Hi all,
I'm thinking about buying a cheap Bluetooth audio receiver to hook up to my home stereo. I'd like to be able to play music files on my Nexus and have them play on my stereo via Bluetooth but I'm concerned about range.
Is the Nexus Bluetooth class 1, 2, or 3? I'd like to be able to queue up music from anywhere in my house, but typically Bluetooth range is pathetic.
Wifi would be a great option for good range, but I know of no Wifi audio receivers except Apple Airport, and that only works with specific apps. (I'd like all Android OS audio to be transmitted to the receiver).
Another option I suppose would to be to buy a media player box running something like XBMC, and just use the Nexus as an XBMC remote control. but this seems like an expensive option just to play music.
Bluetooth range is good, but not the best I have seen.
I use mine as a telemetry display for a Quadcopter.
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ezio.multiwii)
If I fly down the street, I loose connection sooner than I did with my Archos 80 9G (Which was a pretty lousy tablet in most other ways), but the N7 (2013) has better range than other devices I have tried.
The play store states that it has Bluetooth 4.0:
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16gb_2013
scroll to Technical specifications
Thanks for the reply. Does your telemetry app only receive telemetry from the copter? Or can it also transmit to copter (control). I'm concerned with the transmit power, not it's receive sensitivity.
Bluetooth 4.0 indicates the version number but not the class. It's the class number that details the forward power of the transmitter. I can't find that spec anywhere.
Obveron said:
Thanks for the reply. Does your telemetry app only receive telemetry from the copter? Or can it also transmit to copter (control). I'm concerned with the transmit power, not it's receive sensitivity.
Bluetooth 4.0 indicates the version number but not the class. It's the class number that details the forward power of the transmitter. I can't find that spec anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Nexus 7 is a Bluetooth class 2 device. Class 2 Bluetooth, as I'm sure you know, has a range of ~10 meters, or ~30 feet.
EDIT:
Hold on, don't quote me on the class. I'm pretty sure, but can't find a reliable source.
Johmama said:
The Nexus 7 is a Bluetooth class 2 device. Class 2 Bluetooth, as I'm sure you know, has a range of ~10 meters, or ~30 feet.
EDIT:
Hold on, don't quote me on the class. I'm pretty sure, but can't find a reliable source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply Johmama. I also can't find on a source on that, but I agree Class 2 is good bet. Alas, that's not enough range for my purposes. Looks like I'll be looking for another solution.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
If the Nexus is generating the audio and streaming it to a receiver, the only thing I know that can do that over Wifi is Apple Airport or Google Chromecast, both are limited to working on specific apps (unlike bluetooth audio that is intergrated into the system audio driver).
If the nexus is merely acting as a Wifi remote control to a set top box playing music, I'd need the nexus to be able to view and manage the library, and playlist. I think XBMC remote can do this.
I also think there are tablet remotes for WDTV live. Although I don't think you can manage the library from the tablet.
BTW my music library is on my NAS, accessible through SMB shares.
There are a bazillion plugins for android for most media players/suites from VLC to Windows Media centre to XBMC to spotify etc. just check whether there's one that works with whatever software you're running.
I've also done the bluetooth streaming to PC trick before but found it an inferior solution as I can hold a much larger music library on the PC, and for some reason I couldn't get it to auto pair, had to manually connect each time. Since I can run any choice of media player + spotify on the loungeroom PC it was a no brainer, I much prefer the nexus as a remote control than actually the one doing the streaming (also saves battery). Finally using it as a remote means you can setup the same solution from your phone, partner's devices etc.
Just get a cheap bluetooth dongle and enjoy. I destroyed the headphone jack in my razr maxx hd and use bluetooth exclusively for any audio connections.
yeah, you're limited to about 30ft, but so what? If ya gotta be 30+ft from the stereo, you're likely doing something that won't have you interacting with the tablet anyway.
if worse comes to worse, use a cat-5 audio extender balun and add jacks in your house for the bluetooth dongle.
either that or buy an old WDTV box, use its optical digital audio output and remotely control it from the web interface (after installing WDlxTV firmware)
that stupid little $79 box is the greatest piece of home entertainment hardware I've ever purchased. not only can it stream 1080p over my network, but it also downloads and seeds torrents, runs a fileserver and SSH remote access so I can tap into it anywhere on the freakin planet (provided I have a decent internet connection at the other end)
You've got a problem? there is ALWAYS some hackable embedded linux device that can provide a cheap solution.
Thanks for the replies. 30ft bluetooth range is not enough. I have my audio system powering speakers all over the house and backyard.
wintermute000 said:
There are a bazillion plugins for android for most media players/suites from VLC to Windows Media centre to XBMC to spotify etc. just check whether there's one that works with whatever software you're running.
