Bluetooth forces "media audio"

[eagle63]

Hey guys, I'm using my Galaxy S 3 in a car dock (the Samsung Infuse car dock which will fit (barely) the GS3) and I'm hitting a weird problem. If you've ever paired your device with another bluetooth device (such as your car radio) you'll notice there are 2 checkboxes you can select: "call audio" and "media audio". What I want to do is have only the call audio option selected so that any music I listen to will get piped out of the dock's Aux audio output. So in other words, phone calls go through bluetooth but audio goes through the Aux audio jack. (I do this because the sound quality is better via the aux audio jack) This is exactly what I did with my Galaxy S 2 (epic 4g touch) in this same vehicle and it worked great.

The problem is my phone won't let me uncheck the media audio checkbox. Well it does, but then immediately re-checks itself a second later. I've tried un-pairing and re-pairing the phone but it doesn't seem to matter. It simply won't let me have only the call audio option selected.

Has anyone else seen this? My vehicle is a 2012 Honda Odyssey, and while there's certainly a chance that it's the car radio's fault, as I said before my Galaxy S 2 worked perfectly in this vehicle with the same configuration.

 

[suzymeg]

I have the exact same problem. My media player keeps connecting automatically (thus draining my battery) every time my bluetooth connects in my car. I have a VW Jetta and I can't seem to disable this feature. I keep having to manually uncheck the "media audio" but it connects the next time I get in the car. Its so frustrating!

Have you found a fix? I looked at all the settings in my car but can't find a solution.

 

[ChuckeeDroid]

This is odd. I have a 2009 Acura and I can uncheck the option. It's useful when I want my gps instructions to not go through my stereo.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[eagle63]

Just an update, I found this thread on a Honda Pilot forum where they are discussing the same issue: Bluetooth Handsfree Link - How do I separate Bluetooth phone from media audio? - Page 2 - Honda Pilot - Honda Pilot Forums

I have a Honda Odyssey, so my initial hunch was that it had to be a combination of the Galaxy S3 with the Honda bluetooth radio. Looks like some people had success moving to Jelly Bean and/or a different ROM. I'm anxious to see if getting JB on my phone fixes this. If not, I may give Cyanogenmod a try.

 

[hey_its_androo]

Hi

Sadly, I am not going to help solve this, but just add my weight to the scale of the problem.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Citroen C5.

I leave Bluetooth on all the time, as this is handiest for me. When I first got the phone, I paired it with the car without any problems. Now, whenever I get in the car and start the engine, the phone pairs with the car within around maybe 5 seconds. I don't need to do anything, it just happens, which is great!

The problem I have seems to be the same as what others are reporting here.

The phone always connects to the car via Bluetooth with both "Call audio" and "Media audio" checked.

This is NOT cool, since:

1) When the phone rings, I can't hear it. The phone is sending the ringtone to the car, but the car is busy playing the radio, CD or iPod (or is switched off) and so just ignores it. I almost always have the radio/etc switched on when driving, so that's a problem. Unless I feel the phone vibrating in my pocket (loud music can make that hard to detect), then I don't know there is a call and so miss answering it using the car controls. If I DO notice it vibrating, and answer via the car controls, then the call audio comes over the car speakers/microphone perfectly ... but it's far too hit and miss for my liking!

2) When I am using the Navigation software on the phone, I can't hear the directions. The reason is the same - the phone is expecting the car to do it, but the car's attention is elsewhere. I do this only occasionally, so this is less of a problem (on those few occasions I could go uncheck the "Media audio" option on the phone).

I can only uncheck "Media audio" when the phone is connected to the car. When I do, then it behaves well and stays like that while driving, but the next time I get in the car it automatically restores the "Media audio" setting to checked (which, as described above, causes me pain!).

I really can't be bothered changing the setting manually every time I get into the car, so if anyone can find a way that the "Media audio" setting can be remembered as (or restored to) unchecked then I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

I'd be even happier if the phone ringtone and navigation directions interrupted (over the car speakers) whatever is playing in the car at the time. Having read up on people's problems with this elsewhere, however, I think it is even less likely that someone will provide that solution!

