Car Stereo / Touch Pro combinations...

[chronster]

So I climbed into my car this morning hoping it would automatically play through bluetooth but I guess I over thought it's simplicity. I had to go to the communications tab in settings, select bluetooth, then right click XPLOD from the list and select set as stereo. This isnt too bad I guess, but I was kind of hoping to be able to climb in, set the phone's music to play, then have it come out through the speakers right away.

Unrelated to TP: How is seeking on other stereos BTW? This radio finds available stations immediately after pressing the seek button whereas my factory radio would scan through all the stations first. Is "instant seek" pretty common in aftermarket radios?

[dishe]

Originally Posted by chronster

First - The absolute best sound quality from phone to stereo comes from the auxiliary input, just as others have said. The sound quality is phenomenal. I disabled the audio boost application that automatically starts when headphones are connected, and the sound quality blew my mind (I've got subs so that helps too lol.)

Honestly, I'm willing to bet that you didn't optimize your A2DP settings.
I've been working with A2DP for years already (since the first hacked dlls were available for windows mobile 5), and getting good quality out of it has been a long and complicated saga.

The point, however, is that when done RIGHT, you shouldn't really be able to tell much of a difference between wired and wireless music.
The problem is that HTC and/or Microsoft decided to cap the bandwidth used to encode your music on the fly. This setting exists in the registry, and is called the bitpool. By default, this is set to 30, which is EXTREMELY low and will create a noticeable hiss on high quality speakers.

People have speculated turning that value up higher, but for our modern phones with faster CPUs, its best to just take the whole bitpool setting out completely, and let the encoder determine its own bitrate without a cap.
More on this here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308752

Bluetooth sound quality was AMAZING for wireless. There is a slight hiss however when the song is paused. It goes away after a few seconds. I guess when nothing is being heard, the stereo cuts the sound or something, but immediately after pressing play the sound returns. Also, song name is not displayed while playing mp3s. I thought this was a per song issue, but none of my songs names were displayed while playing. Bummer.

The hiss is probably defined by the phone keeping the channel open, and caused by the compressed encoder mentioned above.
Song names is actually NOT part of A2DP, or AVRCP. There is an addition BT profile responsible for the additional information like that, and its not a standard one so most phones/receivers don't use it. The Sony stereo does because the Sony-Ericsson Walkman phones do.

A note about Bluetooth and delay: When watching a video in coreplayer, bluetooth audio worked, but there was a noticable delay. If I were to entertain a passenger with a movie or two on a long trip, I'd recommend using the auxilary connection.

Bah, and clutter it up with a wire? NEVER!
Set your audio sync to -300msec, and it will line up perfectly. If you use coreplayer primarily, then set TCPMP to -300, and only use it when streaming wireless audio, and coreplayer set to 0 the rest of the time. Solved!

Talking on the phone on this thing is really easy, but sound quality on the other user's end is going to be bad. I listened to what my father sounded like when he spoke to me from inside my car, and there is definitely an echo.

I think this is because of the mic placement... not sure how it works on the one you got, but I personally use the BT2500, and the mic is on the head unit. That means if you have to sort of talk at your dashboard in order to be heard clearly. Otherwise, its just picking up the sound echoing around the cabin of your vehicle. I usually don't use it for hands free calling for more than a min at a time, and during that minute I lean into my center console to talk. Awkward.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the BT2600 for both it's price and functionality. If I had spent another 100-150, I could have gotten a radio that downloads your phonebook, and also has better control over your mp3s via bluetooth (pause as well as display the name of the song.)

Not necessarily. See my display song comment above. Its not part of the standard profile- remember, A2DP was meant to stream full quality sound, which isn't necessarily just Mp3's... it could be a live mic stream, or just simply the system sounds of your device (which don't have an id3 tag!). The information profile came later and is *not* standard.

The only reason to go for the pricier ones (BT5000?) is because of call quality, I think. The high end ones let you mount a mic closer to your face, and initiate voice command from the head unit.

Either way, glad to hear you like it, and enjoy!

[chronster]

Wow thanks for the info man.

[dishe]

No problem, delete those reg keys and let me know what you think.

I'm sort of an A2DP enthusiast, I guess... I've been meaning to write all this stuff up as a full tutorial/article, but I haven't had time- a lot of people don't know the ins-and-outs of bluetooth stereo.

Anyway, forgot to mention, you CAN initiate the session without taking the phone out of your pocket, but A2DP will not start automatically when you enter the car. That is ON PURPOSE since when connected, it will route all audio to the car speakers, including system alarms and alerts which you might not want (imagine it trying to alert you of an important reminder while the stereo is set to FM tuner- you'd never hear it!).
However, set the stereo to BT Audio (assuming the menu is similar to the Xplod 2500, which I've used and currently own two of), and press the play/pause button (which is printed in small letters over the 6th radio preset button on mine). One press initiates a paired connection with the last device used. Assuming no one else has used your stereo with their phone, it will autoconnect to your TP.
A second press will hit the play button on any open media player. This is good to know in general, because you should always press that button to pause playback right before you turn off the car. Otherwise, as soon as the phone realizes its not connected, music will come blasting out of your pocket!

IF these things were programmable/hackable, I'd set it to automatically send that pause command upon turning off the car, but alas...

[chronster]

aww dude I've been trying to figure out an easy solution for this FOREVER. You just saved me the hastle of going into bluetooth settings every time i get in the car. you rock

you should definitely write up that tutorial somewhere. I bet a lot of people would enjoy this info.

[Rusty Duck]

I cannot live with out my A2DP - use it every day. However I did not want to replace my head unit as all of the lights on my dash are red and none of the aftermarket stereos came with red (mainly blue).

So I went with a box (made over seas) called "xCarlink". Just google it and you will find it and many of them are available on ebay. The really nice thing about this box is that it has a SD slot as well. Easy to install with a car specific harness.

[r1_rydah]

Originally Posted by dishe

No problem, delete those reg keys and let me know what you think.
.

any side effects to changing those reg keys?

[dishe]

Originally Posted by r1_rydah

any side effects to changing those reg keys?

Not really. Remember, those keys were made default years ago when it was normal to have a 200mhz omap CPU (HTC Wizard). Back then, the CPU could barely keep up, causing jumps and breaks in the music.
Nowadays, with modern CPUs, it should not be necessary. The only possible downside is that the device may respond a bit slower while actively playing music.

[JDub0820]

ok now I have to jump on the band wagon here and get my truck upgraded to stream music and phone calls...one problem though, I have no idea what I need. Doing some quick research I have to think that the MEX-BT2600 or MEX-BT2700 are the units within my price range, but what else do I need besides the unit. With bluetooth built in, the only thing I should need would be a wiring harness for my specific truck correct? or do I need any adapters?

[IsLNdbOi]

What's your price range?