[Q] Any Success with Vibrant and USB Head Units? - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey Guys,
I figured you fine chaps at XDA would be the best to ask this compatibility question:
I'm planning on building a new car audio system but I'm concerned that the head unit I pick up will not support the Vibrant via USB. This is mostly because when I used it with my PC at home for the first time, I had to download Samsung USB drivers to get it to work. I can't imagine most head units having these drivers stock. Does anyone use their Vibrant with a head unit via USB?
Otherwise I may just have to wait until Parrot releases their Android powered unit and pray that it supports my phone.
http://www.parrot.com/asteroid
Thanks for the help.

I actually just bought a new head unit that has a front usb port. Will test it after my nap. Yes, my nap and damn sure better be a good one.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

What features are you, specifically, looking to use? If it's just to play mp3 files, I've read that this can work if you connect as mass storage.
For other audio functions, I'd just get a head unit with an auxillary port.
Bionix Frost
Dragon Kernel v5 Test4

I believe it will only play audio through the jack. If the part you have is usb im sure there are adapters you can get say at frys or radio shack.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

Depends on what you need if it is the what is on the phone you need to access then, you can go and change the setting to mass storage and your phone will be seen as a flash drive. If you want to integrate the phone into the console system, you would need something that allowed that to happen, my Infiniti does do that to a point but then, I had to change some things around to make it to my liking. Don't know if that is helpful but it is more information
Cheers

If all you want to do is listen to music files that are on the sd card, I just tried it out and it works fine for that.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

Yep, I'm just looking to play my mp3's from the SD card. I want to avoid the 3.5mm connection because I'm a bit of an audiophile. Thanks for all of the help guys.

Just get a Bluetooth Head unit, I use my vibrant to play music and talk on phone through bluetooth all day long...
best part...NO WIRES

I have had major issues with mounting as mass storage to my head unit. I was able to do this with my original Droid. My Thunderbolt gave me issues but when I flashed a ROM that did now auto mount a virtual cd drive it worked without any issues.
I have not been able to get my bionic to work. I have a ROM but it still mounts a cd drive as well as both SD cards.
Is there a way to stop the CD drive from mounting?
At this point when I mount the head unit picks it up but then loops through the sd card.
I am thinking it is not the head unit because I can connect either of my old phones and they will work without any issue.

