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My accessory: a BMW

OK, this may not be the correct place to post the request but i do.
I am planning to buy a BMW. THis car offers a bluetooth kit to connect your phone to the car, you know this stuff to use your phone while in the car without actually touching it and talking via the car audio system bla bla bla..
Anyway, i wonder if these kind of car bt kits are able to play music from my trinity, too? if not, what other ways are there to listen to music in the car via my trinity?
anybody made any experiences yet?
Thanks for your comments.
Regards
enlite

I know here are some devices that connect to the audio out jack and emit a low intensity fm signal that can be captured on the car's radio.

I had that for my wizard and magician. But the quality is poor. Besides you would have to buy a mini usb to audio jack converter plus you can not use the mic anymore plus it looks like a nerd had had some time to frickle some cables together...

you can try with the parrot mk6000 here
http://www.parrot.biz/uk/products/parrotmk6000
it's an installation hands free, that includes stereo stream profile (A2DP)
in BMW you can hide too the mic under the case of the original mic location
ah, by the way, it's mooooore cheaper than the original BMW one!

The BMW bluetooth kit is not that great, most stock car options like that aren't, even the dealer will tell you that and probably tell you it's only really meant (TESTED) with Motorola phones. If you do get a BMW with a Bluetooth Kit, you're going to need this as far as phone functionality is concerned when it comes to Bluetooth on the BMW, you're going to need Jetware's Bluetooth Extension found here.
http://www.jetwaremobile.com/
The bigger question is why would you bother, it's not like you have that much storage on your Trinity to play audio for music. A better option instead of investing in 3rd party bluetooth options is to get the IPOD option with the kit, this way you have stereo controls and the IPOD sits in your glove compartment so no wires or anything. Not to mention you could always just burn a CD full of MP3, even my stock BMW radio can play MP3's burned onto a CD.

Trinity and BMW
I have a Trinity with the Dopod Test GPS ROM. It pairs perfectly with the BMW system on my E90 320D with Pro Sat Nav, and all the contacts are visible on the Sat Nav screen...most of the time. Last night I could only find those on the SIM Card, but after driving off this morning they are all there again (580 of them). I haven't tried Jetware but it doesn't seem to need it to work.
The Beemer has a 3.5mm audio jack in the console. Get a USB headphone splitter/adapter for your phone and plug your Trinity into this. It will then play through the BMW system.

Excellent information mate. Thanks a lot. So that means I only need to get a usb to 3.5 mm adapter and everything else works fine.
Thanks again.

I wouldn't put out too much hope.
BMW bluetooth is tempremental to say the least.

enlite_de said:
OK, this may not be the correct place to post the request but i do.
I am planning to buy a BMW. THis car offers a bluetooth kit to connect your phone to the car, you know this stuff to use your phone while in the car without actually touching it and talking via the car audio system bla bla bla..
Anyway, i wonder if these kind of car bt kits are able to play music from my trinity, too? if not, what other ways are there to listen to music in the car via my trinity?
anybody made any experiences yet?
Thanks for your comments.
Regards
enlite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend you are good... BMW comes with the Ipod connector and you want ot lisiten to muzic from a PDA... i bought Lexus GS300 and it do not have an iPod connector i have to pay few hunderd $ to get it fixed...
life is a ***** you will never get what you want and you will never be satisfied with what you have...
just for your info Lexus GS has the bluetooth phone hands free built in with there mark levinson audio system but its not stereo so i am not sure if the muzic u play from your PDA will be good quality, i tried the FM transsmitter for the iPod but in the end i have to move to cable connection as the sound quality was bad from time to time and i was not doing justice to the 14 speaker Mark levinson system...

