Android apps with A2DP playback control for Bluetooth stereos?

[jnshk]

On my old (non-smartphone) phone, I could play files from my phone through the car stereo over bluetooth and it had minimal controls (play/pause, skip forward, skip back), but the default music player on my new smartphone only enables streaming and not playback control.

Anyone here got an android phone and a bluetooth stereo that supports streaming playback? What music player app are you using to play/control music from your phone?

[kung fu jesus]

I have installed the JVC KD-X50BT in two of my cars in the past 8 months. It is about $90-100, sometimes less if you can find a discount code for Crutchfield. For the price, I think it's awesome. You can steam Pandora or playback from your Android or iPhone. JVC offers an app for it, too, so you can swipe your phone's screen to FF/RW and the phone displays the song info. The face has brightness and color options to match your interior lights. The app works ok. The phone mic that comes with the radio works fantastic! In my heavily modified Miata, people who called could hear me fine without me shouting over the noise of the car. I am not an audiophile, but this head unit works really very well for the price. There are other versions available that cost more.

[jnshk]

Yeah, I've already got the headunit (Kenwood DNX6990HD) which works great with bluetooth and streaming. The problem is that I want to stream my mp3s which are loaded on the phone's SD card through the car speakers. With my old phone, when you started streaming music from the phone, the headunit would display a Play/Pause button and Skip FW/BW buttons. The music app that comes preinstalled on my Samsung smartphone will stream music beautifully (much better quality than the previous phone), however it does not allow the stereo to display the controls on the headunit. You still have to unlock the screen and skip tracks or pause directly from the phone. I know that there are some music player apps out there which do allow the headunit to control playback, so that I wouldn't have to unlock the phone while driving in order to change songs or pause the music (which is too cumbersome to be useful to me).

I'm probably in the minority of people who would rather load songs onto the phone and play their own collection (in part because I've got weak/poor cell signal until Sprint finished upgrading its network throughout the coming year) rather than streaming via Pandora or Aha or IHeartRadio, but I was hoping someone had some experience with a traditional music player app or two that they could share.

[kung fu jesus]

Ah, that makes more sense.

I can't name an app to help you with that. Maybe the controls and unlock issues are with the settings on the phone?

I will say that waiting for Sprint to "upgrade their network" will never happen. Unlimited data is meaningless if the network doesn't have the coverage or speed to do what other networks do. Even in SOCAL, the Sprint network was extremely poor and I needed a signal booster connected to my cable to even get a signal in my home...in IRVINE. I rarely had a 4G signal and even when I did, a colleague's 3G signal with AT&T tested faster in upload and download.

Sorry for the rant.

[Agent☣Orange]

I can't think of an app either but there are so many, something's bound to work. I'm not a big fan of streaming over Bluetooth in a car because it's one more device I have deal with every time I get in the car and when it works, it's a low-FI signal.

I got the fancy ipud cable for my Kenwood and stuck a dedicated ipud in the center console. Much better sounding than streaming over bluetooth and ability to control from the deck. 160gb worth of music is a lot to mess with but playlists made it a little easier.

In the end, I just put my favorite 100 tunes on an SD card and stick it inside the stereo.

[jnshk]

Ah, that makes more sense.

I can't name an app to help you with that. Maybe the controls and unlock issues are with the settings on the phone?

I will say that waiting for Sprint to "upgrade their network" will never happen. Unlimited data is meaningless if the network doesn't have the coverage or speed to do what other networks do. Even in SOCAL, the Sprint network was extremely poor and I needed a signal booster connected to my cable to even get a signal in my home...in IRVINE. I rarely had a 4G signal and even when I did, a colleague's 3G signal with AT&T tested faster in upload and download.

Sorry for the rant.

Haha, you're not far off. I get decent signal all around town, and I'm finally starting to see 4G in some areas, but I get little to no signal here at the house. Sprint sent us an "airave" mini tower just so we could get signal here at the house, but it's pretty buggy. I was pretty surprised/pleased to finally start seeing 4g last month though. Hopefully they will expand it and I'll be seeing it everywhere in this area soon.


I can't think of an app either but there are so many, something's bound to work. I'm not a big fan of streaming over Bluetooth in a car because it's one more device I have deal with every time I get in the car and when it works, it's a low-FI signal.

I got the fancy ipud cable for my Kenwood and stuck a dedicated ipud in the center console. Much better sounding than streaming over bluetooth and ability to control from the deck. 160gb worth of music is a lot to mess with but playlists made it a little easier.

In the end, I just put my favorite 100 tunes on an SD card and stick it inside the stereo.

The streaming sound quality was pretty poor on my previous phone, but it's remarkably clear/full with my new phone. Sadly, the new phone seems to lack playback control. (The phone supports it, but the OEM app apparently doesn't.) I don't use it often, but my phone often gets updated with new music more often than my USB drives.

[jnshk]

Not sure what has changed, but today it suddenly started working! Woohoo!