What thread is Ooma referring to? - audio delay fix (?)

[dschmidt_2000]

I've got a hub, and I've got audio delay. Not much but still awkward feeling when calling on the OOma. Other times its worse. My TMobile@Home VOIP, located downstream from the Ooma, never has the voice delay that Ooma has, certainly I've never felt that the audio was delayed nor has the wife. 2 VOIP systems on the same DSL line.

On Facebook yesterday, Ooma announced HD Voice quality for the Telo product.

That's great, but what about trying to fix the delay problems - that is what I asked on Facebook.

OOma replied
"Hi David – to help troubleshoot any delays during calls, check out the discussion in the Ooma Forums. There is a tweak that can be done with the Ooma tone:"

Where is this thread? What does the Ooma tone have to do with audio delay?

Dave

[jhphone]

...
OOma replied
"Hi David – to help troubleshoot any delays during calls, check out the discussion in the Ooma Forums. There is a tweak that can be done with the Ooma tone:"

Well, I hope it's something other than setting the upload QOS rate. That doesn't work for me.

I've come to regret giving up my ATT landline. Call delay is seriously bad. It's worse than any other phone device I've ever experienced.

[dschmidt_2000]

I guess there is no fix or tweak or surely Ooma would have stepped up and answered.

[bigzeto]

I need my voice delay fixed as well. It is really bad and I never had this issue when I had Vonage, so that leads me to believe it is something with Ooma, and not my internet connection.

[jhphone]

I need my voice delay fixed as well. It is really bad and I never had this issue when I had Vonage, so that leads me to believe it is something with Ooma, and not my internet connection.

It's a mystery to me -- seriously -- that I don't see more complaints about this terrible delay. My Telo makes conversation about as annoying as an old CB radio's push-to-talk method. Maybe not that bad, but certainly not equal to early twentieth century phone technology. I too think it's Ooma's fault.

BTW, there's a way to test this delay by calling an echo back number viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2814:

To test voice quality dial the echo back number 909-390-0003

Note: It may not ring, and no one says hello. Just wait a few seconds for it to connect, then talk and it will echo back your voice.

[southsound]

To test voice quality dial the echo back number 909-390-0003

Of course, this may represent double the actual delay that your callers here as the signal travels to their equipment and is rebroadcast to send the signal back to you. Your callers don't go through the extra part of the loop.

From my experience only, on most of my calls, there is almost no detectable delay - in other words, if there is any, it does not affect the quality of the conversation. However, I have a couple of friends who use a particular cell carrier and with them, the delay is horrible. These folks are truch drivers and also use a bluetooth headset as they call from all over the state. I don't know if this makes a difference or not.

[jhphone]

To test voice quality dial the echo back number 909-390-0003

Of course, this may represent double the actual delay that your callers here as the signal travels to their equipment and is rebroadcast to send the signal back to you. Your callers don't go through the extra part of the loop.

That's an interesting point and is technically correct.

But the delay I actually experience goes like this. The other party stops talking and waits for my reply: start the stopwatch. It takes, say, 400ms for me to hear their final word. I immediately reply. The beginning of my reply takes another 400ms to get back to them. Stop the stopwatch.

They experience an 800ms delay between the end of their statement and the first sound from me. And vice versa for me.

Furthermore, during this 800ms delay, they hear silence and typically start talking again. My Ooma-delayed reply finally arrives in their ear and interrupts them.

This is beyond annoying. It makes a normal conversation impossible.

So even if the one-way delay is half the delay in the echo-back test, the actual delay -- as experienced by both parties -- is exactly that of the echo-back test.

If this doesn't make sense, think of a conversation with Apollo astronauts on the Moon. It takes about 1.5 seconds for light (radio) to reach the moon, and ditto for the return. Thus the overall delay is about 3 seconds. It's the round trip that counts.

From my experience only, on most of my calls, there is almost no detectable delay - in other words, if there is any, it does not affect the quality of the conversation. However, I have a couple of friends who use a particular cell carrier and with them, the delay is horrible. These folks are truch drivers and also use a bluetooth headset as they call from all over the state. I don't know if this makes a difference or not.

I can't see how Bluetooth could buffer enough audio to cause such a delay that you would notice it.

Regarding carriers. They certainly could cause a delay as packets are routed through their system. But it's always cheaper to route a packet immediately than it is to hold it for 100-200ms and then route it.

