Help controlling media with car stereo - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

BT is not an option otherwise such a question would not be needed. Yes, an aux cable can be used but that is not ideal but if it is the only option, it will have to do
The goal is to be able to mount the phone as mass-storage and control the tracks with the head unit rather than the device itself. The phone is rooted but running stock 4.2.2 and after some digging around, I am at the point of asking if anyone has attempted this and was able to achieve it?
The stereo it will be connecting to is an older sony cdx unit and it claims to support both mass storage and iDevices...thumb drives work just fine so the issue is with setting the phone up correctly.
If the internal storage is not possible to control, leveraging the media found on the sd card is 100% awesome too.
So if someone can point me in the direction of some help, I would really appreciate it!

I have done this myself on my kenwood as it has a usb port on the head unit, problem is it wont play just music itll also play your ringtones as well. Controlling them from the phone and using a 3.5mm cable worked the best in my opinion. Although I havent tried this with my gs4 thats how it worked on my droid x and with that minor annoyance I went back to using the 3.5mm option. Your unit could function differently though but thats how my experience was. I think when I get home later im going to give it another go and see how it works out.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

Related

Connecting Vibrant to Car Stereo

Ok so I have a Pioneer AVH-P4100 Car Stereo. It has a USB plug that controls ipods or thumb drives. It has worked on every usb device I've pluged it to it so far. However, not with the Vibrant. When I plug it in it just keeps saying "reading". I think it may have to do with the fact there are two memorys in this phone and this radio can only see one at a time. Can anyone help?
what if you go to
menu-Settings-wireless and network-usb settings
and changed it to ask on connection.
plug in it choose one, see if it reads, if not unplug, plug it in again choose a different one and see if it reads.....should be one that works. im guessing the media player setting.....but i dont know, just a guess.
NOTE it will turn off USB Debugging.
I've tried every setting none of them work. I really think it has to do with the fact the radio is getting confused cause it see two drives
reksp13 said:
I've tried every setting none of them work. I really think it has to do with the fact the radio is getting confused cause it see two drives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could always try removing the sd card kinda a pita but....
d_bot said:
you could always try removing the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give that a try. That is gonna suck that I'll have to keep all my music on my internal. Tnx
reksp13 said:
I will give that a try. That is gonna suck that I'll have to keep all my music on my internal. Tnx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed....
I think the stereo gets confused because of the internal and sd memory trying to mount at the same time. These stereo's are not made to handle this. Mine does the same thing. I think the only way around this would be to find a way to tell the phone to only to mount one or the other.
the3dman said:
I think the stereo gets confused because of the internal and sd memory trying to mount at the same time. These stereo's are not made to handle this. Mine does the same thing. I think the only way around this would be to find a way to tell the phone to only to mount one or the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I think. I will be loading a song on my internal tonite and remove the External and try.
Are you set on hooking it up with USB? I'm sure you've thought of this but you could always try a straight up auxiliary cable if your stereo would allow, worst case you could get an FM adapter for your car and plug it into the headphone jack
Dnov said:
Are you set on hooking it up with USB? I'm sure you've thought of this but you could always try a straight up auxiliary cable if your stereo would allow, worst case you could get an FM adapter for your car and plug it into the headphone jack
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sound is very important! I have a very high-end system with USB I wont lose quality. And FM adapter is lame the sound would really poor! But thanks.
Do you have an aux input? I just plug that in and use the phone for controls. Pretty awesome for movies, slacker, etc.
s15274n said:
Do you have an aux input? I just plug that in and use the phone for controls. Pretty awesome for movies, slacker, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, if your system has an rca jack, just get a 3.5mm to rca cable, then not only can you listen to your music on the phone, but you could stream pandora/slacker.....only down side would be you loose the ability to control your phone through the head unit.
I use a car mount and connect via auxillary input. The sound is great and then when I'm on phone calls, the music pauses automatically and the car speakers act as the speakerphone. It's pretty much awesome. The added bonus is being able to stream Last.fm or podcasts all over town or even play a movie for the other folks in the car.
The headphone jack works great for me, all I do is connect then sit the phone upright in my cup-holders. Bam. Lovin it. Pretty much have no need for CDs anymore
Thanks everyone for your opinion. I just wanted to be able to use the usb because its nice to control it from the radio
Hi rekspe13, I'm with you. I have the exact same problem. I have a usb port which when I plug my Vibrant into, tries to read the phone as a usb drive but fails. However, it does recognize that there are two drives, "USB 1" and "USB 2" as it tries to read. I sure hope there is a nice easy solution for this problem. My stereo also has an sd port but it's time to stop doing the double duty of uploading audio separately on both phone and external sd card.
Isn't there a solution to connect our Vibrants to devices that support ONLY ONE USB drive at a time?
My car stereo doesn't show the files even when I select Mass Storage Mode.
try connecting via blutooth...
Bluetooth? I don't think it is the best solution. Shouldn't we be able to use our Vibrant as a Mass Storage Device? Maybe mounting only the external sd card.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
reksp13 said:
Sound is very important! I have a very high-end system with USB I wont lose quality. And FM adapter is lame the sound would really poor! But thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know Vibrant has a really good sound codec, Wolfson's, and when it detects low resistance at the 3.5mm jack, it sends out very flat line-out output. I think this sort of things have been discussed in one of Voodoo Sound threads in i9000 forum. Anyway as long as you adjust your car stereo's equalizer properly you should get pretty good sound quality.
Voodoo Sound by supercurio that's being implemented to Vibrant's custom Kernels now should improve sound quality by oversampling, amplifying and removing hissing from Vibrant's sound output. Read this thread, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=806195. Very helpful.