BMW bluetooth in E91 320d works!
All,
Bluetooth connection works with my BMW 320 Touring (Model E91 from 11/2006) with BMW stock Bluetooth (Feature SA644) and my P3600 (in fact I have a Vodafone VPA Compact GPS running WM5).
The SIM Access profile is enabled using the HTC-provided application "SAP Einstellungen" (probably in English SAP Settings) on the P3600. The P3600 can be operated using the Steering wheel keys (Volume, Receive/Hang up call, show numbers in SIM on the iDrive screen, browse and call numbers and dial numbers using the speech-to-text function of the BMW iDrive). I have the "basic" iDrive system "BMW Business" without the full maps on the iDrive screen, but the Bluetooth feature is the same for both iDrive systems.
BMW has a phone compatibility list and in that list only the MDA Compact III (that is HTC Artemis/P3300) is listed, but all modern HTC phones using BT 2.0 and the SIM Access profile should do. T-Mobile confirmed to me that this also applies to the T-Mobile Vario II (equals HTC TyTN).
Speech quality is like with my old Nokia 6310i, the only catch is that BMW does not offer a charge cradle for extUSB connectors, but a Car-to-USB charger will do. Also, the BMW has a 3,5" Stereo socket in the Console / Phone cradle area to which I connect the P3600 using a 1-to-3 extUSB to 3,5" adapter, then music can be played back using the built-in BMW iDrive stereo system.

Parrot MKi9000, or an alternative?

Ok - I've got the Desire, and I'm liking it.
I've also got Spotify, and it's excellent.
But Spotify in the car would be amazing.
So, question is, would the above kit be a useful purchase?
This particular Parrot comes in 3 flavours, the bog standrd MKi9000, but there's another two which also have a small screen accompaniement.
Question is, which should I get?
Or should I get something else entirely?
I like the idea of FM transmitters, but pretty much across the board, they are meant to perform poorly. I also don't like the idea of being restricted by having to instal some of them in the cigarette lighter - I'd rather the stero component was hard wired if possible (and easy to fit myself as I'm on a budget).
So, any advice peeps?

I have a parrot SK4000 and it's terrible.

I've got a Parrot Mki9200 and it's great. It's a Parrot device so you have to expect the occasional oddity but I just get in the car and I have bluetooth handsfree and A2DP streaming from my Desire. I'm even contemplating changing my earlier Parrot 3400GPS in another car.
Haven't tried it with Spotify but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Works fine with Google Maps Navigation, although occasionally the A2DP streaming takes a second to kick in which means you miss the very first part of the voice instruction.
Edited to add that you can plug the Desire into the USB connector which both charges it and allows you full onscreen browsing of the media on your Desire. Select songs by album, artist, playlist, folder, etc.
Ian A.

Thing is, do you need the small screen that comes with the 9200, if you only use it with a Desire? I mean, what exactly would you use the screen for, assuming you've already got your Desire on a dashboard mount anyway?
I'm clueless about in car bluetooth connectivity and suchlike, so any advice is great. You can get the mki9000 quite cheap if you look around, but with the screens, you add a fair bit to the cost.
So - any other advice?

I had a MKi9100 Parrot which had to be returned as it had a fault. However, i was really disppointed with the quality of the music, as it uses its own inbuilt amp, not the car stereo amp. Quality suffers as a result.
With the MKI9200, I believe that there is a way to wire the kit, so the music plays through the car stereo, but you then have to have a separate speaker for phone calls, else you won't hear calls when the stereo is off. A good source of info can be found at the Parrot forums.
The benefit of the Parrot gear is that you can integrate it with your stearing wheel controls (if fitted), although you will need the additional control module.
Given my rather unreliable experience of Parrot gear, I'm looking to ditch my present Parrot CK3000 unit in favour of the Bury cc9060 kit. Not only does this kit have A2DP (music via bluetooth) and the ability I believe to route music via the stereo (please check to confirm), but most impressively it has multipoint - the ability to connect 2 bluetooth phones at the same time. A real bonus for those of us with 2 mobiles....
Hope this helps.

