REVIEW: Motorola Bluetooth Home Entertainment Solution HT820/DC800

Motorola lately updated their previously released Bluetooth Stereo headset HT820 with a stereo Bluetooth gateway addition (called DC800) and this combo is called the Motorola Bluetooth Home Entertainment Solution HT820/DC800. While the stereo headset supports the standard Bluetooth headset profile (it has a small microp

hone in the right earphone), it also supports the Bluetooth stereo A2DP profile for music streaming as well as the AVRCP profile to remote control bonded Bluetooth devices. Basically it means you can use the headset for a couple of scenarios: as a headset for your mobile phone voice calls, stereo headset for your (stereo profile enabled) mobile device to listen music as well as remote control your mobile device media player and in combination with a PC as headset for VoIP calls. The stereo gateway supports A2DP only and can not be used as a Bluetooth dongle with PCs since it misses the required connector. Instead, it is connected via chinch plugs to any audio source. The package includes all required cables, power plugs and chargers including a chinch to chinch cable as well as a 3.5" to chinch cable to connect the gateway either to your HiFi via chinch or any other source (like Media Center PCs or Notebooks) with the 3.5" connector.

Bonding the headset with the gateway is a piece of cake and Motorola made it as simple as possible that even non-Bluetooth users shouldn't face a problem here, if they follow the manual. After both devices are paired, the audio stream is transmitted immediately to the headset. Since the gateway is a Bluetooth class 1 device, theoretically it transmits up to 100 meters which you will not reach in reality, at least not in closed environments like apartments. However, the range is good enough that you should be able to roam through your domicile without loosing the connection between the headset and the gateway. This allows you to listen your music in stereo, without disturbing others and without staying in the same room where your media speakers are.
A specialty of the headset is to support (no surprise, since it is specified that way by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) concurrent Bluetooth connections. This means, that you can bond the headset with your Bluetooth enabled mobile phone and can connect it in parallel to the media gateway. In case you receive a call while you are listening music, the stereo transmission mutes and you can take the call. As soon as you hang up, the stereo transmission continues. With this Bluetooth stereo/headset combo you will not miss a single call.

If your mobile device also supports A2DP, you can also bond both profiles in parallel to one single device. For instance you can listen music as well as making phone calls with your AKU2 enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone (see my previous review about the stereo Bluetooth support of Windows Mobile's AKU2 here). It works similar to the wired standard headsets which comes with most of the Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Editions where these headsets are used for both, audio and voice. And again the playback is muted or even paused if you receive a call (the mute/pause functionality depends on the mobile device).
Using the headset as a remote means you can do two things: controlling your mobile phone (as you might used to do already with standard Bluetooth headsets as well) and controlling the media player of supported devices. Also here, Motorola tried to make it as easy as possible to remember the functions. One the left side of the headset, you have the call start/end button (which can also activate voice command functionalities of your mobile device, if supported) and the volume up/down buttons. On the right side, you have the play/pause button and the next/previous song button.
As said, the headset functionalities are the same as with standard headsets and you can accept, reject and hang-up calls as well as you can change the call volume (as well as the audio volume if you listen music). However, even more interesting is the remote control functionality which lets you control the media player of the attached Bluetooth stereo device (as long as it supports the Bluetooth AVRCP profile which most A2DP devices supports in addition too). Here you can play and pause a song, jump to the next or previous one without taking the device out of your pocket. This is more than handy since you don't need a second (wired) control and provides the best user experience you can expect. If you are not allowed to use Bluetooth in certain environments - like aircrafts - you can also connect the headset with your mobile device using an included seperate cable. However, if you connect it this way, the remote control functionality doesn't works at all.

According to Motorola, a single battery charge last 12 hours for music streaming and 15 hours for phone calls. That's far more than any Windows Mobile device can be used for today and should be enough. The headset is charged with the included power adapter, which is the same power adapter like used for Motorola mobile phones like the MPx200 or Razr V3.