evo 3d on a pioneer avic z120 bt

Hello all. I am wondering if anyone can help me. I recently installed a head unit ( pioneer avic z120 by) and i notice that one way to play music of the phone is to connect it via Bluetooth. I did that method and the sound quality sucks. Do anyone know of any other way to listen music from the phone and controlled it on the z120 instead of just changing it on the phone.
Also when the phone is on usb mode can I receive calls / text / charge......
i just use the usb and not bt for music. or now i use a 32gb flash drive with music. that why it also keep my songs in the same place.
thats on both z120s and a z90
bluetooth just sounds bad in general and will drain ur batt likeno other.
ur settings on ur deck might b off cause plugging ur phone in by usb should b fine
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
I have the exact same head unit in one of my cars. It has sounded awesome since the day I installed it. Worked perfect with my Evo 4G and now also with my 3D. Whether playing my MP3's, Pandora, YouTube, or whatever, it never decreases sound quality. That's really weird about yours. Radio, cd's, DVD's, and everything else sound good?
Oh, my iPod Touch sounds the same whether using my iPod cable I bought and ran from the back of the head unit or using bluetooth....
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
I just use the headphone jack. I only have that option right now, but it would still be my first choice. I've generally heard BT comes out rather unimpressive.
As for USB mode, it does allow you to place/receive calls and text messages. However, for obvious reasons, you wouldn't have access to the sdcard
i actually bought a FM transmitter from walmart for 12 bucks and it works VERY well great quality the only thing i have noticed is you must find the right station for your radio i use 107.7 and it works well for me but play around with them and see which one works best for you and don't turn your phone all the way up usually 2-4 clicks from max volume works well. hope that helps i know i love mine and ive been using it since my evo 4g and works equally well on my 3vo
My buddy use's an bluetooth speaker/fm transmitter, works well.
downside is..can't control the music from the radio/steering controls/remote etc
Check and see if there is a firmware update for your headunit
all else fails..put it closer to the radio Doh!
use usb or the 3.5mm head phone jack
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
xenx said:
I just use the headphone jack. I only have that option right now, but it would still be my first choice. I've generally heard BT comes out rather unimpressive.
As for USB mode, it does allow you to place/receive calls and text messages. However, for obvious reasons, you wouldn't have access to the sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what you will have to do to get better quality. BT does degrade the quality of the sound produced by your phone.