Parrot
I have the LS3200 and there is a lot of problems with the Desire sync of contacts from phone

This is exactly the kind of info we need.
I hadn't even heard of Bury kits, so cheers for the heads up...

crazybones said:
With the MKI9200, I believe that there is a way to wire the kit, so the music plays through the car stereo, but you then have to have a separate speaker for phone calls, else you won't hear calls when the stereo is off. A good source of info can be found at the Parrot forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Parrot instruction manual is wrong on this. If you have a decent car stereo, you can wire a line-out from the Parrot to the Line-In from the car stereo and use the car hi-fi amp for streaming music. You still connect the speaker bypass which kicks in if you get/make a voice call. I've confirmed this with Parrot tech support.
As for the screen, if you've got (or are getting) the Desire car dock and you only listen to music from the phone, I guess you don't need the screen. However I find that I use the SD card & USB connection to listen to music as well so the screen is pretty essential. The 9200 is only around £20 more than the 9100 so it was a no brainer for me.
However I did look at the Bury devices as well. I do expect the Bury ones are slightly more reliable (although the 9200 is better than expected) but I found them lacking in some features.
Ian A.

ray4438 said:
I have the LS3200 and there is a lot of problems with the Desire sync of contacts from phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also got a 3400 (same thing but with GPS, not the most reliable of devices!) and the best way is to delete all contacts, re-pair the phone and then send a multi-contact VCF file to the Parrot. You can create a multi-contact VCF from MS Outlook if you have that.
I've managed to get multi-number contacts (so you can do voice dialling with "Call... Alex... Home"), contact pictures and all features working correctly with the Desire. It did take some fiddling though, especially compared to the 9200 which was pretty seemless.
Ian A.

Just got an MKi9200 and installed in my 2008 Civic. I am loving it so far!!
I have paired my Desire which I plan to use for calls and sat-nav using the bluetooth audio feature.
I also plugged in a 32Gb USB stick which I will be using for playing music.
All this works well so far, except for a few little niggles.... I am hoping someone can help
1. When the phone sync's with the Parrot I get a message "File format not supported" which appears, disappears and appears again during the sync. Its possibly contact related (either pictures or the contact themselves) - can anyone advise??
2. When the sat nav (Copilot) gives directions, the sound comes out of the Desire AND the cars speakers. This is fine but the phone sounds up first, then after a 1/2 second delay the same instruction comes through the cars speakers. Any ideas on how to get them to play at the same time or mute the phones instruction but still hear the car speakers?
Any help gratefully received!
Thanks
zippyioa

I use the venturi mini on mine and it works flawlessly the only problem is it does plug into the lighter socket, I did end up buying a 3 way extension plug for the socket though off ebay so it is now mounted elsewhere and i still have 2 spare lighter sockets and a usb charging port on it as well as on the bluetooth car kit.
the kit was about £20 off of ebay of £50 in the shops, phonebook dl all ok even transmits it on the head unit if it has RDS on it.

ray4438 said:
I have the LS3200 and there is a lot of problems with the Desire sync of contacts from phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same model, had the exact same problems but cured it.
I wrote a post about my experiences http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=668042 , but I think the upshot is actually to break all the "links" in your contacts.
My LS3200 works flawlessly now.

advice please
I'd like to get Bluetooth handsfree set up with my Desire in my Toyota Rav4 (2005). Am looking at the following:
1. Brodit active cradle (hardwired to car, avoiding cigarette charger)
2. Parrot BT kit
So, my questions are: which Parrot kit am I best getting (dont want to spend a fortune, but would be nice to stream music from Desire through stereo speakers), & can anyone recommend a company to do the installation professionally in London? (as much as I'd love to do it all myself, probably not a good idea to open up the dashboard etc?)

Its a no brainer to go wth the MKi series, thebosh, but it depends if you want clutter on your dash or keep it clean and minimalistic.
But following the parrot forums loosely, its seems that more and more people are having difficulties with the 9100 and 9200 than the 9000 due to the added screens and with displaying what they wantr and how they want it, especially with software updates, changes to phonebook layouts and intergrations with social feeds etc.
For me, it had to be the 9000 with just the remote, which I mounted on a spring clip and then to a face vent.
I also got a brodit active charger (the one with the hardwired charging lead) for sat nav purposes, so I saw no need for an extra bluetooth screen you have to mount somewhere.
I too am planning to cut the cigar charger plug off and hardwire it, just need to get around to it.
The sound quality from the desire to the parrot 9000/9100/9200 BT is exceptional, and the music bass/treble is well balanced.