I've also done the bluetooth streaming to PC trick before but found it an inferior solution as I can hold a much larger music library on the PC, and for some reason I couldn't get it to auto pair, had to manually connect each time. Since I can run any choice of media player + spotify on the loungeroom PC it was a no brainer, I much prefer the nexus as a remote control than actually the one doing the streaming (also saves battery). Finally using it as a remote means you can setup the same solution from your phone, partner's devices etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi wintermute000, thanks for the suggestion. I currently don't have a HTPC hooked up to my home stereo, but that might be my best option. Do any music players for PC allow complete library browsing completely from their associated apps, or do the remotes only control playback?
I was hoping to attach a cheap box like wdtv or something that could access my music on the SMB shares on my NAS, While using an Android remote control for that device that can browse and queue songs from the library on the NAS. I've read that the XBMC remote app has the ability to browse the library, but I've heard its library browsing is buggy and I don't know if the app will see my SMB shares on the NAS.
Cheapxj said:
either that or buy an old WDTV box, use its optical digital audio output and remotely control it from the web interface (after installing WDlxTV firmware)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheapxj, I did some digging and discovered that the smartphone app for WDTV cannot navigate through my music library (stored on my NAS). It can control playback but I can't browse and queue songs and albums directly from the app (needs the help of the TV).
Is this also the case with the WDLxTV firmware. and the web interface?
Obveron said:
Thanks for the replies. 30ft bluetooth range is not enough. I have my audio system powering speakers all over the house and backyard.
Hi wintermute000, thanks for the suggestion. I currently don't have a HTPC hooked up to my home stereo, but that might be my best option. Do any music players for PC allow complete library browsing completely from their associated apps, or do the remotes only control playback?
I was hoping to attach a cheap box like wdtv or something that could access my music on the SMB shares on my NAS, While using an Android remote control for that device that can browse and queue songs from the library on the NAS. I've read that the XBMC remote app has the ability to browse the library, but I've heard its library browsing is buggy and I don't know if the app will see my SMB shares on the NAS.
Cheapxj, I did some digging and discovered that the smartphone app for WDTV cannot navigate through my music library (stored on my NAS). It can control playback but I can't browse and queue songs and albums directly from the app (needs the help of the TV).
Is this also the case with the WDLxTV firmware. and the web interface?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've run the itunes plugin for mediamonkey and it behaves exactly like itunes including library.
Spotimote lets me browse my spotify playlists normally too.
finally there is always itunes
Related
Is there anyway to have access to the music on your computer hdd with your EVO using 3G or WIFI? 8-32 GB is not enough to store a real music library IMO, and it's an inconvenience to have to constantly swap music in and out. It would be cool if a program would allow you to navigate through your computer's music in a similar way to if it were directly on the MicroSD and if playback to the EVO could be achieved with little or no quality loss.
Does anyone know if this is something that can be currently done or is this even possible at all?
if you have good upload bandwidth at home, you could use orb (not free).
if you happen to have a netgear readynas, there is a new addon that can transcode (audio/video) on the fly and stream directly from your nas.
Personally I just use last.fm to stream (or pandora depending on my mood).
try googling online media library or something. I am sure there is an app that is built for something to that effect. Or depending on how frisky you are, you could build a simple file sharing website w/ password protection.
google bought simplify media awhile back, hopefully they will re-release under 'google media' or something similar for android media streaming.
I have been using g-mote on my EVO and it works pretty well. You have to know your outside IP address and need to forward the ports for g-mote server to your internal IP. It is in beta and it crashes every once in a while but seems to work well for me.
Edit: If you search for gmote on the market, it is called Gmote 2.0 made my Marc Stogaitis & Mimi Sun. It is also a cool way to use your phone to control music and movies on your computer and use your phone as a touchpad for your computer.
I use Orb Live, works great for Audio. I read bad reviews about video streaming but, I don't do that so I don't know.
There's a mac and windows server.
Wow...Orb Live is much better that gmote, just installed. $9.99 on the Market and worth every penny. Is taking a long time to index my 85,000+ songs though.
OK Peeps,
Someone in Coolexe’s rom thread asked me what DLNA was and how to use it. As I couldn’t point them straight to a guide I thought I’d better write one. Plus I’m sure some of you don’t even know what it is!
From Wikipedia:
DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network.
So what can I use my Desire for in the world of DLNA?