Connecting Note to Car Stereo

I currently have an IPhone 4s and have a car windshield mount (which the note will fit in), but I have a separate cable (iphone cable) that connects to the head unit which charges and of course allows me to control the ipod from the head unit. (shows song titles and such).
What is the best way to connect to the head unit? Is there a head unit that has android integration?
BTW...my current head unit is a Pioneer AVIC N4.
TIA
Does the head unit have an aux input jack or Bluetooth? If not (and I don't think it does) you'll need to swap head units
Bataga said:
Does the head unit have an aux input jack or Bluetooth? If not (and I don't think it does) you'll need to swap head units
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get the Bluetooth Module for it but that's only for calls. It does have USB Mass Storage capability though.
I assume that will work (or that's what I need)??
Are there any head units out there that are more Android friendly?
Not really. The USB port may not read the device and only let you use a flash drive. I bought a normal unit with auxiliary front and plug my phone and satellite into that. Gotta get the car dock if you want to charge while driving but I never run low batt and I drive like 5-8 hours a day.
usb mass storage should work with all android phones. it would read it just like the usb flash drives. ive had tried this with an htc inspire on a kenwood stereo. all function controls with file discriptions works.
idanoclo said:
usb mass storage should work with all android phones. it would read it just like the usb flash drives. ive had tried this with an htc inspire on a kenwood stereo. all function controls with file discriptions works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like this might work then.
As a side note...anyone know what the best head unit for android would be?
majority of after market stereos now are intended for the use of ipods but will work for all standard usb drives. if you are unsure, you can always test the demos at your local audio shop.
edit:
for your pioneer avic n4 you need this add-on for usb connection. pioneer cd-ub100
I am looking for a car dock but one that dose not have that stick thing at the end because I need to take it off each day and I don't know if you could do that with the one that's out now
Still looking for a good head unit. I currently have the Pioneer AVIC N4, but to add either bluetooth or USB, it will cost me about a hundred bucks. (Bluetooth is voice only).
I saw the Parrot Asteroid online, but it seems a bit steep (and a bit young...needs some updated firmware I think)
http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bluetooth-hands-free-car-kits/parrot-asteroid
Any other options out there that you think would be a good fit?? I assume since my Note is nice and big now, that Navigation isn't necessary in the head unit.
I have a pioneer that I use the USB with a 32gb thumb drive just loaded up with music. The phone is also bluetoothed to the head unit for phone calls. I am going to work on using the samsung car dock with a usb host cable and an external hard drive to play media in the car. Only problem I have yet to figure out is how to power it while still using the usb host cable. If I can't find a way I am going to try out a seagate satellite hard drive my buddy has sitting around. Could be a good option, Ive just heard the seagate app kinds sucks

Any apps for USB car stereo mounting?