Related

[Q] Play music from SD Card through USB

I have watched the noob video and looked through every similar post I could find with no success so here is my situation.
I have been an android user for all of a week. I gave my iphone 4 up for an atrix because I wanted the freedom. I have it rooted and unlocked thanks to you wonderful people on XDA and now I'm running the cm7 beta.
I have a pioneer 3200bt in my car and I have always plugged my iphone into the usb port and played music that way. I can't get it to work with my atrix. I have tried no external sd card, external sd card, mounting it for memory card use, usb debugging mode, no usb debugging, un/checking the "use internal memory" in cm7. With every try I get the same "Unplayable File" on my head unit. I thought it would just mount the sd card as mass storage and I would be on my way but its not that easy.
If I take the sd card out an plug it into my stereo it works fine I can play all the music on it. Using that way is fine but my phone won't be charging. The headphone jack would work too but analog sounds blah. I'm prepared to blame it on my head unit if I have to.
Does anyone have any ideas? Apps, mods, hardware? I greatly appreciate your thoughts and responses.
Besides the obvius answer of saving a little battery, why not get rid of the cords and use the bluetooth? The audio qaulity on my Pioneer xxxbt sounded great over bt (I clunkered my old car and bought a new one that I dont want a custom deck in). And I had two 12s, the quality was >= a 3.5mm.
Thanks for the response. I'd like to be able to do that too. I didn't realize the 3200bt was ghetto and only supported phone calls over bluetooth and not that A2DP.
Watch out if you are planning on streaming music or pod casts while using Bluetooth for audio. I was just served a notice about my Illegal tethering from ATT. I do not use tethering but they told me if I am streaming music through a Bluetooth device, it is considered tethering and they will add the plan automatically. I had been on the phone with them for over an hour about this and they have concluded that streaming anything ( music, pod cast or video) using your phones built in Bluetooth is considered tethering. I too have been listening to my music through my car stereo via Bluetooth and have recently received the notice because of my use of Pandora while doing so. Just trying to help.
I would love to be able to use the USB that my car stereo has also, so if anyone finds out how that would be awsome
sdp07a said:
I have watched the noob video and looked through every similar post I could find with no success so here is my situation.
I have been an android user for all of a week. I gave my iphone 4 up for an atrix because I wanted the freedom. I have it rooted and unlocked thanks to you wonderful people on XDA and now I'm running the cm7 beta.
I have a pioneer 3200bt in my car and I have always plugged my iphone into the usb port and played music that way. I can't get it to work with my atrix. I have tried no external sd card, external sd card, mounting it for memory card use, usb debugging mode, no usb debugging, un/checking the "use internal memory" in cm7. With every try I get the same "Unplayable File" on my head unit. I thought it would just mount the sd card as mass storage and I would be on my way but its not that easy.
If I take the sd card out an plug it into my stereo it works fine I can play all the music on it. Using that way is fine but my phone won't be charging. The headphone jack would work too but analog sounds blah. I'm prepared to blame it on my head unit if I have to.
Does anyone have any ideas? Apps, mods, hardware? I greatly appreciate your thoughts and responses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully I'm not too late to the party on this thread... First things first... I am running CM7 Ba2TF and am having a similar issue. Thanks for mentioning the various options you've tried, will save me from messing with it in my car.
There may be hope, though. When I mount the drive, I actually do get access to mp3s, yet they are on the ones on my internal memory card and not my external card like I am used to. I didn't see this particular quirk mentioned in your post so if you haven't tried that, it's certainly better than nothing.
If it's super duper important, I haven't had any issues with external SD card mounting in my car whenever I had a stock based rom, namely darkside and alien.
I have been googling around a bit on this and it looks like it might just be a rom issue. They can't all be perfect, I suppose, but try putting them on your internal card and see how that mounts.

[Q] Using phone as mp3 player in car

I used my evo 4g as my mp3 player for my car. Just plug it in to the usb and good to go. I tried it this morning w/ the lte, and it worked fine.
Got back in the car, and now no matter what, my head unit says "device error". the evo is set to disk drive, and i have rebooted multiple times. It did work this morning, so I cant imagine what the deal is.
So I tried taking out my sd card, and moving my songs around the phone using file explorer. It worked for a bit using connect as medai sync. Again, worked 1 time, then as soon as I pull the cord out and try again, nothing. Now my headunit either says device error or "no song". Sometimes the phone doesnt even give me the option to use as disk drive, just the htc sync.
So I finally loaded a rom. Worked great for 1 time. Now the same issues all over again? Any ideas on how to fix this? I'd rather not plug in anything made by apple into my car.
Do you have an aux in port? If so use it with an aux cord.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
SD cards can become corrupted if the OS doesn't mount and unmount the drive properly. Try plugging your phone into a PC, and see if Windows/YourOS picks it up properly. Then unmount in Windows or on your phone (just switch to 'charge only').
See if that makes a difference.
wileout said:
Do you have an aux in port? If so use it with an aux cord.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The head unit is usb only. It is a mp3 player head unit. Meaning a usb cord runs to the front of my car for any device to plug in. Other devices work just fine. the evo 4g worked fine. This is the only device that just stops.
khov07 said:
SD cards can become corrupted if the OS doesn't mount and unmount the drive properly. Try plugging your phone into a PC, and see if Windows/YourOS picks it up properly. Then unmount in Windows or on your phone (just switch to 'charge only').
See if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, Windows picks it up just fine. It shows the sd card though, unless I use HTC sync. The same problem happens even if I have the mp3's on the phones internal storage, and not the sd card.
Head unit doesn't read MTP protocol for mounting. Most don't.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Kcarpenter said:
Head unit doesn't read MTP protocol for mounting. Most don't.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent point - Honeycomb and ICS use MTP, whereas your OG EVO uses USB Mass Storage. I would check the documentation on your head unit, or contact their support, and you can probably confirm this.
khov07 said:
Excellent point - Honeycomb and ICS use MTP, whereas your OG EVO uses USB Mass Storage. I would check the documentation on your head unit, or contact their support, and you can probably confirm this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is in fact the case....is there a device that I can purchase that I can put my sd card into that is USB Mass Storage? Like a simple cheap thing? I'm fine with just storing my music on the sd card and swapping it in and out of the phone.
You can use an external sd card and mount it. Tested on my wife's pioneer a few minutes ago, confirmed it read 236 mp3s and played through a few. Didn't seem to read the id3 tags though which is odd.
It will not read any off the internal card....
Sent from my GT-I9300 ro.cdma.home.operator.alpha using Tapatalk 2