1. Stream movies you have stored on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
2. Stream music you have stored on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
3. Show pictures you’ve taken on your phone wirelessly to a DLNA compatible TV/device
4. Stream movies/music/pictures wirelessly from a DLNA compatible device to you phone
Before I go into details about using DLNA I’ll give you a quick overview of what kit I’ve got that makes it all possible. Firstly, I’ve got a Synology NAS which is DLNA compatible (other brands exist!) and stores all my media files. Secondly I’ve got a Windows Media Centre 7 PC hooked up to my main TV. And thirdly a HTC Desire, this must be running a Gingerbread rom with Sense. I mostly use Robo’s roms which have been working a treat but have been trying out some others recently but with mixed results, hopefully we can get these issues ironed out though.
So to be able to send media to my TV the first thing I need to do is turn on media streaming in Media Player. Hit the Stream button and choose Turn On Media Streaming. The default settings are fine so you can keep them. Next hit the Stream button again and choose Allow Remote Control Of My Player. Now you need to grab you Desire, make sure it’s connected to you WLAN and from the Apps menu click on Connected Media and choose the type of media you want to send. You should then be prompted to select the player, choose the player you’ve just setup in Windows. If you’re not prompted there’s a little button in the bottom right, just above the full volume icon, click it. Bingo, your chosen media will then be streamed to the computer and in my case the TV that’s connected to it.
Next up the more exciting bit, and the bit I use the most, streaming from my NAS to my Desire. Different NAS boxes will have different ways to enable DLNA but on my Synology it was just a matter of clicking on the box that turns that feature on and storing media in the shares it created. On your phone in the Apps menu choose the Video app. Click the button in the bottom left, the one with 3 parallel lines, you should end up at the Albums menu. Scroll along the strip at the bottom to Connected Media where it should search you network a DLAN devices. Select the device you want to stream from and you’ll be present with the DLNA folders on you NAS. Drill in through the folders to the movie or music you want played on your Desire, kick back and enjoy!
Over the weekend I’ll try and get some screen shots added, pictures say a millions words, and see if I can reword the guide to make it simpler to follow. Just wanted to get something up quick to help a fellow member out.
Reserved reserved
nicely explaned, thanks for the tuto,
i've just checked my tv, i think i might need an RS lead or something to connect it to my laptop, problem is tv is too far from where the lapy is, but i got another solution , my satellite box (spiderbox) can be setup as a home stream server,did it from this guide http://cccam-exchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=211&t=509 it has got that feature cos i've set it up and connected already to an external server to watch the europeen leagues footie it's plugged to BT Hub, i think all i need is a wifi bridge to the sat box to save me putting the laptop by the tv, as i'm using it,don't want a long lead,gets in the way , i'll do bit of reading on that, to set it up and see when get time.
however i did plug the phone to sat box via usb (mounted), (satbox is PVR ready) , accesed the whole sd card content.using the satbox remote ,never knew that before till when this DLNA subject popped up, opened up a new feature for me.
cheers.
What ROM are you using to do this? as the video's app is not on my MIUI version?
voodooboy3000 said:
What ROM are you using to do this? as the video's app is not on my MIUI version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Robos latest test rom. Its got to be running gingerbread and sense.
Sent from my HTC Desire
Video resolution is low. And i guess VLC stream & convert is more suited to me. So i'll mainly use this for audio. Thanks for the solution. Easiest method that I found to stream music from my computer to my phone.
This is something I need to look into.
A 500gb, battery powered, portable hdd with built in wifi. Plus it can also stream media.
Naturally I could choose to use my pc at home as a remote server, but it would have to remain powered on, takes time to setup ports, access rights & streaming can really lag.
Drawback for now at least, you can't reverse transfer files back to the hard drive via its built in wifi. Not a deal breaker if you ask me.
The GoFlex Satellite Wi-Fi connection can be protected with a password & WPA-level security.
It is capable of streaming in HD, up to 10Megabits per second data rate, but some devices may not support High Definition formatted videos.
And in case you're wondering:
Can I play files from my GoFlex Satellite to my Android phone or tablet?
Yes, files can be played back via the Wi-Fi capability. Videos in the formats that are compatible with the Android device can be played back using the default browser (Webkit). Unsupported video formats can be played back using third-party media players. If all your videos just download rather than play, try installing a more robust media player app. The Seagate app can be found on the Android Market.
A 500gb drive can be had on Amazon for about $173.
Any opinions or experiences with this device?
http://www.viddler.com/explore/GetConnectedTV/videos/297/
I have two that I mainly use with my iPad. The Seagate software isn't the best but they are working on it. I am a beta tester and they're starting to focus more on Android so that's good but if you're looking to stream video, there are a few DLNA players out there that are better at it. You can also hack the drives with custom firmware too.
Agreed about Seagate, and good to know that they are working on it.
