Hi, I recently purchased an Android head unit for my truck. It's great, but the Bluetooth music app is pretty basic. It does not let me navigate through albums, artists or playlists. It will only let you listen to and skip through the songs on the album that's currently playing on the phone, which is a big pain. I don't want to have to touch the phone when I want to put on a different album.
Are there any apps in the Play Store that would work for this? Or can anyone direct me to an APK that I can download from somewhere else that has a deeper feature set?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
After a year later, do you find any compatible bluetooth music player app? I'm interested in the same
I'm guessing not, I have just purchased a head unit, and am looking for something better, but nothing's coming up in the searches.
It's one of the things that I would have expected to work as my last car could do all that on its wince based system, which was pretty limited in other respects.
Ben
Greets all!
I've just joined the Android Head Unit community with the installation of the ATOTO A6 (A6Y2721PB).
So far I love it with the exception of a few minor gripes.
The audio player that comes with it has terrible sort functions. OR basically non-existent sort functions. It categorizes (very badly) the music library into a few categories (Singers, Songs, albums, folders) and all poorly and inaccurately. If there was some useful sort functions under FOLDERS; this wouldn't be so bad, but there is not. It will not even sort alphabetically. It will sort by the number of tracks that is in each folder. That is worthless!
So I'm looking for a better player. I really don't care about STREAMING services support. It comes with Spotify and Pandora already and I don't use them. I'm interested in playing my 1000+ track music archive in the FLAC format. BUT I have to have adequate sort functions. Most all of my archive was not CD rips that does the CDDB encoding. I backed up all my original collection into WAV files a decade ago and that is the source. The only think I miss is the album art. The easy way is to have the album art store in each folder entitled folder.jpg. Many players will display that many don't recognize it. Also I need the player to support widgets so I can integrate the player into the home screen.
I've tried Foobar2000 and like the functionality but it is UGLY with only B&W menus and it does not support widgets. I'm going to try VLC but not sure it will handle music files as well as it does video.
Any suggestions out there?
Dr. Righteous said:
So I'm looking for a better player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many, many Android music players out there.... While opinions may differ based on users' experience, there's really only one that stands out for the use in a HU: PowerAMP . For me it's the player that has everything and is fully integrated in the Android system:
Great Audio ducking
Configurable widgets
Support for folders (and folder.jpg)
If not present, album art download
Has its own audio engine
Support for almost every car launcher
Beautiful album art support
and many more...
It takes some time to configure it the way you want to (don't need the visualizer for instance), but (almost) everything can be adjusted.
But to get the most out of if (that goes for every player), be sure to have your music properly tagged
I've got an old video on YouTube showing some PowerAmp footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0ewLZ8mOc
Spotify
DragonFlye said:
There are many, many Android music players out there.... While opinions may differ based on users' experience, there's really only one that stands out for the use in a HU: PowerAMP . For me it's the player that has everything and is fully integrated in the Android system:
Great Audio ducking
Configurable widgets
Support for folders (and folder.jpg)
If not present, album art download
Has its own audio engine
Support for almost every car launcher
Beautiful album art support
and many more...
It takes some time to configure it the way you want to (don't need the visualizer for instance), but (almost) everything can be adjusted.
But to get the most out of if (that goes for every player), be sure to have your music properly tagged
I've got an old video on YouTube showing some PowerAmp footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0ewLZ8mOc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's nice, but would not it be better if it have a integrated DSP chip in combination with poweramp?
DragonFlye said:
There are many, many Android music players out there.... While opinions may differ based on users' experience, there's really only one that stands out for the use in a HU: PowerAMP . For me it's the player that has everything and is fully integrated in the Android system:
Great Audio ducking
Configurable widgets
Support for folders (and folder.jpg)
If not present, album art download
Has its own audio engine
Support for almost every car launcher
Beautiful album art support
and many more...
It takes some time to configure it the way you want to (don't need the visualizer for instance), but (almost) everything can be adjusted.
