[Q] How to connect to car audio system via USB? - Venue Pro General

I wanted to know how to connect via USB to my cars audio system.
I used this tutorial: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/11/18/use-your-windows-phone-7-device-as-a-portable-usb-drive/
I can now store and retrieve picture files from the phone but I still cannot play music files on my cars audio system. It seems as if the phone turns off this feature when my cars head unit tries to communicate with it via USB.
I also cannot connect via bluetooth.
I have read that some folks have been successful in implementing this feat. I really dont want to use the headphone jack because I cannot control the phones audio via my head unit. I guess I am looking to set it up legacy style like my previous phones eg iphone, nexus one, milestone etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The portable USB 'trick' doesn't make the device a USB Mass Storage device. It's a client-side registry modification that only makes the device viewable in windows explorer (legacy mode). It's still running its communications over the proprietary MTPz zune-sync protocol. This is why after running the registry modification, you can't just plug your WP7 into another computer and have it pop up, and also why it requires the Zune software to be installed, and to sync up first for it to work.
This is also why it won't/can't work with your USB capable audio system. It has absolutely no ability to do Zune protocol sync (as far as I'm aware, Kenwood made a head unit that could, but I don't know if it works with WP7. I'd doubt it), and despite the misreporting of various sites, your WP7 is not magically now a mass storage device.
Bluetooth may or may not work. I don't know about A2DP support on either your car's head unit, or WP7, and it may be specific to the device/manufacturer as to whether this is present (I have no idea). If bluetooth doesn't work, you're pretty much **** out of luck.
Headphone jack is your best (only) option. I can't recall if the supplied headphone cable has inline media controls. If so, you could probably macguyver that into a line-in cable for your stereo and use the media controls on that. Ghetto, but workable.

wow, that really sucks.. I am liking this phone less and less...

Related

quick question about the TP2 and car stereos.

most car stereos today have a USB in for connecting an IPod, Zune, whatever.
do these work with the TP2?
crazy talk said:
most car stereos today have a USB in for connecting an IPod, Zune, whatever.
do these work with the TP2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably yes (haven't tried it myself), but when you connect your TP2 to an USB-host (which the car stereo is), the TP2 asks you which mode you want (Active Sync, Disk Drive or Internet Sharing). If you select Disk Drive, the microSD card shows up as a diskdrive in windows (or your car stereo...)
Yup, what andrehj says.
All devices that show up as Mass Storage will definately work on car stereo's. Worked on mine. But I never use it. Because mine has Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP support (stereo streaming). It works flawlessly.
No wires for me. Except the charger itself. xD
Simultaneous program access?
I can confirm that the TP2 works in drive mode as an input for a car stereo. However it appears the phone restricts access to the storage card in this mode and programs cannot access it, which means things like TomTom cannot access maps.
Does anyone know a way around this? Is it a WinMo restriction or something else?
Please specify "drive mode"?
I've used mine playing music through A2DP in combination with Tomtom Navigator 7 + Benelux maps.
The only downside I experienced was that the Tomtom voice was much louder than the music I played. Thus when adjusting the music volume to a much louder level, that Tomtom woman scares the heck outta me. Like when needed to take a turn, it's more like "GO LEFT!!!!!! W$E%T#@$%[email protected](#%|(!# ". In between the music.
No problem with tomtom reading the maps though.
'Drive mode' via USB
Thanks Crix84. By 'drive mode' I meant the Disk Drive mode that you can select when connecting via USB. I expect accessing via the BT profile is quite different which is why things work for your setup.
That TT girl would be scary at high volume!
Ohhh okay now I understand. You mean't the mass storage function I was talking about in a previous post of mine.
Well for what I've found and experienced. That mode makes the phone really function like a USB stick aka Mass Storage Device. At that moment only the MicroSD card is blocked from access within the phone. For what I know, the driver used for Mass Storage (any windows system or other) is a standardized universal driver. Wich means it must be as illogic to access the card both from within the phone and the computer/car-radio through USB at the same time. Like using 1 usb stick on 2 pc's by using a usb splitter. Device in use means in use.
Active Sync in the other hand uses a different kind of USB connection. It accesses the phone itself, through that, the card. Mass Storage is a direct function to the microsd card. Kind of a bypass. For compatibility issues. When you just want to put something on your card without the hassle of installing drivers (on old pc's) etc. Wich would really mean that the maps on the card for Tomtom are inaccessible. That would really be indeed a problem. The only solution for that is either use the phone as I do. Bluetooth A2DP not available? Then the car-audio system should change the access mode to the phone. Maybe an active sync like solution/connection. Problem is most manufacturers do that. Thinking of only using a USB stick on the radio. Mine does that too. Only mass storage devices are accepted through my radio's usb.