If this is something you're interested in and you're ready to buy today there's a promo code available at Newegg that reduces this to $129.99 (code expires 1/8/12).
Newegg price: $173.99
promo code: -$44.00
Net price: $129.99
Promo code is STX44US and the direct link to Newegg is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148755
$129.99 is a good deal, I got mine at Best Buy for $180. They stream to anything that can access wifi. I used one of them to stream to my friends TV to watch a marathon of the old Twilight Zone episodes on New Years day. The drive lasted just under 6 hours before needing to be charged.
Magicspell said:
If this is something you're interested in and you're ready to buy today there's a promo code available at Newegg that reduces this to $129.99 (code expires 1/8/12).
Newegg price: $173.99
promo code: -$44.00
Net price: $129.99
Promo code is STX44US and the direct link to Newegg is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148755
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank-you much. Just ordered one. I've been browsing several forums & by far the biggest complaint is the front end user UI. As long as I can get it to play vids out the box with no problems then I'll be okay.
A site you might want to check out when you get your drive:
http://www.hackseagatesatellite.com
It's not for everyone but it can be useful and the people there are pretty responsive.
I have tried the seagatein the past not the battery powered one but the regular NAS device. I found it to be very slow to upload or download form. I switched over to the WD mybook live. And I am not trying to flame or start some crap just giving my experience it did work but was slow. I also ran into issues with my Blueray not being able to read some content. This may have been the blue rays problem but I havn't seen as many issues with the WD. However all that having been said WD not have a bettery or wfi enabled device I am aware of it has an ethernet port that you connect straight to your router.
arsmithsr said:
I have tried the seagatein the past not the battery powered one but the regular NAS device. I found it to be very slow to upload or download form. I switched over to the WD mybook live. And I am not trying to flame or start some crap just giving my experience it did work but was slow. I also ran into issues with my Blueray not being able to read some content. This may have been the blue rays problem but I havn't seen as many issues with the WD. However all that having been said WD not have a bettery or wfi enabled device I am aware of it has an ethernet port that you connect straight to your router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Appreciate the input. The only other portable wifi drive out there that I know of is the Kingston Wi-Drive. From the plus side this device has an SSD & the UI is much better. The downside is that it only comes in 16gb & 32gb capacities.
I'll keep y'all (I'm from Texas ) posted on how it turns out.
Crap! Any chance of a new coupon? I would have bought it for that price !
OK, I just paid the premium and bought one at Best Buy when I was in the city today. I also paid for the hack posted above. It's charging tonight and I'm going to start messing with it tomorrow. I'll post updates as I go along.
Perfect: The Wi-Fi HDD + Seagate Media app. + MX Player works as expected on my E4GT.
However on my Win 7 tablet (ExoPc) I can only play videos within a browser (Opera) as no such Seagate Media UI app exists for Windows. The problem with watching a video within a web browser is lack of media controls (vol +/-, play, pause, stop etc. etc.)
If anyone with this device knows how to get it to open up within a 3rd party media player on Win 7 after selecting the video within the web UI can you please share how it's done.
subcypher said:
OK, I just paid the premium and bought one at Best Buy when I was in the city today. I also paid for the hack posted above. It's charging tonight and I'm going to start messing with it tomorrow. I'll post updates as I go along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about purchasing the hack myself, but wanted to test the device out first to see if I actually want to hold onto it or return it.
I can say that while watching a movie, its dropped its connection 3x & restarted the video accordingly from the beginning.
I had to fst fwd>> to the previous spot I left off at. No big deal as of yet, but if it keeps doing it then returning it will be more likely.
I'll stay updated with your replies & see if the hack omits some of the inherent problems I'm having. If so then I'll invest in the hack.
EL TEJANO said:
Perfect: The Wi-Fi HDD + Seagate Media app. + MX Player works as expected on my E4GT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the same experience though I wish the Seagate app would allow you to choose which media player to use to play the media. I've actually found I prefer the media player used when using the phone's browser over the player invoked with the Seagate app...
EL TEJANO said:
However on my Win 7 tablet (ExoPc) I can only play videos within a browser (Opera) as no such Seagate Media UI app exists for Windows. The problem with watching a video within a web browser is lack of media controls (vol +/-, play, pause, stop etc. etc.)
If anyone with this device knows how to get it to open up within a 3rd party media player on Win 7 after selecting the video within the web UI can you please share how it's done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried with my tablet yet, but I did try with my Win 7 laptop. The experience was a bit more frustrating to start. When I accessed the Seagate Go Flex (via IE or Firefox) it appeared to only directly play certain media files (for example it played .mp4 files but wouldn't directly play .m2ts files). I tried associating .m2ts files with WMP as well as VLC but in either case when I selected that file rather than it starting to play it would start to download the file to my laptop.