But to get the most out of if (that goes for every player), be sure to have your music properly tagged
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, this is what I was looking for. I see the paid version is only about 4 bux. I'll try it and see if it does what it needs to. I'm ready to uninstall the player than came with the unit. Nothing but frustration.
Flemischguy said:
That's nice, but would not it be better if it have a integrated DSP chip in combination with poweramp?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it all depends on your speakers off course and I don't have a DSP. But I can tell you that on the Head Unit I have, the original sound was ok. After using and enabling PowerAmp's own engine and equalizer, sound was far, far better.
However, using Viper4Android (if you're HU is rooted) takes the sound to another level. I didn't even know my stock car speakers could produce such rich basses... I guess having a DSP would give you similar results.
Well gentleman,
I installed PowerAmp and paid the 4 bux for the full version.
Overall I really like it's feature and silky smooth operation. The issue I have is that the sound output level is about HALF of the other audio apps. This is a big problem since I have to turn the volume up much more to hear it's playback. I went under the audio tab and made different changes to the setting trying to get more output from it but no dice.
I'm going to email the developer on the issue. But otherwise this one is a keeper, I really like it's functionality.
BTW, The Atoto A6 does have it's own DSP chip for audio processing.
Dr. Righteous said:
Well gentleman,
I installed PowerAmp and paid the 4 bux for the full version.
Overall I really like it's feature and silky smooth operation. The issue I have is that the sound output level is about HALF of the other audio apps. This is a big problem since I have to turn the volume up much more to hear it's playback. I went under the audio tab and made different changes to the setting trying to get more output from it but no dice.
I'm going to email the developer on the issue. But otherwise this one is a keeper, I really like it's functionality.
BTW, The Atoto A6 does have it's own DSP chip for audio processing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PowerAmp has a separate master volume control. Have you tried that? Also the equalizer has a master gain.
---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------
Dr. Righteous said:
Well gentleman,
I installed PowerAmp and paid the 4 bux for the full version.
Overall I really like it's feature and silky smooth operation. The issue I have is that the sound output level is about HALF of the other audio apps. This is a big problem since I have to turn the volume up much more to hear it's playback. I went under the audio tab and made different changes to the setting trying to get more output from it but no dice.
I'm going to email the developer on the issue. But otherwise this one is a keeper, I really like it's functionality.
BTW, The Atoto A6 does have it's own DSP chip for audio processing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PowerAmp has a separate master volume control. Have you tried that? Also the equalizer has a master gain and look under Settings ->Audio engine ->advanced: Experiment with Direct Volume Control
DragonFlye said:
PowerAmp has a separate master volume control. Have you tried that? Also the equalizer has a master gain.
---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------
PowerAmp has a separate master volume control. Have you tried that? Also the equalizer has a master gain and look under Settings ->Audio engine ->advanced: Experiment with Direct Volume Control
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I got on the PowerAmp site and looked through their FAQ page. It recommended turning DVC off if you have volume problems.
I'll try that after work today.
ive been using Power Amp for a while on my android head unit. It is the best of the bunch. The latest update has created issues playing music so until a new stable release was offered, I tried a few others and the rest are just okay. VLC was actually pretty good but I found that most of the players won't pass audio file text to the home screen widget and won't display my album art. So I am back to power amp. the dev has sent me a link to an alpha build that should fix my issue. I have just been too lazy to install it.
I got the widget working and was able to turn off the DVC function. The volume level is back to normal now so I'm really loving PowerAmp. It has features I really don't need or want but at least I can turn them off so they won't cause havoc unlike the other players I tried.
As far as the DVC function it seemed like a good thing but it just cut the sound output way too low. Reading on the PowerAmp site it stated that incompatibility with DVC will cause this. I'm wondering that this means. This unit (Atoto A6) has it's own DSP for audio affects like EQ etc. I'm wondering if that is the issue.
I also have a forward facing camera for the DVR and a backup camera. Plus various part to make all the USB connections accessible to the passenger compartment. I planned to install all that this weekend. Well didn't happen. The washing machine blew up and we ended up in town all day shopping for a replacement. Will get to it soon.