This is a recurring problem i keep having across android phones and I'm trying to find some kind of solution ....
Ive got a few different car stereos, they all allow usb mass storage mounting to directly read/play songs from the phone.
They all require the same basic things: they expect to see a fat32 partition, they load the first and only the first partition that they can see, and they load every "media" file in the drive, including the nav turn by turn cache, etc.
Im hoping someone can write a program similar to "multi mount sd card" that basically allows you to choose a particular folder where you know all of your music, and only your music, is stored, and present that single folder to the car stereo as a good old fashioned mass storage device with a fat32 partition. Theoretically, id hope to leave the rest of the storage access able to the other programs on the phone, the only thing that would be affected maybe is the music player....which i wouldn't be using. I have different kinds of problems with getting this to work across different phones, an app like this could fix them all at once.
Ive got a lot of different tech experience e but im not a dev by any stretch. Ive tried a lot and my current issue is card order, stereo is seeing the internal card but my music is on external and it refuses to look past the first partition.
Anyone got any ideas? Ive got a razr (vzw) on the 215 leak.
Just wondering, I have a few decks in my cars and trucks also... Why do you plug your phone into the deck? I just recently got a Pioneer deh-6400bt for 149$ that allows me to seamlessly use Bluetooth to play music and also to talk with for hands free since its technically illegal to talk on the phone in Oregon....gr... anyways, And another point almost all decks that I have used, kenwood, alpine, pioneer, don't push enough power through the USB to make it worth your while to plug your phone in while using it. And all of those decks that had USB input also had a AUX input in the front.
he probably wants to use the deck to control the music, which can't be done with the aux cable
That is true... Have to tell you though.. BT is the shizzz though.. get in your rig and start it up... connects to phone and continues streaming where it left off and having the hands free is awesome
1. I actually have the pioneer deh-p6200bt in one of my cars - and it doesn't stream bluetooth audio, only phone functions. My other vehicle has a deck which can stream BT audio, and it's great for some things, like pandora, but with my internal music collection the audio quality is just not up to par, it's an obvious weak link.
2. The USB port charges at standard USB rates. It isn't a quick charge but it's certainly enough to make things worthwhile. I've found that on extended, 6-10 hour drives, running pandora, wifi tether, nav, torque and leaving the screen on constantly, yes, it can discharge to the point where it shuts off. I was running this configuration while driving for a touring band once. More often, however, I'm not using everything at once, and i turn the screen off just because I don't always need it. It seems that I can run pandora, nav, torque, and have the phone still actually charge, it was serving wifi tether to the rest of the van that caused the phone to go over the edge and actually pull more power than it wAas getting in. Moreover, the bigger problem I wind up having is that phones will actually stop charging themselves from overheating (sun heat through windshield, and/or just to much load on the phones systems at once), at which point the amperage is irrelevant. In fact this may have been the ONLY problem I was having, while driving I couldn't pay enough attention to the phone to figure out much other than "oh hell it shut off cause its cooking itself".
3. Yes, I want control over tracks from front of deck, and USB is THE most complete way to do that, especially in the one car I have where i have steering wheel controls. I can search for specific tracks from the wheel, as well as call up any phone functions, which is more than the BT side would be able to do - in BT audio mode my systems seem to only be able to start/pause and track forward/reverse. Having hardware buttons that handle both phone and music leaves the screen of the device free for torque or maps.
4. On the audio quality note, if you're playing digital files stored on the device, nothing beats using the stereo to play them via USB, because the deck itself is the actual computer doing the conversion and the D/A converters in the deck should theoretically be nicer than anything in a cell phone. Its the cleanest path one could have.
For things like pandora, this isn't always possible, and in that case the next best option would be a toss up between BT and the 3.5mm jack, based on your ears which is cleaner. in absolutely ideal scenarios, where BT on the deck supports the more recent high quality a2dp codecs, BT can sound as good or better than the cable. A2DP audio isn't exactly this clear cut though, as the blanket of A2DP doesn't specify which codecs are supported, and the better ones are a more recent thing. I'll say that the cell phones have been good about this, it's more that the decks themselves don't always have the newer codecs. And in addition to that, there's still the matter of settings within either device, such at bitpool on the phone, that can have an effect on the sound. Unfortunately, my setup is such that only one deck I have does actual BT streaming, and while nice for some things definitely doesn't sound as good as when it is cabled or using USB directly.
The cable has the disadvantage of running through multiple conversions - the phone goes from D to A through it's own, lower quality converter, the stereo gets that signal as A, changes it to D in order to apply EQ/etc, then back to A as it goes down to the amps. It's generally unnecessary to do something like this if one can avoid it.
There is a third option, but this is very rare and just sort of coming to market - if you happen to have an in car video system with an HDMI input, it will send the streaming audio info as a pure digital signal and as with USB the radios D/A converters will be the units making the actual sound and thus being just as clean. An example of a unit like this is the Pioneer SPh-da100 (I could be wrong on model number), AKA the "appradio2". These are rare, and the least expensive version of this I've found is around 300-350 bucks. One thing I don't like about the appradio is that it seems to have only 2 sets of preamp outs....other than that, it looks like an amazing solution for at least one of my problems!
Basically.... sorry about the confused ramblings. I'm still trying to figure this out. The funny thing is - the phone presents the two storages, internal and external, and both of my radios make the connection - however one radio, a Dual unit, actually sees the external partition first and works fine, while the pioneer radio actually sees the internal first and it gives me nothing! the third vehicle I have, I actually am just using the 3.5mm in for sheer simplicity, it's an old crappy car that has no use for such a nice setup and the moto car dock with the combo usb/audio cable is actually a perfect fit for it. For the other cars, the moto car dock actually sucks, because it won't pass USB data, but that's another issue for another thread. Most likely I'm gonna gut it's frame and insert a straight through USB data cable for it.......
But I still need some way to make the phone consistently present the right info, all the time, every time!
Bump......
Anyone? Theres got to be someone else out there as frustrated by this as I am.....
Well, you're not the only one. I've running a Kenwood deck, on my Razr prior to the ICS update, I got it to work every time, since then...it's like rolling a die and trying to get lucky 7. Something in the update must have disabled the order of recognition of partitions coming up. I was able to get it to work...*once*. I've read that leaving dev/debug mode on some devices cause enough of a timing delay to let the deck recognize the sdcard, but this didn't work for me. There's actually a kenwood app that's supposed to help with all this but of course for me it does nothing. You might want to try the debug mode thing - I've read for some people that worked. I just want a way to configure the phone to *only* mount the sdcard drive when setup as a usb mass storage device. I'm assuming this is the problem, the internal storage confusing the deck.
It's been very frustrating...

