good god, this phone rules...bluetooth streaming audio

[mihalich]

So, let me start out by saying that I totally expected this to flop, and not even come close to working.

I have a Kenwood DNX6140 installed in my car.

So on the way home tonight for some reason I decided to try an experiment.

I live in southern california. I ran the A-Online-Radio app, and searched for a radio station I loved in Rochester, NY when I was going to school there. Low and behold, it shows up in the list.

So, I turn on the bluetooth on the phone, and connect to the kenwood. I switch the kenwood to the bluetooth input, it says "connected to Droid" (didn't even expect to get this far lol), and hit play on the A-Online-Radio.

And poof, the audio starts playing through the kenwood and out my car speakers.

That is so freaking awesome, I still can't believe it.

The last time I was able to do this was with my VZ XV6700. I would use internet explorer on the WM device, and connect to the web page, and start the streaming, which would come out of the phones speakers. Then I'd connect an FM transmitter to the phone, so I could hear it on the stereo in the car. That sucked, was a pain in the butt, but it worked.

What a difference 3 to 4 years makes.


-Joe

 

[BottledHate]

i don't have a fancy bluetooth stereo deck... but i have an aftermarket aux input that i put into my head unit. i pretty much stream pandora radio everywhere now. when i'm out of town i also use 'A Online Radio' to get my local shows. Receiving calls though the speakers is nice as well.

 

[radikal]

hmm, i need to get the bluetooth installed on my car, i need another attachment to make it work, but this would be cool!

PS i am glad to hear someone saying that they love the phone, its usually, "oh i like it, but this and that isnt like this or that!"

 

[Crude]

cool app, any clue how to find urls for streaming radio?

 

[ocean1]

Thats awesome! Im going to try it tomorrow. Maybe they fixed the bluetooth texting on verizon so I can use my Ford sync system with my Droid! Thought for sure my Droid would be able to use the blue tooth text being new phone. Instead of safety they went with cool audio lol makes sense.

 

[BottledHate]

hmm, i need to get the bluetooth installed on my car, i need another attachment to make it work, but this would be cool!

Crutchfield.com is handy for finding out what components will work with your stock system... i used them to find the 'pxdx'. it works in my toyota for ipod and analog input on my factory system.

PS i am glad to hear someone saying that they love the phone, its usually, "oh i like it, but this and that isnt like this or that!"

i'm on both sides there! i have plenty of things i don't like and a couple i hate, but there are sooo many others that keep me happy. for now.

 

[BottledHate]

cool app, any clue how to find urls for streaming radio?

android market---> search--->

'pandora' <--- build your own station

'A Online Radio' <---has alot of radio stations...

still waiting for FlyCast (on droid). that one is worth buying as it will record shows and save songs for you. at least it did on BB.

edit:
ps... nice avatar... one of my favorite posts of all time! they all work on droid too!

 

[skylinedrifter]

I just purchased a JVC Arsenal KD-A805 yesterday and have been playing around with it. So far, I must say, that I am very impressed. The only real gripe I have is that if there are a lot of a programs running in the background I get some drops in the stream. In order to correct it, all I need to do is kill the tasks.

MP3s sound great and Pandora sounds fantastic. It has completely eliminated my desire for satellite radio. Overall, this was worth the $200 investment in the new car stereo.

 

[mihalich]

cool app, any clue how to find urls for streaming radio?

Without using an app like a-online-radio to do it, you could go here...this is what i used on my WM device:

The Mobile Stream Center USA - Listen to United States Radio Stations on your Pocket PC, Palm, iPhone, iPod touch, Smartphone, or other PDA or mobile device via Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE or 3G

But I don't know if clicking on a stream on a web page would launch a media player in android or not.

A-online has a pretty comprehensive list of stuff that will work with their player.

Btw, I read on the a-online-radio site yesterday that they just released (albeit unstable they stay) MMS Radio Lite Alpha (lol) which is supposed to support mms://, mmsh://, .asx , .asf links.

Frequently Asked Questions | Android Online Radio

Look on the right side where they list their apps.

Joe

 

[mihalich]

oh, btw, regarding the bluetooth texting, this does not work on my DNX6140 for either my Droid or my previous phone the LG EnV Touch.

However, it does work on my wife's EnV 3. Go figure. Wasnt there a post titled 10 things my stupid phone does that my smart phone doesn't? lol.

This isn't an issue for me. I don't think i'd use it anyway. I think when I got my first phone, I said I'd only ever use it for emergencies...so i digress.

Joe

 

[Jerm13]

The combination of Pandora + GPS through my car stereo was one of the huuuge selling points to me for this phone.

To make it even easier and faster to setup when I get in the car and reduce physical wiring, I'm going to pick up a nifty little bluetooth receiver to connect to my stereo's aux input and just leave under the seat:
eCOST.com-Jabra Dog Tag Design Bluetooth Headset - BT3030 - Jabra BT3030 (Cellular / Phones) - eCOST.com - electronics, computers, laptops, mp3 players

Bluetooth > FM Transmitter

 

[techinv]

Many thanks to the original poster for letting me know about A-Online-Radio. Was looking for something like this for a few days now!!

Does anybody know if playing 4-5 hours of radio per day will get you into trouble with Verizon's "unlimited" data plan?

 

[mihalich]

I don't think it's an issue as long as you don't abuse it. There are many people who do this all the time. I certainly did it all the time 4 years ago with my WM device, and it was not an issue.

If you start using like 10GB / day or something, you may get a call.

