero.

I have also made sure I am running with the latest VTECH drivers (2.04)

Has anyone used the usb7100 and observed the same problem?

thanks,

Kevin

Ok, so I guess since no one has commented on my previous post that no one out there is using the USB7100 or if they are, they aren't having any problems.

Anyway I thought I would mention that I swapped out my USB7100 for another one and the new one has exactly the same problem. I will be contacting VTECH support again to see if they have any ideas.

To me it seems that the problem is likely with the driver. When using the USB7100 it takes control of the audio record and playback level. Maybe it is setting the level too high,

Kevin

VTECH seem to know of the problem. The research dept provided me with a modified driver but I still have the same problem. I hope they can fix this fault as otherwise this great little phone,

Kevin

Try this:

1. Go to Skype Tools->Options->Sound Devices

2. Uncheck the box "Let Skype adjust my sound device settings", click OK

3. Go to the Windows Control Panel ->Sound and Audio devices->Audio tab

4. There you will see a microphone picture, check that the correct audio device is displayed there( in the dropdown list )and click Volume button under this picture.

5. Windows Recording mixer will open. Move Microphone level slider down to the acceptable level.

6. If you have microphone boost on then you should turn it off too.

Play with the recording level untill you get acceptable result.

thanks for the suggestions but doesn't this mess things up for the other applications which use Skype (i.e. Festoon and Spontania)?

I probably need the VTECH application to stop Skype adjusting the sound settings BUT selectively for that application only. For the other applications I need Skype to still adjust the settings for me.

Alternatively, I would like Skype to adjust the settings for me for all applications and for the VTECH driver to work with it in such a way that the Skype adjusted settings are ok. (VTECH R&D group tell me they are working on a solution but so far they haven't been able to provide me a driver which helps)

BTW, I do have mic boost on, I find that I need it set to on for my plantronics desktop mic to work properly, not only with Skype but for other applications. I see in the Skype advanced help on audio settings that it says to turn off mic boost but should this be a rule for all microphones, surely it will depend in the sensitivity of the mic being used?

http://www.skype.com/help/guides/soundsetup_win2k.html


Kevin

Kevin,
Since you've returned the phone already and PSTN calls work, you can probably assume the HW is OK. I've used 2.04 and can make PC to PC calls...and they sound great! In Skype, my Audio Settings are configured to use the Windows Defaul Device for Audio In and Out. I have the box checked to "let Skype adjust my sound device settings." (BTW, you cant do step 4 mentioned above, you will get an error when you click the Volume button. You can click the Advanced button with the USB audio device selected. I'm using the default settings) If you've checked all this, that basically leaves you with the physical connection from the phone to the computer.

How are you connecting the vtech phone to your computer? Are you connecting to a USB hub? Can you try disconnecting other USB devices and connect the phone directly to a USB (non hub) port on you computer?

Do you think any of the other software you have installed that plays with Skype could be interferring with the VTech phone?

Hi Bob,

"How are you connecting the vtech phone to your computer? Are you connecting to a USB hub? Can you try disconnecting other USB devices and connect the phone directly to a USB (non hub) port on you computer?"

.. I plug the phone directly into one the USB2 ports on my motherboard. I checked in Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager and I can see that it is set up for USB2 since the controller description includes the word 'advanced'. From what I have read that indicates the port is USB2.
It is not plugged into a hub, although the word 'hub' does appear in the Device Manager listing, maybe the on-board USB controller looks to windows like it is a hub, anyway I am not connected through some external hub which I guess is what you were asking about.

"Do you think any of the other software you have installed that plays with Skype could be interferring with the VTech phone?"

.. on my computer, quite possibly. However I see the same problem on when I connect it to my kids computer, that has a clean install of XP Home SP2 and very little else.

I have just noticed that the cable I used was not the one which comes with the phone. I recall now that I used a slightly longer one because of where I wanted to situate the base station. The cable I used is very lightweight and I wonder if it could be the cable that is causing the problem. Anyway, I had installed the VTECH one now and will test the phone tomorrow,

Thanks for your help; it is great to know there is at least one person out there that the phone is working well for.

BTW Vtech are shipping out another replacement, they are working on the theory that it could be a batch problem, which I guess it could,

Kevin

[quote]I have just noticed that the cable I used was not the one which comes with the phone. I recall now that I used a slightly longer one because of where I wanted to situate the base station. The cable I used is very lightweight and I wonder if it could be the cable that is causing the problem. Anyway, I had installed the VTECH one now and will test the phone tomorrow,[/quote]

You know, I also had a hard time situating the base because the supplied cable was short! I found a way to make it work though...

Was the longer cable that you used a USB certified cable? It will be interesting to know if using the supplied VTech cable makes a difference. Good luck!