USB DAC

Any idea if this would work?
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Hifimediy-Sa...n_0&hash=item20cb2a3799&_uhb=1#ht_1314wt_1271
if combined with this:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Usb-type-A-f...s=63&clkid=4859388797714287148#ht_1424wt_1037
And this:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Micro-USB-ha...ies&hash=item2eb8f6c584&_uhb=1#ht_4275wt_1037
I'm trying to make a one-connection, more or less universal, high quality audio and charger set up for my truck. Since the DAC is USB powered i'm not sure where the power would come from in this case. The phone or that adapter. I just like the simplicity of this unit for what i am doing (it's all going in my dash).
EDIT: I took the plunge and ordered a bunch of bits that SHOULD work (a UCA202 was cheaper, so ordered it). I'll take pics and document the setup and installation, post it all when its ready. It'll take a few weeks for the stuff to get here.
What are you trying to do? Give yourself an entertainment centre in your truck?
What I have done in my truck is use a Bluetooth stereo for streaming all audio from my HTC. If I were to install one HDMI screen I could have HD TV.
For charging, I just use a USB adapter in the cigarette lighter. Make sure you get one capable of outputting 1A or more, and also fools the phone into thinking it's connected to the mains.
When at a festival the other year, I used the tailgate as a makeshift bar, and the phone was streaming music over Bluetooth. I also had the stereo remote to control the volume, and used the air conditioning to chill some drinks. Although, will use a mini fridge next time as I used a shed loads of Diesel
I have a pioneer head ( http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/FH-P8000BT ) and an iBolt cradle. What I was hoping for was to use USB to provide power and use a DAC to get better sound quality from the tunes that I get over bluetooth. This deck also has an auxiliary in on the back, but trying to avoid using the amped headphone out. I went with this deck because of the connection options and didn't care about touch screens. That's what my HOX+ or Nexus 7 are for. So having a single USB connection for everything would be great. Pretty much the only thing that iFail devices have on us.
Sent from my HTC EVARE_UL using xda app-developers app
Here is my start. I didn't get the DAC yet, and I need to wait for USB OTG with Charging before I can, but the set up is ready for it!
Sure looks good, but I'm unsure how the sound quality will be, I'm not sure how the DAC works by accessing the USB.. Does it just see it as a USB storage device? If you're playing MP3's anyway, why not just stream over Bluetooth. Once the track is digital, Idon't think that you would want to convert to analogue unless it's playing it directly.
Are your MP3's a decent bit-rate? I have never had an issue with MP3's over Bluetooth. I normally download weekly music podcasts and stream those.
I'm gonna chime in hear and say just bought the pioneer Afh x5500, and although my EVO LTE streams spotify and stock music player over Bluetooth, it does not send track info whatsoever. My note 2 did but, I prefer the EVO. So, I'm waiting for the 8500 to come in now because it has hdmi input onboard so it should be able to take hdmi to mhl and then perform correctly. As well as apradio functions. Anyone have any experience with this? Or, does anyone know how to get Bluetooth to stream song/album info to the head unit?
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
One of the #1 reasons I got the HOX+ was the 64GB storage for my FLAC collection. Originally this concept I started while I had the Galaxy S3, which with a kernel and CM 10 can enable the DAC output while allowing the device to still recieve the charge.
That said, the deck you mentioned with HDMI might just do the trick too. And it really would be universal. Hmm.... I like this deck (It was old when I got it) because I don't really care for touch/dvd in my dash. This has a big rotary control knob, and I even have the lights turn off at night so I just control everything from the phone (except Volume). But i'll look into the one you suggest.
Anyway. This set up will do the trick for now. I hard wired the charger and AUX into the stereo harness so it looks clean and stock. I doubt I'll really tell much of difference anyway without the DAC at this point. I'm not getting any line noise like I thought I might.
Well, ill write back after I get the new deck. I'm really hoping for all functions or ill have to figure something else out...
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
OP, any update on whether the DAC and cable worked with the HOX+?
I'm interested in getting a DAC to work with my high impedance in ear monitors. The driver in the phone doesn't have enough output power to adequately drive them.

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