Is it possible to connect a Shield to a set of old 7.1 computer speakers? - Shield Android TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi!
I'm thinking of buying a Shield to centralise my Plex/Netflix/emulators/etc on one device. One thing I'd like to do though is use a set of old Inspire T7900 speakers (7.1, powered) that I have lying around. I don't have a dedicated receiver (and the speakers wouldn't work with it anyway unless they had pre-amp outs), so I'm thinking I might figure out a way of hooking the Shield directly to them -- perhaps through a USB sound card.
Is this possible? Do you know of any usb sound cards that work with the Shield *and* support 7.1? No need for amplification as the speaker set does it itself (because it was originally designed to work with PC sound cards).
I've been poking around and I've come across a lot of people doing stuff with optical USB adapters and even just pulling sound off the USB port because of reasons, but not this kind of setup. Any help will be welcome thanks!
PS: just in case it comes up, yes, I do plan on getting a proper AV receiver at some point, which I will pair with an adequate set of speakers (not these). However, my living room is quite cramped for AV gear as it is; we expect to move to a bigger house sometime in the next 1-2 years and I figure I'll do it then. For now, the T7900 is good enough.

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[Q] Audio Through USB

I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
XtaC318 said:
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
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I don't believe this is possible. As far as I know, when you use the usb the deck itself is decoding the mp3's (or whatever music files you're using) directly. It doesn't support playing music through the usb, it just uses the usb to get the files. I hope that makes sense...
So is that why I ca never plat music on my xbox whenever I have a phone hookedup to charge? I thought my xbox just didn't play nice with phones
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
XtaC318 said:
I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
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Click to collapse
So your car stereo has a USB input but no auxiliary? If so, your best bet would probably be to get an FM transmitter. Like the poster above said, your car's stereo is merely mounting your phone as a mass storage device and reading the mp3 files off the SD card and decoding and playing them locally.
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
a454nova said:
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
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Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
XtaC318 said:
Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope... The phone isn't even connecting to your stereo. When you put it into USB mode so it can read the SD, it unmounted from the phone. Its as if you pulled the SD out and slid it into a card reader. When you pull the plug... It will remount to the phone. You'll notice it scanning for media at the top.
Now when you go BT... You can control it via the stereo or phone, using the Aux you can control it by the phone. "They" could make the phone controllable via USB like an Iphone but they would have to built that into the stereo like they do the Iphones/Ipods. Not likely to happen unless the Galaxy S takes off like IPOD did.
In theory, a rooted Epic with proper kernel support and hacked cable (since they don't exist commercially) can repurpose the data pins on its USB port for left and right analog audio thanks to the Fairchild FSA9480 USB switching chip inside the phone (the same chip enables the USB pins to be repurposed as a serial port with nonstandard voltage levels, enables the normally-unused fifth pin to be used as mic input, enables it to be used with a special "JIG" interface for JTAG reflashing without having to hand-solder anything to the microscopic internal pads, and apparently can also work its magic in conjunction with a chip by Silicon Imaging to use 5 pins to output a signal that can be transformed by a companion chip (embedded in the cable's connector shell) into valid HDCP-compliant HDMI. I'm pretty sure the 9480 can also repurpose the two data pins for external I2C, but don't quote me on it.
Check out the I9000 boards... they're about 2 months ahead of us. If you google for FSA9480, you can find a brief (but revealing) dialogue between a Samsung engineer and the Kernel.org folks regarding a kernel addition to support the chip. He had a few issues, because on one hand he's apparently not allowed to say much about how the chip works or what it does, but the kernel folks managed to wring much of it out of him one juicy detail at a time. If you check Fairchild's site, they don't even acknowledge that the chip EXISTS, but it's been photographed inside all the Galaxy S phones in various teardowns.
In English -- yes, the hardware exists today to connect your phone to a stereo's analog inputs via a cable that repurposes the USB port... but the official software to make it work from Samsung and Sprint doesn't exist, and the information needed to make it work ourselves on a rooted Epic with AOSP isn't quite available yet.
I'm personally quite happy about the uart, because that means we DO have an easy, low-ceremony way to do i/o between something like a gamepad built into a hardcase a-la-iphone-GameBone that doesn't require Bluetooth (note that if something IS using the USB port for UART purposes, the USB port is still active, but the phone sees it as having nothing connected because the signals from the D+ and D- pins are physically re-routed by the 9480 to the CPU's UART pins. Think of the 9480 as being like an old-fashioned telephone panel with cables that can be moved around to connect the USB port's 5 physical pins to different pins inside the phone.
I'm now pretty sure that this is why there are exactly 7 contacts on the microUSB connector inside the phone -- 5 are used to get the pre-HDMI signals out of the phone, and the other 2 (3, if you count the ground/anchor tabs and assume they carry a signal as well in addition to mechanically anchoring it in place) are used to supply +5v and ground, and possibly one wire for half-duplex signaling purposes.
Wow that was a lot of info... lol. I didn't know that about the usb tho. That's good to know. I was thinking of taking it apart to see.
But... I think he's wanting a UI via the USB like the way some players will do for the IPODs, not analog. To go throught all that when the Head Phone jack will do the same... I could only see that if it was broken or if you really really want only one cord to the phone.
; )
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
I've got an Alpine unit, I hook my USB up - turn on the TUNER. Mount the Drive and once the phone is done - swap back over to USB and i can get all my MP3S. sadly I get all of my ringtones too - odd when the radio is full blast and a track changes - none the less works well for me. Try it.
I purchased this Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit for my phone a few days ago. It works perfectly on my sister's iPod touch (no AVRCP [silly apple]) and an old WinMo 6.1 phone.
I just got my Epic in the mail today so I'll be testing it out soon.
WTF. AVRCP (bluetooth remote control) is really buggy with this phone. I used the LiquidAUX with an old Omnia for a week with no problems. The Epic connects and plays audio just fine. I can also pause and play music but the forward and back buttons don't work. When I first pair the phone with the device everything is fine, but after disconnecting and reconnecting the remote control stops working. I got it to work after un-paring and re-pairing but it only worked once.
The Moment I had before this had really choppy audio.
EDIT: I had the phone opened up in DDMS and the phone is receiving signals from the remote. But it only reacts to them when the media player is on the screen. Weird.