S3 usb to car stereo?

Am I correct that from what I have read...you can NOT plug your s3 into the usb of a car stereo and have it play and show song names etc? So unless they "fix" the usb mount issue the only options is aux or bluetooth? All the talk of the awesome sound these things are on paper anyways capable of and the purist connection to a car stereo is not available? Like many Im waiting for my US version to arrive in a couple of weeks and just trying to get a grip on what to expect and not expect is all.
Correct. You can't connect the S3 to a car stereo like a USB stick at the moment.
...unless your car stereo supports the MTP protocol
They have to be working to fix this right? I certainly hope they are....kind of hard to believe they made a change like this really.
+1
I guess since Im switching from a iPhone I have just gotten use to being able to use the phone with just about anything I try to attach it to. I do not regret jumping to Android with this upcoming phone, Im done with apple, but I think its been long enough these guys need to get the ball rolling on more streamlined connectivity on a semi universal scale like the iphone has. I really dont want to have to keep the iphone around just so I can listen to my tunes in the car.
This irritates the faeces out of me.
Android File Manager on Mac is flakey with it. And now, I'm in work on my XP machine and I can't get files off of it.
Grrrr. Why the hell have they stopped USB Debugging from being able to mount as normal?! Or just have the "Mount on Next Connect" option like on the S2's ICS rollout (Which was annoying too, but at least it worked).
I just don't get why Google are doing stuff like this and stopping you install on external memory. Is Google starting to become like Apple where they just bend over to networks and developers so they can make as much money as possible while the customer suffers? If this is how they going I'm really not liking it.
For those interested in the reason why MTP was chosen over USB mass storage mode: Impromptu Q&A Session With Android Engineer Dan Morrill Brings To Light Reasons Behind Galaxy Nexus' Lack Of USB Mass Storage
member68 said:
For those interested in the reason why MTP was chosen over USB mass storage mode: Impromptu Q&A Session With Android Engineer Dan Morrill Brings To Light Reasons Behind Galaxy Nexus' Lack Of USB Mass Storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get the reason they dropped it for phones with only internal storage, but why doesn't the SGS3 support it with its external SD-CARD?
Has Samsung made any statements about this? Because all I know is not being able to connect to my car, tv, other computers etc. and not being able to transfer Apps to external memory is completely ruining this phone for me and can't use it the way I usually use Androids, I mean now I always have to carry around a flash drive and a OTG cable and transfer from phone to flash drive then flash drive to other device, and I really don't give a crap about their technical explanation because i'd rather have a rougher Android experience with all the features than what they doing here, and I shouldn't be having to Root my phone just to get stuff that should already be there.
I'm so mad! I just got a new deck today and it doesn't recognize my SGS3 via USB! :crying::crying::crying:
Has there been a fix since the last post?
Edit: I actually found a fix! Easy UMS! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1711009
Just get poweramp pro and a large sd-card, keep your music in .flac and sound quality is pretty decent even through the 3.5mil jack
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Pushing audio through microUSB to head unit