I then simply renamed the .m2ts extension to .mp4 (didn't recode the contents) and then when I selected the file it played directly in WMP. If I tried to change the player associated with .mp4 files (to VLC, for example) then the file would not directly play but again began to download. Changing the .mp4 association back to WMP did allow the media to play directly when selected through the browser interface.
Overall, I think I can live with these limitations though maybe the hack noted earlier will allow me more flexibility. I'll have to research that part.
Well at first the MX Player was working fine on my phone, then I noticed that the streaming videos would stop & then start from the beginning in a continous loop. WTH!!!
I figured okay let me reinstall the latest firmware, defrag & do a system file check to see if that works. When I tried to play my streaming content once more within MX Player the same thing happened. I figured okay it must be the app then.
So I downloaded Buzz Player & to my surprise this app has the option to connect to Network Media; when selecting that option my stored audio & video files show up within the player. Which is nice because now I don't have to use the Seagate Media app. What's even better is no freezing or restarting.
All in all the Seagate Satellite is a nice device but Seagate really (& I mean really) needs to work on their UI as well as open up some features & options.
In regards to my Win 7 tablet: Are there any windows based media players that can detect the wifi signal off my Seagate Satellite & display the directory much like Buzz Player does in Android?
I purchased this drive and the hack. I actually did the work the other day to hack it. It's fairly simple.
First, they have you download an ISO. I'm not sure why they do that, as they use it as a ZIP or RAR file. It's an archive you open and load the two files inside onto the drive. I was able to do this in Linux very easily.
Second, you use your wireless connection to talk to the drive and then use Telnet to see the files in a command line. Then you use the command line to run a file. I did all this from my phone using Better Terminal Emulator Pro, but I'm guessing the regular Terminal Emulator will work.
After the script ran, the thing rebooted. I used their videos to clean up the drive (remove the Seagate stuff and clean up the directory structure), then set up the authentication, web service and Samba. Again, all this was done through the browser on my phone because I was watching the videos on my laptop.
I was able to connect to the drive from my phone and browse the file system. I was also able to stream a few songs (no movies on my drive yet) without issue. I also used ES Flie Explorer to browse the drive through Samba and that worked very well. I was also able to stream music through that file system using whatever program I wanted to use that was on my phone.
The only problem I have is that I can't see the file system and have a data connection to the world at the same time. Perhaps this drive might be better if the connection were Bluetooth, but I really don't see why I'd need both at the same time to be honest. It's more like a "could be better" kind of thing. That being said, with the hack you can have the drive connect to a wireless network and then connect to that wireless network yourself. Once that's done you can see both, I believe. I just have not tried it myself yet.
I would highly recommend this product. I'm kind of sad I didn't get it at the $130 price mentioned before, but even at the $240 I have in it, I'm very happy with my purchase.
So yeah after thinking about it & realizing how I'll be utilizing this device, I think I'll forego the hack. But only because I really don't see myself utilizing the features. As convenient as it is to watch movies on my phone, the experience of watching movies on such a small screen, is to say the least, not really much of an experience. Though occasionally when lying in bed I'll grab my phone to watch a flick as I have the Seagate drive on standby mode.
In regards to using this with my Win 7 ExoPc tablet: Windows Media Player was able to detect and display the files on this HDD via wifi, I just had to download the proper codecs to get it to recognize .flv, .avi & .mkv video extensions. The screen on this tablet is 11.6 inches so it makes the experience somewhat more enjoyable.
Having to switch wifi clients back & forth, though cumbersome, is not really much of a deal breaker either. Hopefully in the future Seagate will address such issues with whatever firmware update they push-out (if they push it out).
Since Sonos does not support Google Music I decided to undergo my own project using my Note 2. My house is already wired for sound with multiple speakers in most rooms attached to either HTPC's or audio receivers. So my goal here was to use my Note 2 to stream Google music to the rooms that I was in and have that music follow me around similar to the Sonos setup. I have found that inexpensive Bluetooth dongles attached to my audio receivers in strategically positioned areas allow me to connect and disconnect to the appropriate speakers automatically while I am moving from room to room. For the rooms without any previous audio, I have added some small high quality speakers with a mini amplifier attached to the dongle. So for less than $100 I can have music anywhere. This is an extremely inexpensive alternative to Sonos with 80% of the Sonos functionality at a fraction of the cost. Now anything that I can play on my phone I can push to the nearby speakers. This also allows my wife and her phone to do the same thing in different parts of the house. Further customization with NFC tags and Tasker makes it a no brainer over Sonos.