As for installation, register on the parrot forums and ask there.
You'll be surprised how many installers are registered for troubleshooting and can give you some sort of price/advice on whos doing it in that area.
I put mine into my 206, and its no sweat.

Thanks for the really helpful advice Touch Graphite. The 9000 seems perfect for my needs.
Had my first quote this week for professional installation - £244 for the lot. No idea if that's any good or not!
Will do as you suggest re. Parrot forum, as it would be awesome if I could do it all myself!
(For info, the quote came from avrmobiles.co.uk, & guy I spoke to warned me to rather go for the Bury 'Music' as he had experienced issues with Android & Parrot devices...)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Zippy,
There are alot of bugs when it comes to the screened versions of the Mki series, hence my recommendation of the 9000.
I have no such problems with any sort of delay in sat nav commands, music quality or phone sync from my desire.
Only niggle I get is blipping when im canning the music at full chat from my desire on fuller vocal songs,
but using the Mix-zing app, and turning up the buffer size does help.
Keep It Simple.

IPAddis said:
The Parrot instruction manual is wrong on this. If you have a decent car stereo, you can wire a line-out from the Parrot to the Line-In from the car stereo and use the car hi-fi amp for streaming music. You still connect the speaker bypass which kicks in if you get/make a voice call. I've confirmed this with Parrot tech support.
Ian A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
This is exactly the kind of solution I am looking for! I just got my MKI9000 installed and unfortunately the installer routed all 4 speaker output through the cutoff and not through the line-in.
I have a Skoda (part of the VAG family) and I am now trying to cross information so I can come back to the installer and get him to fix the installation (he will learn a thing or two from the infinite internet wisdom )
Any more information you can share on this option?
Moshe

Captivate TV Out?

Has anybdy tried this yet?
http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/...index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=accessories
Just wondering how it worked. Too bad it's not HDMI.

I tried it, worked for me. You have to enable it first in the TV-Out settings, and the yellow wasn't really the video one on my cable.

yea, there was a video somewhere showing it working. Just buy a $3 3.5" to RCA cable from ebay or radioshack

Seached on Google and Amazon has one for $1.29
http://www.amazon.com/DCR-TRV50E-DCR-TRV900-DCR-TRV950-DCR-VX1000-DCR-VX2000E/dp/B003V8UB4I
Going to give it a try.

Worked fine for me, no problems at all! Quality was only OK but I'll try it again with a different video and see if that helps.

Is there a way to go from micro USB to HDMI or the jack to HDMI?

For the usb, no it has to have the wardware. For the jack, whats the point? The jack can only output standard definition video and going through hdmi would be pointless. You can use WiFi with DLNA to windows media center to play your HD.

caelestis2 said:
For the usb, no it has to have the wardware. For the jack, whats the point? The jack can only output standard definition video and going through hdmi would be pointless. You can use WiFi with DLNA to windows media center to play your HD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
except that I can't get DNLA to work Maybe I'll try another app that does the same as allshare

the video out works well, I'm glad that it doesn't use HDMI as I use it in my truck to my DVD/NAV system. It does seem that whenever I've connected the included ear buds to the phone I've had to go into settings and re-enable video out. No it's not high definition, but the quality is more than adequate for my purposes.