Hi. My problem with poweramp is that when someone calls me my headunit stops playing music and i am answering the call. But 1 second later music starts plwying again and i can not hear the caller and he cant hear me cause of the music...
Greets
I like gone mad music player (GMMP).
twokidsandaphone said:
I like gone mad music player (GMMP).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GMMP is the best pick if you have a large music collection. I have 40k+ tracks on a mechanical HD on my head unit. GMMP will play through them no problem with an initial delay of about 30 seconds for the scan to get going. Poweramp craps itself and hangs for long periods of time (up to 60 minutes) while it scans/updates it's library. And then takes about 20-30 seconds to skip a track.
So my votes:
Small music collection, go for Poweramp.
Large music collection, go for GMMP.
I probably tried more than 20 apps, in the end it was Neutron that gave me the best results, I play only flac and have like 240 GB of them in my car, it works really flawless but you need to take the time to adapt it to your likes since really everything can be configured
http://neutronmp.com/
I've been using this for about 5 months, it's nice.. only thing bad is, it doesn't like to start in the SD card folder after starting up after being shutoff, so I have to manually browse to the SD card fold every time I start my truck..
It seems as all the dsp features do work.. there's a million things and settings in this paid app, seems to get updated regularly.. I wish it would leave the track list on screen all the time if wanted
henri_p said:
I probably tried more than 20 apps, in the end it was Neutron that gave me the best results, I play only flac and have like 240 GB of them in my car, it works really flawless but you need to take the time to adapt it to your likes since really everything can be configured
http://neutronmp.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SM-N910T3 using Tapatalk
Martin1207 said:
Hi. My problem with poweramp is that when someone calls me my headunit stops playing music and i am answering the call. But 1 second later music starts plwying again and i can not hear the caller and he cant hear me cause of the music...
Greets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow;
Not had that issue. What ever is playing it all mutes until the phone call is done on my ATOTO.
There are a ton of setting for everything in Power amp. Look through the settings and see if you can find a mute on call feature.
Have anyone been able to get an ipod to play through any app?
tankdog03 said:
I've been using this for about 5 months, it's nice.. only thing bad is, it doesn't like to start in the SD card folder after starting up after being shutoff, so I have to manually browse to the SD card fold every time I start my truck..
It seems as all the dsp features do work.. there's a million things and settings in this paid app, seems to get updated regularly.. I wish it would leave the track list on screen all the time if wanted
Sent from my SM-N910T3 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just tried this app, having similar issue. I think for me at least it gets totally confused when I plug in or disconnect another UDB drive. It seems as tho my HU(IDoing) shifts the USB volumes and neutron loses it's library. Otherwise the app seems near perfect.
Just installed this so called octo core, 4gb ram head unit and so far it mostly seems to work well enough apart from one really annoying problem, I can't get apple music to work properly on it, yes I can Bluetooth stream from my phone but that only gives me control over the album or playlist that is currently playing and not my entire library.
I have the apple music app downloaded directly onto the head unit and can log into my account, it also allowed me to download my library but when you then click on any of the content, it is blank inside. The same happens if you try and view any album direct from apple, I can play any single song from the homepage but if I click on an actual album then it is again blank inside.
Is this something that anyone else has come across and found a fix for.
I suppose I could try screen mirroring but as I use an android phone then that would mean connecting via USB in order to get that to work and tbh I would rather just leave my phone in my pocket.
Any advice much appreciated.
Well it's obviously an issue with apple music rather than the head unit as I have just signed up to amazon music for 99p for 3 months to try it and that runs perfectly, even the lyrics and album art work as well so I think I will just cancel apple as the more I play with the amazon app, the more I like it anyway.
The only downside that I can find with amazon music is that it won't allow me to split the screen to enable me to also show waze on the screen but it's not a deal breaker.
Does anyone know of a suitable app that will do voice dialling rather than having to scroll through my contacts by hand.