That said, here is the only annoying part of this project. I have tried everything to get my Note 2 (SGH-T889) to connect to my HTPC's running Windows 7 prof edition. There seems to be a lack of drivers for this phone and I have tried all of the previous work arounds in other threads but keep getting "Bluetooth Peripheral Device driver error". I can pair the device but the lack of driver support has prevented me from streaming directly to my HTPC's. I have attached another Bluetooth dongle to the HTPC speakers as a workaround but would really like to stream directly into the computer.
Has anyone successfully connected the Note 2 (SGH-T889) to a Windows 7 64bit machine and streamed audio over Bluetooth to the pc???
32str8 said:
Since Sonos does not support Google Music I decided to undergo my own project using my Note 2. My house is already wired for sound with multiple speakers in most rooms attached to either HTPC's or audio receivers. So my goal here was to use my Note 2 to stream Google music to the rooms that I was in and have that music follow me around similar to the Sonos setup. I have found that inexpensive Bluetooth dongles attached to my audio receivers in strategically positioned areas allow me to connect and disconnect to the appropriate speakers automatically while I am moving from room to room. For the rooms without any previous audio, I have added some small high quality speakers with a mini amplifier attached to the dongle. So for less than $100 I can have music anywhere. This is an extremely inexpensive alternative to Sonos with 80% of the Sonos functionality at a fraction of the cost. Now anything that I can play on my phone I can push to the nearby speakers. This also allows my wife and her phone to do the same thing in different parts of the house. Further customization with NFC tags and Tasker makes it a no brainer over Sonos.
That said, here is the only annoying part of this project. I have tried everything to get my Note 2 (SGH-T889) to connect to my HTPC's running Windows 7 prof edition. There seems to be a lack of drivers for this phone and I have tried all of the previous work arounds in other threads but keep getting "Bluetooth Peripheral Device driver error". I can pair the device but the lack of driver support has prevented me from streaming directly to my HTPC's. I have attached another Bluetooth dongle to the HTPC speakers as a workaround but would really like to stream directly into the computer.
Has anyone successfully connected the Note 2 (SGH-T889) to a Windows 7 64bit machine and streamed audio over Bluetooth to the pc???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I have not tried connecting the note 2 to a windows 7 desktop. I am using the squeezebox system to connect the entire house sound system. I am not familiar with the sonos, The cost of the sonos made not to venture into this system. I have a squeezebox duet system in the garage, I got just squeezebox duet receivers in 2 rooms and the music room has the squeezebox touch system. The home server has all the music serving the different squeezebox system. the note 2 has the squeezebox controller app in it. It has also the squeezeplayer app in the note2, this app makes the note 2 of any android device act as player. This allows you to stream the music directly into your note 2. The squeezebox system has the wire and wireless option to connect. I prefer the wired connection inside the house. while the squeezebox in the garage is connected wirelessly.
tomasitoc said:
Although I have not tried connecting the note 2 to a windows 7 desktop. I am using the squeezebox system to connect the entire house sound system. I am not familiar with the sonos, The cost of the sonos made not to venture into this system. I have a squeezebox duet system in the garage, I got just squeezebox duet receivers in 2 rooms and the music room has the squeezebox touch system. The home server has all the music serving the different squeezebox system. the note 2 has the squeezebox controller app in it. It has also the squeezeplayer app in the note2, this app makes the note 2 of any android device act as player. This allows you to stream the music directly into your note 2. The squeezebox system has the wire and wireless option to connect. I prefer the wired connection inside the house. while the squeezebox in the garage is connected wirelessly.
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Click to collapse
My understanding is that Squeezebox like Sonos is not Google music compatible yet. I can already access my music via a NAS but my goal with this system is to be able to stream all my music via the Google music app on my phone thus making my phone the data source. Since bluetooth is ubiquitous, making my phone the source allows me greater flexibility and portability. By bringing a simple bluetooth dongle and a 3" cable I can connect the dongle to any aux port on any music setup (home, car, radio) and stream my music. This also makes it exceptionally easy to listen to friends music collections by having them pair up their phones to the dongle.
Still wondering if anyone has been able to connect the Note 2 to a windows 7 64 bit pc via bluetooth. This is the last piece of the puzzle and I'm hoping someone finally finds a workaround or the the appropriate drivers. The generic windows drivers don't seem to work and the manual alternatives that have been posted to work with other phones have not worked either.
32str8 said:
My understanding is that Squeezebox like Sonos is not Google music compatible yet. I can already access my music via a NAS but my goal with this system is to be able to stream all my music via the Google music app on my phone thus making my phone the data source. Since bluetooth is ubiquitous, making my phone the source allows me greater flexibility and portability. By bringing a simple bluetooth dongle and a 3" cable I can connect the dongle to any aux port on any music setup (home, car, radio) and stream my music. This also makes it exceptionally easy to listen to friends music collections by having them pair up their phones to the dongle.
