• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

JB newcomer: headphone level problem

That means your stereo supports USB hosting but not MTP. You'd need to root to fix that.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that confused me. It sounds like you're saying I'd need to root the car, not the droid. But, assuming that's not what you mean, I guess you're saying I need to root the droid so it speaks MTP. But that would mean that my mp3-loaded usb stick, that works fine in the car usb port, already speaks MTP?
 
jefboyardee said:
The speakers in this debacle are always the stock speakers built into my Kia -- I have no idea of their dimensions or specs and it makes no difference here. The only thing that's changing are the droids -- specifically, the operating systems therein.
Click to expand...

I know. The initial question you had in this thread was how to make the headset sound as loud as the speakers in your car. In which case, you have to consider the hardware first before the software. From your recent threads, what I gather are:

1. Your new JB phone is not the same model as the GB phone we are talking about.

2. You haven't mentioned wether you are using the same headset on the GB phone.

So here's the things:

1. Even if two phones are on the same OS version, they will not have the same volume for music output as it depends on their internal music chips as well. Case in point my Galaxy S and Galaxy Fit. Even using PowerAmp and 2.3 on both, the Galaxy S volume and quality is superior on headsets. So in your case, it is entirely possible that the headset volume problem is not JB, but the phone you bought. Even on reviews, by GSMArena where they test the decibel levels of music output of phones using a standardized headset and audio equipment sensors, there are sometimes quite significant discrepancies in volume levels on phones with the same OS versions but differing models and brands.

2. You mentioned that on JB, your headset volume appears weaker than before when you were on GB. Now we have to consider that not only do you have a different phone (meaning different audio chip or no audio chip at all, as well as different rendering software), but do you also have a different headset? Not all headsets are created equal. Some may have used wiring with greater impedance than others, which decreases volume and sound quality output. Then you have to consider the quality and size of the earbud audio drivers, as well as the noise isolating capabilities of your headset.

Now you keep on pushing that you feel JB may be the culprit in your headset debacle, but I just listed down three very important factors which may affect your headset volume, and none of them have anything to do with JB:

1. Model/Make/Hardware of phone
2. Brand (software optimizations)
3. Headset.

Examples of real life applications:

-Model:
2.3 Galaxy S vs 2.3 Galaxy Fit = GS is louder and better quality
4.2 Galaxy Tab 3 (JB) vs 4.3 Galaxy Note (JB) = Note has better quality at higher volumes
4.3 Galaxy Note vs 2.3 Galaxy S = Volume is actually louder on the Note (in exact opposite of your debacle)

-Brand (I have all Samsung Androids, so meh, see online tests)

-Headset
Using the Galaxy Tab 3's headset with no noise isolation, I need to put the volume up to 50% to have an equal output to 20% volume using the ear-plug type isolating headset that comes with the Note 2.

So basically, unless we get more info from you, it cannot be concluded that JB is indeed the problem with your headset
 
jefboyardee said:
Sorry, that confused me. It sounds like you're saying I'd need to root the car, not the droid. But, assuming that's not what you mean, I guess you're saying I need to root the droid so it speaks MTP. But that would mean that my mp3-loaded usb stick, that works fine in the car usb port, already speaks MTP?
Click to expand...

Your stereo cannot read MTP. Androids default to MTP connection now, not USB storage. Your car stereo can read USB storage, but not an MTP device for some reason, unless the phone needs specific MTP drivers for itself. You need to root your phone in order to have USB mounting function.

Notice when you plug a JB device to a PC, it doesn't show up as a mass storage device, like how a USB stick would? It would show up as an attached device, either camera or music. Your stereo only looks for a USB storage device, not an attached music device.
 
Notice when you plug a JB device to a PC, it doesn't show up as a mass storage device, like how a USB stick would?
Click to expand...

Yes, that has already pissed me off twice, now thrice... progress shmogress.
 
A PC wouldn't mount an EXT4 formatted drive anyway with UMS, not unless it were running a Linux OS. and USB audio devices can't use EXT4 formatted drives either, they only support FAT. Sure MTP was chosen really because it works with Windows, and doesn't care how the device is formatted.
 
jefboyardee said:

Paragon ExtFS for Windows

Provides fast and transparent access to Ext2 / Ext3 / Ext4 under Windows

...works for me.
Click to expand...

There's Explore2FS as well, which a free but is read only. However USB audio devices that use UMS, can only read FAT/FAT32, nothing else. The major problem with FAT/FAT32 really now is its 2GB file-size limit, especially that we're starting to see reasonably priced phones with internal storage capacities of up to 64GB, which are formatted as EXT4. Many phones can shoot 4K video, which can be huge, also some game downloads are >2GB e.g. Gameloft and EA. HD Blu-ray rips can be something like 4-8GB sometimes. So legacy FAT/FAT32 has had to go, with the odd exception, to make way for something more modern and capable. That's the "progress shmogress" doing away with something that really is a relic from MS-DOS and floppy disks. You can format an SD card as EXT4 as well and Android will see it, being a Linux kernel OS.

Probably MTP is the most acceptable way to do it, Windows can do it natively, without having to buy any third party additions, and you only have to install a free tool on Mac OS X and Linux OSs to make them support MTP.

NTFS might have been another format that has non of the FAT/FAT32 limitations, it's native to Windows and can be mounted via UMS, however it's not native to the Linux kernel, and USB audio devices can't use NTFS. Plus it's proprietary Microsoft as well.
 
Just for my own info, am I wrong or is it possible to use USB, not to make the phone into a storage device but as an audio output (like how the headphone port is usually used)? (so you're using a music player on the phone and getting an audio output from the USB port)
And if so, would that output be at "line" voltage or is it a digital signal?
 
funkylogik said:
Just for my own info, am I wrong or is it possible to use USB, not to make the phone into a storage device but as an audio output (like how the headphone port is usually used)? (so you're using a music player on the phone and getting an audio output from the USB port)
And if so, would that output be at "line" voltage or is it a digital signal?
Click to expand...

I'm sure there's a definite protocol to stream music digitally over USB that recent USB audio devices should be supporting. Apparently iPhones have been doing it for a while, because they don't use FAT/FAT32 and the file-system on iOS is hidden anyway. Recent versions of Android should have it as well. It's something I've never tried or had any experience of.

Just about all devices available here now have USB sockets, PC speakers, DVD players, TVs, cable boxes, karaoke systems, DLP projectors, home theatres, portable radios, they all have USB sockets and basic play controls for MP3 audio. However everyone I've seen they're using cheap USB thumb drives rather than Android devices with them.

EDIT:

Actually this is something I could try in the next few days as I do have a very recent Android device that's MTP only and should support music via USB. Go down the local big box store see if any of the recent USB audio and A/V devices will work with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom