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Help Playing Music Thru In-Dash Stereo via USB

erickste

Lurker
Dec 22, 2012
4
0
Hi guys, this is my first time posting here so I hope I've got this in the correct forum!

So I've got the Galaxy S3, recently updated to Jelly Bean 4.1 thru Kies. Ever since I got this phone, I've wanted it to be both my phone and media device, so I can sell off my iPhone, giving me one less device to carry around. Understandably, I am well aware that Android devices aren't as easy to just 'plug and go' into an in-dash stereo like iPods, so I'm trying to get past that little hump.

Now, I don't know if it's a coincidence, but after upgrading the firmware, it seems that if I give it a little time, my in-dash will pick up audio via USB when plugged in. However, it seems like it's just playing my ringtones and notifications automatically, and I can't seem to figure out where to begin on creating a folder or playlist that it would play instead of just random audio files. I was told it would work as long as I play off the SDcard, so I created a folder, but no matter what I click on, it only plays through the phone, not the car speakers.

Has anybody played around with this? I don't know the brand of my in-dash off-hand, but I know it's not bluetooth ready, so that rules that option out. I'm confident that it's possible to do this if it's playing something at least--and the sound is great! So much deeper than my iPhone, so I'd like to figure it out!

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
 
Not sure I am understanding correctly. Are you connected to your car stereo by a USB cable or via a cable from the headphone jack?

Nope, this is through the USB cable itself. I'm not using AUX because I know the sound quality is poor. It's picking up music files via USB automatically, I'm just not sure from where, or what folder, I just know that whatever it does play, it's files that I've made into ringtones or notifications, so I'm thinking it's playing straight off the phone and not from the SDcard.
 
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Update! So it turns out that if I put music files in the Music folder on the phone itself, and then plug it in via USB, it will automatically play the music in that folder. This is pretty fantastic considering everyone's saying you shouldn't be allowed to do this. The only thing is, I would rather there be a way I can play it off my SDcard instead so that I could have more storage. I certainly can't put all of my 16g iPod on my phone....
 
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I think the problem is that in order to use the USB the phone has to connect to your car stereo as a USB Mass Storage Device (i.e., like a thumb drive). Samsung unfortunately disabled that connection option for the S3. The only options are MTP or PTP, neither of which your stereo probably recognizes. I can hook my old Galaxy S to my car stereo because it has the Mass
Storage Device option available. I think there is a work around for the S3 but it requires rooting the phone.
 
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Yeah, that's what I thought. So in other words, it's just gonna automatically play what it recognizes, and won't give me the option of choosing what I want to play. This still kinda blows my mind that they don't offer the mass storage option. So now, it's either I try a bluetooth adapter, or just stick with my iPod. But I've heard the bluetooth quality is terrible?
 
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OK Just a clarification. MTP and PTP are USB. They are what they call a device class of the USB specification. In other words, they are just a subtype of the USB specification.

MTP works identical to (What your thinking as) USB in most ways except for one major area. With a USB stick (as you are more used to) the device that you stick the USB stick into controls the file format of what goes onto the stick. For example I can mount a USB stick into my computer and use my computer to format the stick any way the computer wants to. With a MTP device the device that the files reside on (Cell phone, camera etc.) controls the device format. So it's sort of like mounting an external hard drive (That you can read and write to but not format) when you plug it in. There is more to it than that but that's basically the gist of it.

This is why when you plug your cell phone into a windows computer that the icons no longer show up as previews. The file system on the cell phone doesn't allow for the creation of preview icons so they don't show up in windows anymore.

You can read about the implementation of MTP in the USB spec on http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/MTP_1.0.zip. It was added to it in 2008 into USB 1.0 if I remember correctly.


Back to your question, if it works on a USB stick it will work on a MTP device unless the device wants to try to create it's own filesystem onto the MTP device. Just copy your files into whatever folder your radio wants them into and they should play fine. It works no different than if you plugged in a USB stick into your radio directly.
 
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OK Just a clarification. MTP and PTP are USB. They are what they call a device class of the USB specification. In other words, they are just a subtype of the USB specification.

MTP works identical to (What your thinking as) USB in most ways except for one major area. With a USB stick (as you are more used to) the device that you stick the USB stick into controls the file format of what goes onto the stick. For example I can mount a USB stick into my computer and use my computer to format the stick any way the computer wants to. With a MTP device the device that the files reside on (Cell phone, camera etc.) controls the device format. So it's sort of like mounting an external hard drive (That you can read and write to but not format) when you plug it in. There is more to it than that but that's basically the gist of it.

This is why when you plug your cell phone into a windows computer that the icons no longer show up as previews. The file system on the cell phone doesn't allow for the creation of preview icons so they don't show up in windows anymore.

You can read about the implementation of MTP in the USB spec on http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/MTP_1.0.zip. It was added to it in 2008 into USB 1.0 if I remember correctly.


Back to your question, if it works on a USB stick it will work on a MTP device unless the device wants to try to create it's own filesystem onto the MTP device. Just copy your files into whatever folder your radio wants them into and they should play fine. It works no different than if you plugged in a USB stick into your radio directly.

Well it does not work that way on the new radio in my wife's car. The radio will not "see" the S3 in either MTP or PTP mode. The radio works fine, however, with my old Galaxy S which has the mass storage option.
 
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