Still wondering if anyone has been able to connect the Note 2 to a windows 7 64 bit pc via bluetooth. This is the last piece of the puzzle and I'm hoping someone finally finds a workaround or the the appropriate drivers. The generic windows drivers don't seem to work and the manual alternatives that have been posted to work with other phones have not worked either.
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Click to collapse
Have you tried bubblesoft's Bubble uPnP on android market. Google music does work with it and it costs $5 or so. However, it was having trouble playing songs from playlist that were added from sdcard. I am in touch with the developer and am going to ask for a refund if he can't make this basic functionality work. It could have to do something with his latest release.
gaurav_verma22 said:
Have you tried bubblesoft's Bubble uPnP on android market. Google music does work with it and it costs $5 or so. However, it was having trouble playing songs from playlist that were added from sdcard. I am in touch with the developer and am going to ask for a refund if he can't make this basic functionality work. It could have to do something with his latest release.
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Click to collapse
Chromcast has solved my google music to mediacenter/HTPC issue. I still use the bluetooth dongle for stand alone audio situations like a car or portable radio system due to the ease of connection through an input jack. You can also use this with a chromecast for audio only: http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digita...IQER0E/ref=pd_sim_e_3?tag=androidcentral00-20
I tried looking up this device on xda, but nothing yet, so i thought i'd post here first.
since it uses an audio jack, do you guys think you could plug this into your cars aux port, and stream using your phone? or is it dependent on wifi only?
It is wifi, not bluetooth. Might work in guest mode. I'm very interested in the device, but want to use if for DLNA streaming from my home server if at all possible.
Hi,
It also has dual output connector: analog 3.5 jack and optical spdif... equal to Apple Airport Express.
Anybody see if it has native FLAC support? I haven't found an answer to that yet. This may be a device I just have to buy and try...
Note10.1Dude said:
Anybody see if it has native FLAC support? I haven't found an answer to that yet. This may be a device I just have to buy and try...
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Yeah I'm still waiting for an answer as to if it supports 320kbps for high quality streaming from spotify. That would be the main advantage of it over a bluetooth receiver.
I'd love to know if it does support that if anyone can find out!
FLAC is listed as supported media for google cast, so it SHOULD work.
https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media
does anybody have any idea if Chromecast Audio would work as a car audio solution? I tried using a 1st Gen Chromecast but ran into the issue of the device's requiring an actual internet connection (not simply a wifi connection). My guess is that Chromecast Audio will similarly require an internet connection, but am wondering if there is a workaround?
mcnoggin said:
does anybody have any idea if Chromecast Audio would work as a car audio solution? I tried using a 1st Gen Chromecast but ran into the issue of the device's requiring an actual internet connection (not simply a wifi connection). My guess is that Chromecast Audio will similarly require an internet connection, but am wondering if there is a workaround?
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A lot of talk, no conclusion about this yet. Some suggest tethering the phone should work. I've got one on order, should know next week.
cool, let us know! =]
I am working on getting mine to work in my car today. I bought it yesterday and didn't have much time to mess with it. I had it working as I tethered through my phone and using my gfs phone to play music but I'm going to see if I can get it to work without tether.
Got it working but not perfect
So the main thing is IT WORKS!!
Its just buggy getting it started but after that it plays fine for the whole ride. Here is what I did (notice: must have working tether on your phone to get it to work)
I am running a nexus 6 with Chroma ROM. Also I'm using Spotify to play my music.
Steps I did to try to get it working.
1. I first went through the setup process on my gf galaxy s5 and updated the chromecast through my tether.
2. I hooked everything up in my car.
3. Turned on my phones WiFi and press the button on the Chromecast first and then connect to the WiFi that my Chromecast gives out.
4. Then open the Chromecast app and make sure it sees it. (Mine still says it needs to be setup even though it already is. Don't worry about that)
5. Open Spotify and in the devices area it should say nearby cast or something like that. Try to connect and it will ask for a pin. Ignore that and hit cancel.
6. Then turn on your hotspot on your phone. It will then show your Chromecast name correctly in Spotify and you can connect and play music. (Must leave your tether on)
All in all I got it working without having a separate wireless connection to connect both of them and have audio playing through my car audio. I tried it twice now and it has worked.
Also the Chromecast app will not show its connected even though you're playing music through it. I have a screenshot of it at the bottom.
Nice - I have a ground-loop issue in my car and can't charge my phone the same time it is plugged into the stereo - this might solve that. I'm using mine to add streaming to a bedroom system, but if I like it, I may replace the streamer box on the home stereo, which cuts out on FLAC from time to time.