Hi peeps,
I got my new MTCE MX2 PX5 device up and running. All is well apart from the fact that the musicplayer won't recognise my m3u files. My S160 did w/o problems. Is this normal, or is the px5 supposed to work with m3u files as well?
Thanks!
Sebastian
f465gt said:
Hi peeps,
I got my new MTCE MX2 PX5 device up and running. All is well apart from the fact that the musicplayer won't recognise my m3u files. My S160 did w/o problems. Is this normal, or is the px5 supposed to work with m3u files as well?
Thanks!
Sebastian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
m3u is just a playlist file. If you need to access these just download a player that supports them. Mortplayer or PowerAmp seem to be the best choices
It is not that easy. The music player needs to support the way these units shut down. PowerAmp is a nice app but it can't cope with the sudden shut down. The built in music player is able to save the last playing position and resume after reboot.
Alright, alright, I admit it, it can be easy. The Hal9k ROM gives you the possibility to not close the app while in sleep. Also you can re-map the PX5 to use PowerAmp as a replacement of the stock musicplayer. Apparently the PowerAmp developers are aware of this HU specific behaviour. In the PowerAmp forum there is a post that the HU seem to send a stop command instead of a pause when shutting down. Hence causing PowerAmp to start the song from the beginning.
Also I found that I switch between the DAB app and PowerAmp by using the HW buttons on the radio, PA will not resume the last played song but stay in pause. This can be solved by using the manage app setting in the Hal9k mod and disallow PA and DAB app to run in parallel.
Hi guys, i'm looking for an online music player but can't figure out whats the best version displayed on chinese head units. Apple music is slow, icons are small, takes many clicks to play, search does not show partial results as you type (like on the phone).....all those make it hard to use while driving.
Spotify is also strange, has small icons, even on premium you can;t simply play what you save it always adds other stuff or skips to other songs.
how are your experiences with those, what do you recommend for driving? are there any special or older versions that have a better UI for our headunits? thanks
xiialive
woozie.2007 said:
xiialive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks i'll give it a try. the interface looks nice, big and clean in tablet mode
zerozoneice said:
thanks i'll give it a try. the interface looks nice, big and clean in tablet mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use it too on my phone and also on auto, works very well and has small amount traffic data
how can i get the spotify interface to look like THIS?
on my unit it looks like THIS (on the left but fullscreen with a small album/song cover art at the middle top)
zerozoneice said:
Hi guys, i'm looking for an online music player but can't figure out whats the best version displayed on chinese head units. Apple music is slow, icons are small, takes many clicks to play, search does not show partial results as you type (like on the phone).....all those make it hard to use while driving.
Spotify is also strange, has small icons, even on premium you can;t simply play what you save it always adds other stuff or skips to other songs.
how are your experiences with those, what do you recommend for driving? are there any special or older versions that have a better UI for our headunits? thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your description of Spotify doesn't sound right. I have Spotify installed on 3 different vehicles with Android head units, and I have no problem with playing my playlist the same way I saved it. Are you sure you didn't forget to log into your account on your head unit?
Now, I used to have a problem with Spotify in the car wanting to play what it thinks was the last thing played on my phone. Sometimes it would show a pop up and ask me which source I wanted to play from, and others it would just play from the phone instead of the head unit, or switch to the phone in the middle of playing a playlist from the head unit. Even disabling the option where it shouldn't try to play from other sources didn't help. I am thinking it was a Spotify app bug, because it doesn't do it anymore.
I like YouTube music as most. I have a Premium Account and it works like a charm. It is also controllable through Google Maps and Waze. I like it.
sgtm7 said:
Your description of Spotify doesn't sound right. I have Spotify installed on 3 different vehicles with Android head units, and I have no problem with playing my playlist the same way I saved it. ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Spotify also and I am happy with it although some of the buttons can be small and hard to press.
There is an Auto/Car UI you can switch to. It will auto switch also I believe. I turned it off so has been awhile since I've seen it.