[Q] Audio Through USB

I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
XtaC318 said:
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe this is possible. As far as I know, when you use the usb the deck itself is decoding the mp3's (or whatever music files you're using) directly. It doesn't support playing music through the usb, it just uses the usb to get the files. I hope that makes sense...
So is that why I ca never plat music on my xbox whenever I have a phone hookedup to charge? I thought my xbox just didn't play nice with phones
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
XtaC318 said:
I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So your car stereo has a USB input but no auxiliary? If so, your best bet would probably be to get an FM transmitter. Like the poster above said, your car's stereo is merely mounting your phone as a mass storage device and reading the mp3 files off the SD card and decoding and playing them locally.
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
a454nova said:
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
XtaC318 said:
Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope... The phone isn't even connecting to your stereo. When you put it into USB mode so it can read the SD, it unmounted from the phone. Its as if you pulled the SD out and slid it into a card reader. When you pull the plug... It will remount to the phone. You'll notice it scanning for media at the top.
Now when you go BT... You can control it via the stereo or phone, using the Aux you can control it by the phone. "They" could make the phone controllable via USB like an Iphone but they would have to built that into the stereo like they do the Iphones/Ipods. Not likely to happen unless the Galaxy S takes off like IPOD did.
In theory, a rooted Epic with proper kernel support and hacked cable (since they don't exist commercially) can repurpose the data pins on its USB port for left and right analog audio thanks to the Fairchild FSA9480 USB switching chip inside the phone (the same chip enables the USB pins to be repurposed as a serial port with nonstandard voltage levels, enables the normally-unused fifth pin to be used as mic input, enables it to be used with a special "JIG" interface for JTAG reflashing without having to hand-solder anything to the microscopic internal pads, and apparently can also work its magic in conjunction with a chip by Silicon Imaging to use 5 pins to output a signal that can be transformed by a companion chip (embedded in the cable's connector shell) into valid HDCP-compliant HDMI. I'm pretty sure the 9480 can also repurpose the two data pins for external I2C, but don't quote me on it.
Check out the I9000 boards... they're about 2 months ahead of us. If you google for FSA9480, you can find a brief (but revealing) dialogue between a Samsung engineer and the Kernel.org folks regarding a kernel addition to support the chip. He had a few issues, because on one hand he's apparently not allowed to say much about how the chip works or what it does, but the kernel folks managed to wring much of it out of him one juicy detail at a time. If you check Fairchild's site, they don't even acknowledge that the chip EXISTS, but it's been photographed inside all the Galaxy S phones in various teardowns.
In English -- yes, the hardware exists today to connect your phone to a stereo's analog inputs via a cable that repurposes the USB port... but the official software to make it work from Samsung and Sprint doesn't exist, and the information needed to make it work ourselves on a rooted Epic with AOSP isn't quite available yet.
I'm personally quite happy about the uart, because that means we DO have an easy, low-ceremony way to do i/o between something like a gamepad built into a hardcase a-la-iphone-GameBone that doesn't require Bluetooth (note that if something IS using the USB port for UART purposes, the USB port is still active, but the phone sees it as having nothing connected because the signals from the D+ and D- pins are physically re-routed by the 9480 to the CPU's UART pins. Think of the 9480 as being like an old-fashioned telephone panel with cables that can be moved around to connect the USB port's 5 physical pins to different pins inside the phone.
I'm now pretty sure that this is why there are exactly 7 contacts on the microUSB connector inside the phone -- 5 are used to get the pre-HDMI signals out of the phone, and the other 2 (3, if you count the ground/anchor tabs and assume they carry a signal as well in addition to mechanically anchoring it in place) are used to supply +5v and ground, and possibly one wire for half-duplex signaling purposes.
Wow that was a lot of info... lol. I didn't know that about the usb tho. That's good to know. I was thinking of taking it apart to see.
But... I think he's wanting a UI via the USB like the way some players will do for the IPODs, not analog. To go throught all that when the Head Phone jack will do the same... I could only see that if it was broken or if you really really want only one cord to the phone.
; )
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
I've got an Alpine unit, I hook my USB up - turn on the TUNER. Mount the Drive and once the phone is done - swap back over to USB and i can get all my MP3S. sadly I get all of my ringtones too - odd when the radio is full blast and a track changes - none the less works well for me. Try it.
I purchased this Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit for my phone a few days ago. It works perfectly on my sister's iPod touch (no AVRCP [silly apple]) and an old WinMo 6.1 phone.
I just got my Epic in the mail today so I'll be testing it out soon.
WTF. AVRCP (bluetooth remote control) is really buggy with this phone. I used the LiquidAUX with an old Omnia for a week with no problems. The Epic connects and plays audio just fine. I can also pause and play music but the forward and back buttons don't work. When I first pair the phone with the device everything is fine, but after disconnecting and reconnecting the remote control stops working. I got it to work after un-paring and re-pairing but it only worked once.
The Moment I had before this had really choppy audio.
EDIT: I had the phone opened up in DDMS and the phone is receiving signals from the remote. But it only reacts to them when the media player is on the screen. Weird.