I think what they're really concerned about is abuse through tethering. You can use a lot more bandwith more quicky with a laptop than you can with the phone if you really tried.

Joe

 

[mihalich]

The combination of Pandora + GPS

I haven't even started exploring the world of Pandora yet. My sister (who has an iphone) told me that was one of the first apps I should download...which I did. Just haven't gotten to it yet.

Joe

 

[craighwk]

How is the sound quality with Bluetooth over, say, AUX input? I'd imagine AUX would sound better, but is it worth losing the wire over?

 

[mihalich]

I don't think it really matters since for streaming, you're dealing with streams that are like 48K streams. Some of the better streams like 96K or 128K sound pretty good over the bluetooth. But I still think you've lost so much at that point that it wouldn't sound much different either way.

The difference in sound playing audio files on the device itself over bluetooth vs Aux is a good question. I only use my ipod for that, not my phone, so I don't know.

Joe

 

[subyfan]

Hey guys if you are interested in streaming bluetooth in you car or on your car stereo, look up the BlackBerry Bluetooth Gateway. Plugs into the aux port on your stereo and pairs with EVERYTHING I've ever tried. Can be had for relatively cheap ($30 - 60) and works beautifully. If you don't believe me, google some reviews and see for yourself. I've been using for nearly two years now and never had an issue. F...Y...I...

 

[vincentp]

So, let me start out by saying that I totally expected this to flop, and not even come close to working.

I have a Kenwood DNX6140 installed in my car.

So on the way home tonight for some reason I decided to try an experiment.

I live in southern california. I ran the A-Online-Radio app, and searched for a radio station I loved in Rochester, NY when I was going to school there. Low and behold, it shows up in the list.

So, I turn on the bluetooth on the phone, and connect to the kenwood. I switch the kenwood to the bluetooth input, it says "connected to Droid" (didn't even expect to get this far lol), and hit play on the A-Online-Radio.

And poof, the audio starts playing through the kenwood and out my car speakers.

That is so freaking awesome, I still can't believe it.

The last time I was able to do this was with my VZ XV6700. I would use internet explorer on the WM device, and connect to the web page, and start the streaming, which would come out of the phones speakers. Then I'd connect an FM transmitter to the phone, so I could hear it on the stereo in the car. That sucked, was a pain in the butt, but it worked.

What a difference 3 to 4 years makes.


-Joe

Hey, what station in Rochester? Just curious, since I live here and rarely meet anybody who has been.

And I am planning on buying a new deck for my car with Bluetooth for just this reason

 

[mihalich]

WBER...90.5.

I went to RIT for 5 years, then some years later lived over on the east side on browncroft blvd. My wife is from Greece.

Listened to that station almost exclusively in the 90's.

Joe

 

[vincentp]

WBER...90.5.

I went to RIT for 5 years, then some years later lived over on the east side on browncroft blvd. My wife is from Greece.

Listened to that station almost exclusively in the 90's.

Joe

I thought that might have been the one, I love that station, though I haven't listened to the radio in a while. I grew up in Greece too, actually.

 

[mihalich]

Nice. We were just back there in august to visit the wife's family.

Joe

 

[mihalich]

Btw, in case anyone cares, a-online apparently registers itself with the system as a player for the media streams it supports.

I know this, cuz I went to the browser, and went to the web site for the Rochester station I was talking about, and clicked on the listen live link, and it launched the a-online player from the browser, and worked perfectly.

So, in case you can't find a station in the search, and you know the player supports the format, you should be able to go to the stations web site, and launch from there.

Killer...

Joe

 

[BottledHate]

The combination of Pandora + GPS through my car stereo was one of the huuuge selling points to me for this phone.

To make it even easier and faster to setup when I get in the car and reduce physical wiring, I'm going to pick up a nifty little bluetooth receiver to connect to my stereo's aux input and just leave under the seat:
eCOST.com-Jabra Dog Tag Design Bluetooth Headset - BT3030 - Jabra BT3030 (Cellular / Phones) - eCOST.com - electronics, computers, laptops, mp3 players

Bluetooth > FM Transmitter

7 hours of battery while playing music.... and reviews on newegg say it may be a little low on volume, or even distort.... it looks like a cool product tho! made me research it... let us know how it does.

edit: the microphone is located on the dog tag itself.... bt callers might have trouble hearing u if it's under the seat

 

[vikingisson]

I'm not interested in car streaming, I'm not in it long enough to care. But, I do like streaming to my home stereo. Comes in handy when I'd rather not transfer a file from the phone to a pc. However..... as nice as that is I got a rude surprise when I missed two calls because they went to the stereo system and couldn't hear me because I lack a mic on the stereo. I wouldn't want to use it that way anyway. I had to remove the BT pairing to stop it.
So, any way to allow adp2 audio without pushing phone calls to the receiver? I'm happy if the stream paused but I'd prefer not having calls blasting over the stereo.

 

[BottledHate]

I'm not interested in car streaming, I'm not in it long enough to care. But, I do like streaming to my home stereo. Comes in handy when I'd rather not transfer a file from the phone to a pc. However..... as nice as that is I got a rude surprise when I missed two calls because they went to the stereo system and couldn't hear me because I lack a mic on the stereo. I wouldn't want to use it that way anyway. I had to remove the BT pairing to stop it.
So, any way to allow adp2 audio without pushing phone calls to the receiver? I'm happy if the stream paused but I'd prefer not having calls blasting over the stereo.

after you answer the call, down on the bottom isn't there an option of handset/ bluetooth? i remember switching back between the two easily.

edit: bottom left. 'Bluetooth" toggle button.