Workaround for Bluetooth Headphones with FM Radio?

[tjfritton]

I got my first set of Bluetooth headphones (Jaybird JF3 Freedoms) in the mail this weekend and was so excited to try them out. I figured this would be the perfect thing to use (among other uses) at the gym to watch the TVs they have that broadcast their audio over FM.

I have the FM Radio app downloaded and running on my Bionic and fired it up. Unfortunately, I forgot that you need headphones to be plugged in to act as an antenna. No problem - I had made a stub from an old pair of headphones that I plugged in and it allowed me to start the App. Still no audio over Bluetooth, so I set the FM Radio to "Loudspeaker" - Now the station comes through fine over the speaker of the phone, but still nothing over Bluetooth.

The Bluetooth headphones work great for things like regular music on the phone and TuneIn Radio/Slacker/etc, but that doesn't help me at the gym with the localized FM stations they are broadcasting.

From what I've found over the web, it sounds like the phone automatically routes audio over the headphone jack when something is plugged in rather than over Bluetooth. And since I need something plugged in there to act as an antenna, that's the heart of the issue. It sounds like the "Super BT Mono" app might work to route the audio to my headset, but I'm not sure about this. Might give it a try though.

Has anyone else come up with a workaround to get FM stations over a Bluetooth headset?

Thanks.

Tim

 

[ts47]

I'm new to the Bionic. Actually, it's in the mail to be delivered today. Forgive me for asking noob questions, but;
1. Does the Bionic have an FM radio?
2. Or, do you just download an app to make it work as an FM radio?
3. Or, would I need to buy some accessory?

 

[zmann]

I don't get why you would want to listen to fm radio at the gym with all the commercial interruptions. I have bluetooth stereo headphones and use them mainly for the gym. I have thousands of songs in my Google music and over a hundred playlist. Does not take up space in my phone and in cases where you may not have great reception there is option to make any playlist I want available offline. I also use Pandora radio at the gym and sirius. Everything I mentioned sirius is the only one that cost money. 35 dollars every 3 months. There are many more options,, why stone age fm radio?

10.1/32 gig of fun!

 

[tjfritton]

The Bionic HAS an FM Radio, but it didn't come with the app to use it, for some reason. Checkout this thread to get the FMRadio.apk file: http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-bionic/117107-fm-radio-not-phone.html

 

[tjfritton]

zmann - If I'm at the gym on a piece of equipment that has a TV in front of it, they broadcast the audio for that TV over an FM station. So I can watch AND listen to a show (Monday Night Football, a sitcom episode, whatever) if I want to. Plenty of times I like listening to Slacker or some other internet stream while at the gym and it'll work great for that, but I also want the option of watching some TV. That's all.

 

[zmann]

zmann - If I'm at the gym on a piece of equipment that has a TV in front of it, they broadcast the audio for that TV over an FM station. So I can watch AND listen to a show (Monday Night Football, a sitcom episode, whatever) if I want to. Plenty of times I like listening to Slacker or some other internet stream while at the gym and it'll work great for that, but I also want the option of watching some TV. That's all.

Gotcha,, my gym has same set up. If I want to listen to tv I need plug it's,, I often wish I can connect to tv with my bluetooth. You got me on that one.

10.1/32 gig of fun!

 

[Live2ride883]

Try the tune in app in the android market, it streams FM stations nationwide.

 

[tjfritton]

Again, I love TuneIn Radio, but it doesn't every every FM station out there, and it definitely doesn't have the FM "stations" transmitted by my local YMCA's TV sets...

 

[csimme01]

You could just plug in a bluetooth audio adapter to the tv.

 

[tjfritton]

csimme01 - I had thought of something similar to that, plugging in a bluetooth adapter into my phone's audio jack, which would allow me to use the FM radio and would send the audio out through the bluetooth connection then. Seems a little silly to use a bluetooth adapter on a phone with bluetooth built in though.

Thanks for the thought.

 

[csimme01]

csimme01 - I had thought of something similar to that, plugging in a bluetooth adapter into my phone's audio jack, which would allow me to use the FM radio and would send the audio out through the bluetooth connection then. Seems a little silly to use a bluetooth adapter on a phone with bluetooth built in though.