Alpine Deck support on Samsung Galaxy S2

Hi Guys,
I got a Alpine Deck (ida-x100) in my car and everytime I plug in the SGS2 it makes the USB Connect noise continutiously and doesn't detect, I had a HTC desire and the phone worked with no issues (just no library support) Does anyone know if there is a way to resolve this issue?
It would be awesome if you could emulate the iphone library environment and make it compatible with Android!
Hi man, you can buy the alpine 400 kce bt receiver for ida x100 (I've got it too) and connect ur phone with this; the results are very very nice...handfree call, music, vocal command ecc ecc
Thanks man, might consider it
How do you control music/audio? is it via the alpine deck or the phone UI?
Also - what do you use for voice control? vlingo?
vincheesel said:
Hi Guys,
I got a Alpine Deck (ida-x100) in my car and everytime I plug in the SGS2 it makes the USB Connect noise continutiously and doesn't detect, I had a HTC desire and the phone worked with no issues (just no library support) Does anyone know if there is a way to resolve this issue?
It would be awesome if you could emulate the iphone library environment and make it compatible with Android!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this same problem (constant connection bleep and storage not found). Alpine Support said the phone is not compatible but this is incorrect. You need to connect the phone as a Mass Storage device, not as a phone.
To do this select Settings > Wireless and Network > USB Utilities > Connect Storage to PC. Then connect to the Apline headunit via USB and I think you have to select Connect again on your handset. You have to scroll down through the first menu on the headunit to Music and hey presto.
Whilst in mass storage mode I do not think the handset has any other functionality. Personally, I am just going to keep a large USB stick in the car so that I can use the phone for GPS and calls (safely, obviously!)
Worth bearing in mind the Alpine only works with MP3 AAC and WMA.

[Q] Focus and Ford Sync

SIAP. I did search the forums for this content and did not find it, so I am starting this new thread.
I have a car with Ford Sync that works well with a Zune, iPhone/iPod, USB memory stick etc but cannot recognize the Samsung Focus. I can stream through BlueTooth, but that is not nearly as convenient. Has anyone experienced similar results or, better yet, know how to fix this issue?
I intended to let my Focus be my Zune by installing an SD card and connecting it to my Sync, but the SD card was buggy and the USB connection didn't work. I see where the SD card issue might be resolvable, so if the USB connection also has a work-around, I might be able to execute plan alpha after all.
Thanks.
Mine connects with Sync with no problems.
Have you looked to see if an update is available for your Sync?
Does it connect through the USB port, or Bluetooth stream? I don't have any problems with the Bluetooth connection, its the USB port that doesn't work. I will check on a Sync update, but reading other forums I had understood there was a known issue with the USB ports on these phones.
focus and focus S both work fine on BT with my Ford Sync.
have not tried USB to phone yet
Sure, my phone connects through BlueTooth as well, but the USB connection is where you get most of the Sync functionality. Any other USB device, including iPhones, it will index the MP3 information and allow you to voice-control your MP3 player. It is very convenient with my Zune, but you can't do it through BlueTooth. To me, its an important safety feature to be able to voice-control your MP3 as opposed to having to look down at the device to change songs or find a particular song/artist/album.
So...none of you have run into this issue?
I'd guess that you can't use the USB to read MP3s because WP7 doesn't allow direct access to your files the way other MP3 players do. Sure you can get there with some software and hacks, but it's definitely not the same as other devices. Until MS and Ford work something out, bluetooth and audio in lines will be the only way to use it. Agreed that it's just not as convenient, but then I still have a 1st gen SYNC system so I'm not hoping for anything at this point.