Bob,
I tried the original USB cable which came with the usb7100, unfortunately it made no difference.

Vtech tech support left a voicemail, they are trying to ship a replacement unit fo rme to try, hopefully one from a different batch.

Just curious, but is the audio on your system provided by an audio device on the motherboard, or via an add-in audio card?

Kevin

The sound card is irrelevant for this phone becuase Windoze sees the the phone as a seperate sound card (USB audio device). I've confirmed this by disabling my onboard sound card in the Device Manager and then called echo123. The VTech phone still worked.

How many USB ports are on your computer? What other USB devices do you have connected to it?

Simplify your environment as much as possible. Unplug all USB devices except the USB phone. Try disconnecting the phone line, so that only the USB cable is connected to the phone. Now make some test calls and see how it goes.

You can also try turning the volume on the phone down once you are on a Skype call (start a call, then press the volume key until its set to the lowest setting). Maybe the reveice volume on the phone is so loud that the mic is picking it up and causing some kind of feedback... I doubt this will help, but what else can you try?!

I suggest that you add echo123 as a Skype buddy, so you can easily test your audio from the 7100. That way you don't need 2 people when testing. You can make a change, then call echo123 to see if it helps. Make another change, call echo123 again.... very helpful for me when I first started with Skype.

Good luck!

Bob,
I don't understand this but when I used echo123 there is hardly any distortion in the sound which it records and plays back to me.

However, when I use the usb7100 to call someone using a regular skype-to-skype call the distortion is terrible. I know that it is not a problem the setup on the receiving computer as when I use my desktop mic instead of the usb7100 the other computer receives ok and the sound is without distortion.

I got some suggestions from Skype support but unfortunately it didn't help. It involved turning off mic boost, disabling the option to let Skype adjust the audio settings and editing the config.xml

I am waiting for another replacement usb7100 from VTECH, although I don't have much faith that it will work,

Kevin

If you are calling echo123 and it works, then your VTech phone is fine.

How many people are you calling that experience this problem? Is it just your wife that notices, or is it everyone on Skype except echo123?
Have you tried to make/receive Skype Out/In calls? How do they work? If you dont have skype out minutes, call an 800 number (800 numbers are free to call). Just pick one where you will be able to talk to someone, like vtech's support number.

How long do you stay on the phone when there is distortion before you hang up? Maybe it takes a second for the echo canceling to figure out what's going on and kick in. Try to stay on the phone longer and see if it helps...

Can you take the phone to work and call your wife? Maybe the problem is related to your environment at home.

"If you are calling echo123 and it works, then your VTech phone is fine." ..

yes, this one baffled me for a while but I think I know the reason ..

I just discovered that when my wife or my children speak on the Skype phone the distortion IS there on echo123. I think the problem is to do with higher end frequencies, maybe this pushes the driver or the hardware more than when I speak with my 'deep' voice.

I think the phone/driver itself has problems with higher frequencies and also the audio bandwidth of echo123 is pretty poor also, so any distortion which is recorded by the echo123 service is muted to some extent when it plays it back.

I have stayed on the phone for about five minutes but it doesn't improve. What is really odd is that if I have the usb phone record volume on the screen I see it moving the slider from an initial max setting to zero, yet the amplitude of the voice doesn't appear to change. It is as if it knows the record level is too high and tries its best to turn the sensitivity down but turning it down has no effect.

Good idea about taking the phone to work, in fact the replacement unit is going to be delivered to my work address so I will try that one at work before I take it home.

I was using 2.04 driver originally but Vtech gave me a modified v1 driver which they thought would fix the problem, I am still using that one.

They were quite ready to accept that it was a driver problem initially and send me out the modified driver straight away, they also said the v2 driver would be updated later. I suspect they know there is a problem. They also spoke to me a lot about it being a possible batch problem, it sounds to me that there is a batch problem and they have been trying to fix it via the driver,

thanks for your help,

Kevin

Very strange, indeed... My wife uses the phone to make Skype calls and has no issues. You would think that if this was a known issue, there would be at least one other person on the forum with the same problem. Plus, the phone is Skype certified, so Skype should have tested the audio quality and approved. I doubt a problem like your would go unseen.

What version of software did VTech send you?? Is it a newer version than 2.04? If not, you should probably reinstall 2.04. Chances are, older software has more bugs than whatever is posted. If this really is an issue with the VTech software, and they really do know about it, you would think 2.04 would be removed from the website... Who knows. :roll:

When your wife and daughter use the phone, is it connected to the computer with the long usb calbe? Or the shipping one?

What other software have you allowed to access Skype? Maybe I can try installing some of the same SW to see if I can duplicate your problem...

Best of luck to you. I really hope you get the phone working!

Bob,

I thought I would update this thread on my 'progress' ..