Thanks for the thought.

I wanted to plug in an adapter to a tv at my local watering hole. Then I could use my moto s9 to listen to the games and hear it over the crowd.

 

[DaleGriggs]

There is a product that you can plug into your phone headphone jack to do this. I am also going to use it to plug into my AV sound system so I can listen to the TV over Bluetooth. There are more expensive ones available but this one seems to fit my requirements and Amazon lets you return it if you are not satisfied.
It is marked down to $19.00.
You can find it at

Amazon.com: AmbiCom WST-KIT Wireless Stereo Headphone Kit: Electronics

It should work because the FM radio just wants something plugged into the hole.

 

[sniffs]

The Bionic, as well as most phones that have FM radios, don't have FM antennas built in.

This is why 3.5MM headphones are required, because the cable actually acts as a antenna to pickup the signal.. without the cable, you probably wont be able to pick much, if anything up.

 

[tjfritton]

DaleGriggs - Thanks for the idea. I'd seen a couple of options like that (maybe not that cheap). I would think that would work, although I was really hoping for more of a software solution. And hoping to avoid buying anything else.

Sniffs - yeah, the FM Radio software on the Bionic will not even open without a cable attached to the 3.5mm port. I have a short stub (a cut off old headphone) that I can plug in there that allows the radio to work. I have to put it into Loudspeaker mode to hear the radio out of the speaker of the phone. My ultimate hope was that the sound could be routed over my bluetooth headphones rather than out the speaker of the phone.

 

[jdthepig]

tjfritton: did you ever find a solution? I'm trying to do the same thing. In my case I'm trying to listen to my local sports teams that are broadcast on FM radio. The station is available on iHeartRadio but NFL and NHL broadcasts get "blacked out" on iHeartRadio so I need to listen directly via FM radio.

 

[tjfritton]

Nope, never found a solution. It seems that you are suck with using a wired set of headphones if you want to use the FM radio.

 

[loonyy]

I feel this is a real drop off by all the major phone and gadge manufacturers. None of the devices I have searched for support FM radio playback over Bluetooth, So....

After some heavy duty searching for my dad (he wants a wireless bluetoothy type FM radio option) the only real decent solution I have found is by Jabra.

Now I understand that you want the apps to be able to playback FM radio over BT, but that's not going to happen until someone really sits down and works it out, And by then they will probably be able to implement DAB radio and ditch FM alltogther.

So if you just want FM radio in your ears (and the added bonus of being able to make and receive calls too) without all the faffing with poxy wires, do a search for the Jabra sport bluetooth headset.

Theres a review here and a few on youtube. Prices vary, I have a set on the way hopefully delivered tommorow.

Jabra Sport Bluetooth Headset review - Headphones - Trusted Reviews

 

[tjfritton]

Loonyy - I had considered the Jabra's back when I originally got my Jaybird's. The built in FM radio was definitely a big plus. In the end I decided I didn't like the over-the-ear aspect of the Jabra's, especially being outside and wearing sunglasses with them, so I went with the Jaybird's, which have been great for me.

Now I just wish I could justify buying the newest Jaybird BlueBuds X. Still no FM, but they look like sweet BT headphones with better battery life and sound quality.

 

[The Sarge]

FM radio needs a long piece of wire to act as an antenna, hence the need to have the headset plugged in for the FM radio to work. No headphones? No radio. It's that simple.

However, in theory, if you could plug a FM radio dongle into the phone's microUSB port, and if that dongle was designed to work with Android, you could listen to that over any A2DP-compatible Bluetooth receiver. Perhaps this combo might work:

Android phone > USB OTG micro-b to Type-A adapter > FM Radio dongle.

But that assumes the FM dongle has drivers and software for use with android.

Good luck finding one.O

 

[NoteUser]

In case anyone out there is still looking for another way to do this, Spirit FM Unlocked for $10 says it supports A2DP bluetooth headsets. I haven't tried it yet (it's a bit much to drop but he explains that it's niche and hard to maintain/was hard to develop) but the reviews are positive