I experience this same delay whether I talk to my neighbor in CA, or to the East Coast. I'm in the 650 area code -- the same as Ooma -- which tells me I'm not on the opposite side of the world from their servers. This indicates to me that "the Internet" is not the culprit. So I have to blame Ooma.

Serious question: do you have a Telo or Hub? The reason I ask is because another user said he has no delay on his Hub. I have a Telo. I'm wondering if this is related to the delay.

In any event, the fact that you and others don't have this problematic delay is an encouragement. But I've tried all the suggested tricks and tips here to no avail.

Yet many others are also reporting this delay problem, meanwhile Ooma blithely ignores our complaints.

[southsound]

I have a Telo but I have had a hub/scout package in the past and found the delay to be similar.

Again, please note that I am not saying the delay is not happening nor that it isn't bothersome, just that I am not experiencing it. I also have to think a bit about the perceived delay doubling. Too late to do so now, but you are probably right. What is it that Shepard Smith always says when he tromps over another person on Fox News - Sorry for the long satellite delay.

I wonder if it could be a problem with the partner that provides termination to the POTS for your area? Does the delay happen on all calls or just some (if you already told us, please forgive me)? Is it different on incoming and outgoing calls? If there are some differences depending on originating party and geographic location, maybe you could make a log of the worst calls as well as some that were OK and have Norm Toy or one of the other ooma super techs investigate. They can check their server logs if you have the right information. Maybe there is something they can do for routing. When I first got my hub, echo was my main problem. After keeping logs and working with some of their best technicians, my service has been stellar. I would not give up - and the more information you can give them, the more they have to work with.

[jhphone]

I have a Telo but I have had a hub/scout package in the past and found the delay to be similar.

Again, please note that I am not saying the delay is not happening nor that it isn't bothersome, just that I am not experiencing it. I also have to think a bit about the perceived delay doubling. Too late to do so now, but you are probably right. What is it that Shepard Smith always says when he tromps over another person on Fox News - Sorry for the long satellite delay.

I wonder if it could be a problem with the partner that provides termination to the POTS for your area? Does the delay happen on all calls or just some (if you already told us, please forgive me)? Is it different on incoming and outgoing calls? If there are some differences depending on originating party and geographic location, maybe you could make a log of the worst calls as well as some that were OK and have Norm Toy or one of the other ooma super techs investigate. They can check their server logs if you have the right information. Maybe there is something they can do for routing. When I first got my hub, echo was my main problem. After keeping logs and working with some of their best technicians, my service has been stellar. I would not give up - and the more information you can give them, the more they have to work with.

First, thanks for the long and well considered reply. I certainly believe you when you say you don't experience this delay. If it was universal then there would be a lot more complaints here. I just don't know why the few of us have this problem.

I don't make very many calls, no more than a few a day. But the perceived delay (excellent term) is always the same. IOW, we - myself and the other party -- always have to take care not to step on the other's words. This get tedious for short, back and forth conversation.

As mentioned, when I talk with my neighbor (CA) I have the same perceived delay as with cross country calls (eg, to TX and NJ). I don't think the delay is due to POTS in those areas. BTW, these are to non-Ooma parties. It always happens, whether an incoming or outgoing call. And I'm in the 650 area code, geographically the same as Ooma.

Here's a VOIP test I just ran. I've run it a bunch of times and save them in a text file. The results are pretty much the same each time. Comcast is my ISP.

• http://www.whichvoip.com/voip/speed_test/ppspeed.html
  
  VoIP test statistics
  --------------------
  Jitter: you --> server: 7.2 ms
  Jitter: server --> you: 4.1 ms
  Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
  Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
  Packet discards: 0.0 %
  Packets out of order: 0.0 %
  Estimated MOS score: 3.9
  
  Speed test statistics
  ---------------------
  Download speed: 10852384 bps
  Upload speed: 3372912 bps
  Download quality of service: 84 %
  Upload quality of service: 90 %
  Download test type: socket
  Upload test type: socket
  Maximum TCP delay: 27 ms
  Average download pause: 1 ms
  Minimum round trip time to server: 23 ms
  Average round trip time to server: 26 ms
  Estimated download bandwidth: 18400000bps
  Route concurrency: 1.69548
  Download TCP forced idle: 0 %
  Maximum route speed: 22794776bps

[Davesworld]

Is it pure coincidence that the complaints have all come along with PureVoice? PureVoice as we know is a packet redundancy scheme which no one in North America should need nor want. If you experience packet loss you had better call your isp. A solution looking for a problem?