I have been working with the research group at Vtech who had been unable to reproduce the problem up till now. In the process of recording some conversations for them I discovered that the distortion was only there if there was some feedback/echo ..

If I make a call from my work computer using a Labtec headset and boom mic, the person at the other end answers on the usb7100 then the distortion is there.

If I make a call from another computer using a Plantronics desktop mic and speakers when the person at the other end answers on the usb7100 the distortion is there.

now the interesting one ..

If I make a call from another computer using a Plantronics desktop mic and speakers when the person at the other end answers on the usb7100 the distortion is there, HOWEVER I THEN I turn off the speakers the volume of the person using the usb7100 drops substantially and the distortion goes away !

How do I know this when I have just turned off the speakers? .. well, I can tell this from the recording which I just made.

Maybe the usb7100 has a problem with setting the mic sensitivity if it detects some amount of feedback/echo from the other end. It is odd that the Labtec headset gives the same problem as the whole point of using a headset is to avoid echo. Maybe the sound driver settings are introducing an echo, perhaps I have the mic enabled for playback in my sound settings - I will check,

Kevin

Hi Bob,
I heard from the product manager at VTECH responsible for the usb7100.

VTECH have reproduced the distortion problem!

They are confident they can fix it with a software update which they plan to have available for me to test in a couple of weeks.

Presumably shortly after that they will post the update to the VTECT support website,

Kevin

I'm having the same problem with usb7100 and the distortion with high voices, hopefully they will have that fixed and an update released soon.

I just got the VTech7100 and have the same issue. I sure hope thay fix it soon because this phone is great.

Hi guys. I too have a wireless phone; butler2511c, and I´ve tried every setting possible, latest drivers etc. with no avail... I am using an interface called "handy data IPC usb" and the problem just appeared one day. If anyone finds out what the problem is I hope you could let me know. I´ll do the same. Fingers crossed!

After reviewing your messages I started thinking there could be an irq conflict. I physically removed my usb soundcard, rebooted and lo and behold: NO distortion! Skype does not use a sound card to transmit to and from a wireless telephone, but for some reason there was some kind of conflict.
Hope it can solve your distortion also!

Using Skype with the Vtech USB7100 phone suffers from bad audio quality. Anybody I call hears garbled speech, as though I'm talking underwater.

Vtech has replaced the phone & base and the new unit is just as garbled. I can clearly hear anybody I call on Skype, and the landline connection to the USB7100 is clear for both the caller and the calling party.

I have tried all the steps that Vtech asks you to do (changing USB ports, different computer, different USB port, no USB hub in the path, disabling the computer sound card, etc.) with no fix. I am running XPpro SP2 on a AMD 64-bit 2Ghz system, 1GB memory, Skype V2.0.0.107 and the USB7100 base + handsets are at V0074 (the latest) release. Skype on the same computer using the sound card and headset/mic works fine and is clear for both caller and calling party.

I note a few others are experiencing this problem. Is there a new driver in test as poster "bbear1" reports? And does it fix the garbling?

VTech has posted a software update that addresses audio quality issues on Skype calls.
VTech 7100 Software Download Page

Does the VTECH USB7100 support a distintive ring to distinguish between Skype calls and a POTS (normal telephone land line) call?

Thanks, David

Good morning, ShadeBlue,

I so far have not tryed this VTech, so no feedback on what you need to know. Maybe later if I decide to go for it, I'll be back and post whatever news.

Since you are the only skyper coming to this thread after almost 2 ys of no news about this VTech model, I want to ask you if in your opinion it makes sense to buy it, or maybe try another brand..
Considering the price, under 40bucks on Vtech online store, I would take the chance but not expecting to waste more money on shipping back & forth, exchanging units, and for that I'd like to hear what you, and whoever else passes by, think about it!
Have a blessed new week, TIA,


KK in NYC

Hi KK in NYC,

I did end up purchasing the VTECH USB7100. There was a sale at Frys.com for the base station and 3 additional handsets for about $40. I needed to replace all the wireless handsets in my house anyway so I gave this model a shot. At that price ... I couldn't resist trying it out :-)

So far my experience with this model has been positive. The range is excellent, the batter life seems to be good, the sound quality is good. And as for the distinctive ring feature I was asking about .. the answer is YES, it does allow a different ring for land line versus Skype calls.

Also you can access your Skype contact list directly from the handset when making Skype calls. No need to manually configure each handset with a contact list for Skype calls. I wish that were the same for land line calls as well. For land line, you do have to configure the contact list on each phone, it is not a single shared or replicated list.

Ok, the negatives. Only expandable to 4 handsets total, including the base handset. The phone are small and lightweight, so the feel kinda cheap :-)

In the end, I am pleased with the purchase and I will probably be using them for several years.

Regards,
shadeBlue