So one thing I really liked about my iPhone was the ability to push audio through the charge port into my truck's head unit (radio) while charging. The head unit has a usb port on the front and it charges my phone, and if I put the phone into storage mode, the head unit can read the storage on my phone. Now I want to push audio from apps like Google Play Music and iheart radio. Is this possible? I'm rooted.
Also on a side note, since I am rooted, can I update OTA without looking root? I used the steps from galaxys3root.com.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
joshbgosh10592 said:
So one thing I really liked about my iPhone was the ability to push audio through the charge port into my truck's head unit (radio) while charging. The head unit has a usb port on the front and it charges my phone, and if I put the phone into storage mode, the head unit can read the storage on my phone. Now I want to push audio from apps like Google Play Music and iheart radio. Is this possible? I'm rooted.
Also on a side note, since I am rooted, can I update OTA without looking root? I used the steps from galaxys3root.com.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry bud but most USB head units are mass storage or iPhone only. I'd invest on a Bluetooth headunit with audio streaming profile like the Sony MEX-BT4000P.
Get a windshield mount (had a factory one for my Atrix, loved it) and Bluetooth that bad boy. You'll also get cool stuff like car phone answering and if you use Vlingo in car you can made heads turn.
This feature will come with jelly bean
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That is awesome!! But until that time comes, is there a way to do that on ICS?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
I've been trying to get this to work for about a week now. The guys at my local car audio place are just as frustrated as I am.
I even tried using the OTG connection, no dice.
Supposedly some of the new Sony units support MTP, but then you're using Sony (which I guess doesn't have a great reputation, I'm kind of new to this whole thing).
CM will probably get Mass Storage enabled at some point, but that still isn't an ideal solution.
Jelly Bean will offer true USB audio streaming, but from what I've read the device you are streaming to will also have to support it. Whether that support can be added via a firmware update or will require new hardware is something I haven't been able to figure out yet.
This is all very annoying since part of the reason I got my S3 was to finally upgrade the sound in my car. I know I can use an Aux or Bluetooth connection in the meantime, but if the Jelly Bean tech requires new hardware it will be a pain to sell my old hardware and re-install the new.
I guess at this point it's just waiting to see when/if headunits will support the Jelly Bean audio streaming.
rockerrock said:
Sorry bud but most USB head units are mass storage or iPhone only. I'd invest on a Bluetooth headunit with audio streaming profile like the Sony MEX-BT4000P.
Get a windshield mount (had a factory one for my Atrix, loved it) and Bluetooth that bad boy. You'll also get cool stuff like car phone answering and if you use Vlingo in car you can made heads turn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, I don't have the money to get a new head unit.. I could just connect the aux to the unit. I also forgot to mention I have a Sony Xplod (Not sure of the model right now, but it's about 2 years old.)
I think I'm just forced to connecting aux and usb to keep it charged on my trips..
Mass Storage has been enabled for the International S3, so it's likely it will for the US version soon. That should solve a lot of your problems. Though as I said above, UMS is still not an ideal solution (but far superior to Aux or Bluetooth).
lynkdead said:
I've been trying to get this to work for about a week now. The guys at my local car audio place are just as frustrated as I am.
I even tried using the OTG connection, no dice.
Supposedly some of the new Sony units support MTP, but then you're using Sony (which I guess doesn't have a great reputation, I'm kind of new to this whole thing).
CM will probably get Mass Storage enabled at some point, but that still isn't an ideal solution.
Jelly Bean will offer true USB audio streaming, but from what I've read the device you are streaming to will also have to support it. Whether that support can be added via a firmware update or will require new hardware is something I haven't been able to figure out yet.
This is all very annoying since part of the reason I got my S3 was to finally upgrade the sound in my car. I know I can use an Aux or Bluetooth connection in the meantime, but if the Jelly Bean tech requires new hardware it will be a pain to sell my old hardware and re-install the new.
I guess at this point it's just waiting to see when/if headunits will support the Jelly Bean audio streaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a noob when it comes to Andriod.. I am a recovering iPhone user and do not know what most of the acronyms mean. I've looked around on google and can't find what they mean lol. OTG, MTP, and CM, what do they mean?
Also, is there a way to hurry up the process of me being verified for my new user account? The waiting 5 minutes is getting old... Thanks
joshbgosh10592 said:
I'm a noob when it comes to Andriod.. I am a recovering iPhone user and do not know what most of the acronyms mean. I've looked around on google and can't find what they mean lol. OTG, MTP, and CM, what do they mean?
Also, is there a way to hurry up the process of me being verified for my new user account? The waiting 5 minutes is getting old... Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you pass 10 posts the 5 minute limit will be lowered to 2 minutes.
OTG = On the Go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go
MTP = Media Transfer Protocol, as opposed to Mass Storage. I'm not clear on the reason for using it since it seems like UMS is more useful in almost every way.
CM = Cyanogenmod. The most popular and widespread Android ROM.
Ahh ok thank you! I should be getting close to that haha. And I guess UMS is something like Universal Mass Storage?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