 

[dmmattix]

First question is what are you using the listen to your music? I rarely listen to music, almost always podcasts and the BeyondPod application pauses the podcast when either a notification or phone call comes in. It resumes it after the call or notification is complete. So one answer might be to find one of the music players that plays well with notifications and BT phone calls.

A second option might be TecTiles. You can program these NFC tags from Samsung to configure a whole lot of options and I suspect (I have not tried it) that Bluetooth settings would be one of them. Anyone with TecTile experience can chime in.

Just a couple of possible solutions. I agree that the underlying BT functionality should be able to handle this but am unsure as to how it would. It would have to prioritize one BT stream over another and which one would it take? One could say that it is currently doing that but is just prioritizing the one you don't want...

Mike

 

[hey_its_androo]

Hi there

Thanks for the speedy and helpful response.

As I said in my posting, in the car I listen to radio, CD or iPod via the car's audio system, which is always on when I am driving.

Maybe 75% of the time is spent listening to local chat radio, and the rest pretty much playing music from my iPod (I rarely need to play an actual CD, so have only done that a few times).

I have around 140 GB of music. I can store ALL of it on my 160 GB iPod Classic (which is what I want, everything on one device - I don't want to have to keep refreshing a sub-set on a smaller device, or not having access to whatever I want from my entire collection all the time). My phone is nowhere near as capacious!

Streaming music from my phone via Bluetooth to the car audio system would anyway (I am sure) eat the battery charge. The iPod is connected in the car via USB, so always stays charged, and so that's hassle-free! My daily commute is maybe 2 hours, so that's an important consideration for me.

So, running some clever Android app is a cool idea, but isn't going to work for me.

Since I am only running the phone via Bluetooth, then there is no issue with two 'streams' competing for priority? If the phone needs to kick in (phone call ringtone, navigation direction, whatever), then the car audio should let it through (mine just ignores everything but the phone call, which is the problem).

I hadn't heard of TecTiles before, but will give that a look, and report back if it solves my problem. Thanks for the tip!

 

[hey_its_androo]

OK, just checked out the Samsung TecTile app ... big problem there, as it says "Samsung TecTile = US,Canada only" (I'm elsewhere)! Bummer! Thanks anyway, at least I now know what TecTiles are.

 

[dmmattix]

Sorry about that. I misunderstood the issue. I have an Infiniti and that system just interrupts the radio/music (not that I really ever listen to the radio but I do listens to music on the internal jukebox the system has) when a call comes in. I don't have to hear the ring because the Infiniti system just displays on the Entertainment System's screen that a call is coming in and who it is from.

So does your phone even have NFC? I have the US version so I am unsure. I will have to let someone who has the international version take it from here because the phones are different and so any suggestion stands a decent chance of not working for.

Mike

 

[hey_its_androo]

No worries, I appreciated your input.

Yes, I have NFC. I think the specs are pretty standard globally.

I guess that the real problem is the car not paying attention to the phone except for calls. However, given that my car works that way, and the S3 Bluetooth has an option to disable the media, it would be quite nice if the S3 remembered the desired setting.

Ho hum ... :-\

 

[woodslink]

One easy thing to try is an app named SoundAbout. It lets your route media where you want it. The pro version does the same for phone calls.

It allows you to route audio to Aux Digital, which is USB, Bluetooth, Wired Headset (with mic), Wired Headphones, Speaker...etc.

 

[GSDer]

As long as your phone has NFC capabilities any TecTiles and software to program them should work. I'd suggest a better alternative to the Samsung app:
NFC Task Launcher: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher - you can also purchase TecTiles from them.

Edit: looks like the SoundAbout app https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...droid.wiredheadphoneroutingfix&token=B_VWd88p is free, but the Pro version is required to manage Bluetooth connections ($2.99 - yow!)

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