Music in car through usb

Does anyone know how I would be able to play music in my car through usb? I am currently using tune link which uses Bluetooth and 3.5 jack. The issue I have, is that I have to change the song using my phone rather than the control buttons on my steering wheel. Sounds dumb, but I hate having to pick up my phone and navigate to screen to change the song.
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Try using an OTG, it enables the phone to be used as a typical computer usb port.
I will try that.
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Yeah that didn't work.
Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Have 100% the same problem. Did anybody find the solution? My old Xperia Acr connected like a common flash card and worked fine. Now I have to use AUX and this is not so comfortable =/
Why do you use a cable AND Bluetooth ? Does you car have AD2P ? If it has you should be able to play music through your phones BT and have the steerring controls . I have a Kenwood head unit DNX 9140 and when i pair my phone to it, i can play music and still keep steering controls over BT
The music out via USB was removed on the s5...was present on the s4.
Tomo1971 said:
The music out via USB was removed on the s5...was present on the s4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. There is a lot of misinformation promulgated on the subject. Music out on USB works fine on my S5 just as it did on the S4, S3, S2 and S1..
But that isn't to say that Samsung, Google or (especially) the automotive audio equipment cartel make much effort towards standardized interoperability. It's frankly a mess, a hodge podge of half ass implementations and proprietary protocols that usually don't play nicely together. It can be made to work with carefully chosen components or creative approaches. But randomly connecting components from two different vendors typically fails.
While Samsung and Google could be characterized as only having made a minimal effort to provide standardized USB support.. that is still leagues ahead of what most automotive audio vendors have done. Not to mention that it's routine to find inaccurate details, if not outright lies of what automotive component X will supposedly interconnect with. I sometimes wonder if their marketing departments even bother to collate real facts on the subject before they write their copy.
It's not too hard to find decent DACs and headphone amps that will accept USB audio out from the S5, but I frankly gave up trying to figure out what would or wouldn't work on the automotive end. I ended up going with a brute force approach and installed a SBC (miniature PC) in my car. Having a full PC as a middleman, means that there is a vast array of powerful software (and hardware) that can slice, dice and format the control stream to whatever is needed by the auto head unit. But it's hardly a simple or off the shelf solution.
The OP can probably find a working solution if he searches hard enough. The S5 has USB audio out, although making it work with some car decks requires a combination of root, custom kernels (proper USB host support) and audio apps. An app like USB Audio Player, in conjunction with a kernel that has proper USB host support will satisfy many auto decks.
Hopefully Android L will give us better USB support. But it also depends on how sane your automotive equipment vendor was when they designed your car deck too.
Further reading for any stray audiophiles around here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3XYy1FuzDUeZDNBSVpjQU9Nd2s/edit?pli=1
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2...-audio-any-android-4-0-smartphone-tablet.html
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3XYy1FuzDUea3U3aTJ1RkpQdW8/edit
.
The problem is that since 4.1.2,USB Mass Storage was removed.
Most, if not all, radios, media players, etc don't support the MTP protocol. They require a mass storage device, and do not support a media device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2
MTP is a newer and much more capable protocol. The problem in your example is that radio, etc vendors are stuck in the past and not adopting newer standards.
MSC (mass storage) has many serious drawbacks that are overcome by the newer transactional protocol. MTP was standardized six years ago, which is just short of forever in consumer electronics. So one has to wonder why the radio vendors continue to drag their heels and can't get with the program.
It's like blaming Android for having moved to flash memory.. and refusing to go along. Expecting everyone to continue using cassette tapes instead. Yes that would be one way to maintain compatibity. But it doesn't make a lot of objective sense.
.
ShadowLea said:
The problem is that since 4.1.2,USB Mass Storage was removed.
Most, if not all, radios, media players, etc don't support the MTP protocol. They require a mass storage device, and do not support a media device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and for activation Mass Storage root is required ...
Guys, but what about using USB analog audio input? I remember I did something like that with Galaxy S II - from 5 mini USB pins one was used to sense what phone is connecting to - for ex if it is a car dock, desk dock or... should it enable analog audio output on USB data pins.
Unfortunately I no longer have dock I made back then, anyone knows if that might work with S5?
EDIT: check this out!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321491
EDIT2: Oh it seems I completely missed the point, you want to use it as mass storage to connect to car USB port.

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