Use galaxy s4 with head unit designed for ios

Is there any way to get a car head unit to work with the s4? Whenever I plug in my phone to my head unit using the use cable, it just charges and doesn't play music through the head unit. Anyone know of a way to get this to work?
bugeyeblue said:
Is there any way to get a car head unit to work with the s4? Whenever I plug in my phone to my head unit using the use cable, it just charges and doesn't play music through the head unit. Anyone know of a way to get this to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use a AUX cable?
I want to use the usb cable since it charges the phone while playing music at the same time.
bugeyeblue said:
I want to use the usb cable since it charges the phone while playing music at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the headunit was designed to be used with an iPhone...then no. It depends on a specific format and directory structure in that case.
The other possibility is using it as a USB device, but the phone can't do it stock because of the 'Media' nonsense. What you need is for it to work as a USB mass storage when it's plugged in (which probably requires root).
hotleadsingerguy said:
If the headunit was designed to be used with an iPhone...then no. It depends on a specific format and directory structure in that case.
The other possibility is using it as a USB device, but the phone can't do it stock because of the 'Media' nonsense. What you need is for it to work as a USB mass storage when it's plugged in (which probably requires root).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that clears it up. If anyone knows of it can be done by rooting, let me know.
It depends on the head unit - I know for my Kenwood system there's an app that allows for playback from local storage.
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kvswim said:
It depends on the head unit - I know for my Kenwood system there's an app that allows for playback from local storage.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will the kenwood let you play pandora through the unit? or just stored music. i ask cause i dont store music on my phone.
wbbjason said:
will the kenwood let you play pandora through the unit? or just stored music. i ask cause i dont store music on my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't get Pandora to work. Local music only. It's pretty stupid, so I just use an AUX cable and use the USB port to charge. I had an idea that someone could rip apart the Kenwood app, and make some sort of hack that plays all audio through the USB port. But I'm not experienced enough to do that and there's probably not enough interest for someone else to get it done.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
bugeyeblue said:
Thanks, that clears it up. If anyone knows of it can be done by rooting, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is indeed a way to use USB mass storage on our phones. It was an app that was posted to the xda front page shortly after our phones came out
You know I was sitting here thinking after i read all this that if possibly there were a way to make androids react to head units like iOS does. For instance the Pandora crap. That way we didn't always have to grab our phones and look at them therefore distracting us from road conditions. Just an idea and if this were possible?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
Unfortunately, most head unit manufacturers have designed their decks to support crapple devices only. There are a select few that support Android. My deck will not play through usb on my s4 but I can connect with bluetooth and browse music on they phone from the deck without ever touching the phone. That will depend on the BT support of the deck. It's a pity that the vast quantity of stupid people on this planet with Apple products still ruin it for us educated people that want nothing to do with it.
Sent from my rooted S4 blessed with CleanROM 1.6
How I fixed my Kenwood/Galaxy S4 issue.
sorry if my response is late or outdated but I was having the same issue with a Kenwood head unit I installed yesterday. For me it would not work even with the Kenwood app so I downloaded an app from the Play Store call "USB mass storage enabler"... it's free. I simply opened the app after installing it and told it to enable USB mass storage. Now when I hook my s4 up to the head unit it takes about two seconds to read and then plays my music perfectly. I am able to search by folder, genre,artist Lor album etc. Works perfectly 100% ... even shuffling. just wanted to share if anyone else was continuing to have problems or had any in the future.

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