Android 2.2 Froyo and 2010 Prius

Well, Froyo busted my Droid to USB connection but had no effect on my BT streaming.

Controls for up/down are fine on my Droid but no display of metadata like song title, musician etc.

I have the following enh/bug open on the android code site

Issue 5450 - android - Bluetooth AVRCP 1.4 Profile - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

I use PlayerPro on my Droid X (Froyo 2.2) and BT Audio works properly. Play/Pause and track skip back and forth. No meta data though....... On PlayerPro you just enable the "Remote Player controls" or similar in the settings.

What is nice (over my old iPhone 3GS) is the BT Audio does not start playing until you go to the BT-Audio source on the NAV unit. On the iPhone, it would just start playing even when you were on another source..... killing the battery.

Also a much better app than the build in Android Music app, which blows. I can actually not browse by Genre!

 

Finally got back control of USB by using Extended Controls App to set Mass Storage mode prior to USB plugin for my Droid. I'm waiting for the next Android upgrade to bust this workaround. Can't set it to Dual mode yet for both Phone/Nav access to SD. Droid X should have this with PC Mode.

 

So with your Droid X, you're able to connect via USB and your Prius is able to read all the music files on it??

Is your music in MP3 format? Itunes?

Where is your music stored on your Droid? In a "Music" file?

I cannot get my Prius to read any more than 2 songs on my Samsung Epic!

 

BTW, is the BT Audio streaming better or same or worst with the Froyo?? Someone on another thread mentioned: "Enchanced Stereo" option under BT menu. I don't have that on my Samsung Epic running 2.1. Is that a 2.2 option?

 

The music on the Droid X is stored anywhere on the SD card. I personally have it in /Media/Music and then inside there are all the files in a flat structure. I use "iTunes Agent" to sync it over from iTunes. (Free) As long as it's in Mass Storage mode the Prius reads it perfectly... All the songs. I have about 9gigs of stuff on it right now. I keep it in Charge Only and use BT-Audio and then charge the phone.... that way I can use Pandora and the phone's NAV with audio. This all worked perfectly on 2.1 and still does on 2.2....



Enhanced Stereo is under Settings -> Wireless -> Bluetooth Settings (See screenshot.) This was there on my Droid X on both 2.1 and 2.2. This is my first Android phone so I figured it was there on all phones.



PlayerPro is a paid music app which replaces the stock Music program and it allows the controls on Bluetooth to work. I actually don't know if it works with the stock player, I never tried it...... But when I do play Pandora over the BT-Audio I can also skip the songs on that from the steering wheel!

The setting in PlayerPro to allow the headset to work is seen on the screenshot. This also allows you to control the player from the wiredheadset too, but as far as I can tell only play/pause.

 

By the way I used PicMe to get the screen shots ... Only works on Rooted phones, but a cool free app.

Also, I am pretty sure what "Enhanced Stereo" does is actually stream the BT-Audio as MP3 instead of the crappy compressed sound A2DP usually has. The A2DP standard actually requires all devices to support the basic low complexity bad sounding audio compression. Then optionally a device can sending a high bitrate MP3 audio stream instead, which actually uses less bandwidth over the wireless connection but you need a couple things:

- Transmitting device has to be able to encode its audio into MP3 in realtime. Requires a fast CPU.
- Receiving Device needs to be able to decode it. The Prius clearly supports it and so do my Logitech STR-01 A2DP receivers at home. (I bought these off Woot a while ago....) One in my living room is paired with my Thinkpad T500 laptop for listening to computer audio on my stereo and the bedroom stereo is paired to my phone. Windows 7 / ThinkPad BT audio drivers must be doing this MP3 encoding too as audio quality is much better than it was when I had Windows XP with some cheap Bluetooth drivers.

 

Thanks! Problem is that i do not have "enhanced stereo" option. Damn Samsung Touchwiz! I will try Itunes Agent when i get home.

My stock Music player seems adequate for me and allows for steering wheel controls via BT Audio streaming.

Hopefully, whenever Samsung brings Froyo to my phone, i will have the "enhance stereo" option....hopefully.

 

This is from Wikipedia:

Bluetooth profile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The SBC codec is the easiest to implement and least CPU intensive and sounds really crappy. That is what all A2DP devices support by default. A while back I read that the Logitech STR-01 I have supports SBC and MP3 ... and since the phone sounds perfect through it I suppose it's using MP3.

 

Is it a Galaxy S phone? If it is, I'm surprised as that phone has a fast CPU and is very feature rich. A quick Google reveals that is seems only the Droid 2 and Droid X seem to have this option right now.

Galaxy S 2.2 update is rolling out now .... keep you fingers crossed.

 

Yeah, mine is a Galaxy S phone. Well, apparently, there is some issue with Samsung rolling 2.2 out on CDMA phones (Sprint Epic 4g and Verizon version)...so, my phone will get it after everyone else.

Thanks again for all your help...much appreciated!

 

nearly forgot about this thread. since i was only able to install 2.2 on my X about 3 weeks ago, i could not respond. i use BT extensively to stream Pandora to stereo on my Pri and it worked the same way before and after the upgrade from 2.1

it streams no problem, but everytime i turn off the car, when i turn it back on, it automatically starts playing the MP3's i have stored (most of which are voice mail recording from Google voice, btw) instead of starting back to playing Pandora.

its not that big a deal, i can make Pandora play from phone or Prius screen, so just kind of strange is all

 

It seems the Droid X/2 has different options than the Droid 1 which I have. I don't have the Enhanced BT stereo on mine and doubt other phones have it other than X/2. Mine also doesn't have any options for USB connections and I don't think the stock Froyo has them either. Rooted phones may also have different options but I'm running stock.

BT with Pandora or Last.FM sounds fine with my Droid but the lack o selection options makes it difficult to use unless going thru a preset playlist.

 

There is no way.... You have to stop the MP3 playback and start Pandora on the phone. It's not the car's fault, it's the phone... It would be the same if you plugged in a wired headset with a button ... if you stop Pandora. If you go to push the button on the headset to start the music again it'll start the MP3.

 

USB Mass Storage - Motorola Droid (A855)

Just mount the USB when you connect the phone and then you will be able to play the MP3 files on the SD card.

As for Pandora/LastFM .... ya you have to select the station on the phone screen. I have a right angle MicroUSB cable so I can plug the phone in to charge but leave it in the cup holder for easy screen access.

Saw a review of this on CNET, I think I am going to buy it.
Breffo - Gallery

Even has a picture of it holding and iPhone in the a Prius II.

 

On the Droid 1 I have to set the phone to Mass Storage mode prior to connecting the USB for the Nav to recognize the phone and give the USB tab on display.

 

i have a USB charger but not right angle that was used for SEVERAL other devices. will need to look at that.