Battlehymn said:
the video out works well, I'm glad that it doesn't use HDMI as I use it in my truck to my DVD/NAV system. It does seem that whenever I've connected the included ear buds to the phone I've had to go into settings and re-enable video out. No it's not high definition, but the quality is more than adequate for my purposes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I plan on doing this exact same thing this weekend. I have the Alpine IVA-W205, and I think it would be cooler to have audio and video instead of just audio. Plus, I can actually see the navigation directions since I don't have Nav installed.

tikicult said:
I plan on doing this exact same thing this weekend. I have the Alpine IVA-W205, and I think it would be cooler to have audio and video instead of just audio. Plus, I can actually see the navigation directions since I don't have Nav installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is a kenwood DDX-8019, and I have the external NAV
A couple things to keep in mind if you are going to use the phone as a NAV device in your car ...
1. Get long enough cables that you can set your phone where it has the clearest view of the sky possible. I set mine in the tray molded into my dash. Which leads to ...
2. If you use the included micro USB cable with a power adapter you should be fine, but the door that hides the connection on the phone may be too small for many aftermarket cables. I have one that is fine at home, but doesn't provide a secure enough connection for me to trust it on the road.
3. Maps in my area are not 100% accurate, the parking lot where I work used to be part of a highway that has been re-routed, however the map does not reflect this. I have also found that on the 2 times I've tested it on my route to and from work that it will not give a route that includes HOV lanes. (there may be a setting for this)
4. Download the app and enable the turn by turn voice ... but do not rely on it, until you've had some time to get comfortable with it. I've found during my testing that voice prompting comes a bit later than I like at highway speeds, though in and around town it was fine. I don't know if your DVD reciever will allow you to, but I can display the video from the phone and listen to audio from any other source I have available.
5. The only way I have been able to take a call while using the video out function on the phone was to disconnect the 3.5mm jack, it seems that the audio from a phone call is muted, as is the microphone. I guess if it did work there would be no reason for anyone with an aux video connection to buy a bluetooth reciever.
I do not intend to use this as my primary NAV in my own vehicle because my GARMIN reciever is purpose built for it and is far more precise/has more options. BUT ... I will not be renting anymore NAV units from enterprise when I have to travel.

Music control on phone for Car radio

Hello,
I have really no idea if this is possible, how hard this could be to do and what it can require but :
1 - Would it be possible when I plug my phone on my car radio with USB to control the music with my phone instead of the radio itself ?
2 - Would it be possible to deport the sounds (calls, applications etc) on the car speakers ?
Let me know if I'm not very clear
PS : please don't answer something like "use a jack-jack cable"
Thanks !

From what I get, you want to "stream" audio through the USB port. I don't know why would you want that and the jack-jack cable is not good (maybe you have a USB port on you car stereo but no line in) but as far as I know it would take A lot of modifications (stereo and phone) to make it work.
So, theoretically it is possible, practically I don't think someone will ever make it possible.

Im pretty sure it would be impossible to control the car radio with the phone via usb. There might be some kind of solution using IR, but I don't know how that'd interface with the Droid. Most aftermarket decks allow for a wired remote on the back (looks like a headphone Jack). I've used it with a steering wheel interface adapter and it worked well, so there is a possibility that a custom usb cable could be made, but would also require a custom app written for the Droid to output the signals through the usb.
On streaming radio via usb, I don't think that's possible either, bc the uusb on the deck is looking for files to read on a mounted drive.
If you happen to have an incredible, you can get the tv-out cable and make a shorting pin on the video output. This makes the phone think it's connected to a TV, and will then stream Pandora, music, Google navigation, etc through the usb. If you do this with your aftermarket radio, you'll need an aux input and an rca to 3.5mm cable unless you already have RCA.
Hope this helps!

Thank you for answers! I was asking that because I remember when I had an iPhone, I was able to play, pause, forward the music from my iPhone. I will try to use the aux-in (I have a little Pioneer DEH-3200UB).
Thank again !

That's because both the head unit and the iPhone know a common language and communicate.
Sadly, I don't think there's anything like that outside Apple.

It is called Ipod ready. That could be emulated in Android, would be another bite out of the apple,s ass.

Emulate an Iphone USB interface to a car radio?

I recently purchased a car that has a USB interface for the radio. My wife's Iphone fully integrates with it, of course, and via the radio's interface but the Samsung only mounts as a connected drive.
I have read other thread where people were able to force their Samsung into car dock mode by modifying a USB cable. Is there anyway to just do that in software?

you misunderstand what car mode is.