UPDATE: you do not have to go through all those steps everytime. I've tested further and found that it is much easier.
After you already have it setup in your car, to connect do these steps:
1. Turn on your phones WiFi and connect to your Chromecast audio.
2.After a few seconds turn your hotspot on(do not turn off the WiFi at any time).
3. After a few seconds Spotify will see your device and work perfectly.
OK,
I have had my Chromecast Audio working for the last day. I am using it with BubbleUpNP to stream audio of of my DLNA server on my home network. Working well, more reliable than the Soundmate that I was using. Going to order a micro-toslink SPDIF cable to use my on DAC. It isn't a DLNA renderer, so it won't work with software that is expecting UPNP/DLNA, but BubbleUpNP is working well.
I got one of these today, and the Hardware is really nice. It has a decent DAC, good WiFi, Dual (Analogue, Optical) output, so all good on that front. It also plays 24bit 192K FLAC from Qobuz without trouble. You should however make sure to turn the "High Dynamic Range" setting on in the CC app!
However, I don't like the way it's handled. I'm used to running Logitech Media Server with am Odroid U3 as Server and a couple of Raspberry Pi units with Hifiberry DAC/Digi/Amp addon boards, and with that setup starting music in the mornings is easy. I turn on the power, and that's it, after the Pi has booted, the music starts playing, choosing the last Playlist or Webradio Station I used when I turned it off. No need to even touch my phone.
With Chromecast I have to jump through a lot of hoops to actually get it playing any music, and that's it's biggest failure IMHO. It won't automatically reconnect, it won't resume playing where it left off, it's basically just a better kind of BT dongle (using Wifi instead of BT).
This is a huge waste of potential! Sadly, I cannot use this neat piece of Hardware with Logitech Media Server, because it doesn't work as a DLNA Renderer, and LMS can't cast to Chromecast (since that only works from Android/iOS/Chrome OS).
So, while this COULD be great, it's currently badly underachieving. Maybe someone will work out a way to fix this by rooting CC and installing Squeezelite on it, of by some other means. There is always hope!
CommanderROR said:
I got one of these today, and the Hardware is really nice. It has a decent DAC, good WiFi, Dual (Analogue, Optical) output, so all good on that front. It also plays 24bit 192K FLAC from Qobuz without trouble. You should however make sure to turn the "High Dynamic Range" setting on in the CC app!
However, I don't like the way it's handled. I'm used to running Logitech Media Server with am Odroid U3 as Server and a couple of Raspberry Pi units with Hifiberry DAC/Digi/Amp addon boards, and with that setup starting music in the mornings is easy. I turn on the power, and that's it, after the Pi has booted, the music starts playing, choosing the last Playlist or Webradio Station I used when I turned it off. No need to even touch my phone.
With Chromecast I have to jump through a lot of hoops to actually get it playing any music, and that's it's biggest failure IMHO. It won't automatically reconnect, it won't resume playing where it left off, it's basically just a better kind of BT dongle (using Wifi instead of BT).
This is a huge waste of potential! Sadly, I cannot use this neat piece of Hardware with Logitech Media Server, because it doesn't work as a DLNA Renderer, and LMS can't cast to Chromecast (since that only works from Android/iOS/Chrome OS).
So, while this COULD be great, it's currently badly underachieving. Maybe someone will work out a way to fix this by rooting CC and installing Squeezelite on it, of by some other means. There is always hope!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use it with your DLNA server, but you need to manage the Chromecast with BubbleUpNP on your phone. Not perfect, but more stable than the renderer that I was using.
I got mine yesterday and I must say that I am very happy with it. One thing though, when I play music via YouTube (via casting screen/audio in the CC app) the sound volume is really low. It is much higher when I play music via Spotify. Is there a way to boost the output from the phone? I tried the hardware buttons of course
Workaround for the Volume being too low: Use a cast-native app like Spotify to crank up the Volume.
CommanderROR said:
it's basically just a better kind of BT dongle (using Wifi instead of BT).
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Click to collapse
Yes, I see your point, but IMHO it's more than just a WiFi equivalent of a BT adaptor because, whilst you CAN stream from your device/locally with the right app, most "standard/consumer" use cases have the Chromecast streaming content direct from the Internet which is controlled by the app in your device. Your device doesn't do the streaming, saving power, you don't have to stay in range, etc. If I start steaming using Spotify as the app, for example, the Chromecast will continue playing my playlist even if I close Spotify on my device.
True. However, it still lacks a lot of features other multiroom systems offer. This little dingle has loads of potential, but Google will have to work hard to make it shine...