Good luck! I switched back to my iPhone for this reason alone. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I couldn't get this to work via the USB interface and I don't have bluetooth on my head unit. I can't seem to get the newest update to see if that works either. Would love to know if someone has a solution that doesn't require making your own cable.

yo sleze..what model car if i may ask?
i made my own auxiliary input for my car(i know its not a big feat) with an old dsl filter a soldering gun and some resistors and capacitors.. i might be interested in creating a usb interface for my car and then maybe i can give you some insight .. big maybe

well you will never get the headunit to command the phone, android simply doesn't support anything like that. but you can get audio over USB which is triggered by shorting a couple pins through a resistor. ill have to look up that thread but there may already be a dongle or cable out there to do this. it may not be say "android carmode" but if you find the name of the USB standard that they use to trigger it you can find the appropriate cable or dongle.

isnt there a usb headset available that can stop/start music and next track functionality ..if so you could (in theory) make a usb interface that would allow the head unit or in my case steering wheel control to work similarly?

no it wont command the phone. the framework and apps don't have an interface for that. plus the headunit would need special drivers if the phone had that capability. the issue with android is too many manufacturers do things different so unless google comes out with that on a nexus and tells maunfacturers the way it needs to be implimented I don't see any hope.
there might be a way to echo the commands through adb if you have a computer in your car. but I guess you'd have to know how the music app works for that.
we All know apple has the accessories market down pretty good. even though some older accessories don't work with the newest hardware. that's the one thing apple is good for, a wide accessory market.
now if you have a Bluetooth controler and it uses the right protocol to work with thw samaung bluetooth stack then you might be able to map keys to certain functions with an app or simple configuration file editing. but as far as USB goes I don't think android is designed to host USB input devices. there is limited otg usb support on certain special galaxy s and nexus 1 and nexus s kernels but nothing native.
maybe some 3rd party root app could eventually be developed but I haven't heard of one yet.
besides all that, who knows if the head unit will know to go into audio over USB mode in the first place, even if you get the phone in that mode, will the headunit be looking for USB storage and an iPhone interface only? was it designed to accept USB audio other than an iPod interface?

well with my car BMW mad a usb interface for ipod/iphone.. i hate mac so scratch that.. i also have a usb interface(i can control radio/nav functions via carputer) that is designed to work with I-BUS (intelligent input bus) which is what some BMW's used for audio/nav integration. some newer models actually come with a usb input that was designed to work with most media players..so i thought maybe with some time/frustration/rum..i might be able to make it work..

mejori said:
well with my car BMW mad a usb interface for ipod/iphone.. i hate mac so scratch that.. i also have a usb interface(i can control radio/nav functions via carputer) that is designed to work with I-BUS (intelligent input bus) which is what some BMW's used for audio/nav integration. some newer models actually come with a usb input that was designed to work with most media players..so i thought maybe with some time/frustration/rum..i might be able to make it work..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still to my understanding that on BMW iDrive system will have full integration with iOS. We had a 2010 5 series at home with all the bell and whistles on it, and even then it would only display song names. With my iPod we got full library options, podcast too. Android will only be able to be used as a mounted devices.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium

I used to have an iPhone and installed this kit http://usaspec.com/product.php?ProductID=18. After switching to android I just use a 2.5mm to RCA cable to plug in to the same unit. Not worried too much about integrating with car controls - I also use a phone mount. Does your head unit have any AUX IN connectivity? Maybe on the rear? If so just play audio through the headphone jack. There's always the lighter socket RF adapter option too, but audio quality with those things can be lame.
Samsung-SGH-I997 Infused 2.3.3

yeah the headphone amp on the infuse has pretty good fidelity too. the headphone Jack might not be as convenient as a single USB that also charges the phone but I'd you want to use the playlists and 3rd party apps like Pandora or Google music its the best way. audio over USB needs the dock or special cable to trigger but I don't know which headunits will support that.