[Q] Nexus 7 - PC Speakers not working

I have an extra set of logitech computer speakers I want to connect to listen to music on my tablet, but I can't get them working.
They are pretty much new and they work on my TV, WDTV and computer just fine using the same earphone jack adapter, but I get no sound when I plug them into my tablet.
I can plug earphones into the tablet and they work fine.
Anyone know why the pc speakers are not working?
interesting man...never trid this,have n7 from few days,but when i initially red this 3ad i thinked "well,impossible,it's OP only problems.."but when i tried my pc speakers on it (curiosity after reading this)i see that they don't works..strange!hope anyone can enlighten us!also my sound av receiver don't output the sound when connected on n7.on gnex works without problems..
i tried in a game...not in the music player yet,but i think it's the same beahviour..
I would guess there is a mechanical incompatibility with the plug, i.e. it doesn't quite fit. Can you post pictures of the working and non-working plugs?
elmicha said:
I would guess there is a mechanical incompatibility with the plug, i.e. it doesn't quite fit. Can you post pictures of the working and non-working plugs?
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Here's a picture of both plugs, they both seem to plug into the tablet the same amount and are identical as far as I can see other than being different colors.
Top one is the earphones
Not sure why, but when I did a factory reset on my tablet today the speakers work fine. Maybe it was an app or something interfering with it. Anyways, seems to be working now.

[Q] Does the Nexus Q support the HDMI audio return channel?

The HDMI audio return channel would mean that a TV could send audio back down to the Nexus Q from another source/input and, by doing this, let one use the Nexus Q as a glorious little makeshift receiver. This would be perfect for a bedroom setup where I don't really care about surround sound and would like for everything (such as cable TV) to play through my stereo speakers that I've attached to the Nexus Q.
I understand that if the hardware technically supports it, the software quite probably does not--even CM10.1 probably doesn't. I'm just trying to get a response, preferably from a developer that has poked around with the drivers and low level interfaces, about whether this dream of mine is a possibility. If this feature is actually working right now out of the box or with CM10.1 installed, though, that'd be great to know as well
Malnilion said:
The HDMI audio return channel would mean that a TV could send audio back down to the Nexus Q from another source/input and, by doing this, let one use the Nexus Q as a glorious little makeshift receiver. This would be perfect for a bedroom setup where I don't really care about surround sound and would like for everything (such as cable TV) to play through my stereo speakers that I've attached to the Nexus Q.
I understand that if the hardware technically supports it, the software quite probably does not--even CM10.1 probably doesn't. I'm just trying to get a response, preferably from a developer that has poked around with the drivers and low level interfaces, about whether this dream of mine is a possibility. If this feature is actually working right now out of the box or with CM10.1 installed, though, that'd be great to know as well
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In my first bit of exploring thinking, my Q wakes itself up, or at least the LEDs when i switch to it on my reciever. And it also enables it as a video destination in youtube and movies when switched to it on my receiver, so its not just a dummy "speak only" hdmi output. It knows when it is connected to something... now just to see if it will do ARC.
So far i dont think Q is HDMI 1.4 device
so i would think not possible
but who knows~

[Q] Use Nexus Q as an external amplifier?

My Nexus Q is slowly collecting dust on my entertainment center. It looks pretty, but being limited to Google Play or YouTube content only just bites. I've already got an iOS device and a receiver that supports Airplay (which quite frankly works much more reliably), so I don't have a reason to leave it plugged in beyond the novelty of it.
What I'd love to do, however, is use for the "audiophile quality" amp it supposedly has in another room with some vintage Bose 301 speakers I have and my desktop PC. Is there any way to get audio in on this thing? It's got optical audio out, would installing CM10 allow me to change that port to optical input instead? Or how about USB, would any hack or rom allow me to plug it into my PC and use it as a USB-Audio device?
splitpea said:
My Nexus Q is slowly collecting dust on my entertainment center. It looks pretty, but being limited to Google Play or YouTube content only just bites. I've already got an iOS device and a receiver that supports Airplay (which quite frankly works much more reliably), so I don't have a reason to leave it plugged in beyond the novelty of it.
What I'd love to do, however, is use for the "audiophile quality" amp it supposedly has in another room with some vintage Bose 301 speakers I have and my desktop PC. Is there any way to get audio in on this thing? It's got optical audio out, would installing CM10 allow me to change that port to optical input instead? Or how about USB, would any hack or rom allow me to plug it into my PC and use it as a USB-Audio device?
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Click to collapse
The only thing I could think of would be an app that makes it a Bluetooth audio reciever. But it doesn't appear to have one. Last I tried cm10.1 the amp didn't work. Just HDMI. You could sell it

[Q] Alternative ways to have always on Assistant?

Hi there!
Like many others, my Shield TV also received the Experience 6.0 update. And, since my device is from the first generation, I was wondering if there would be a way to have always on functionality for the Assistant.
Of course, I know that there is the option to buy a second gen controller but, at 70€, that would be a bit too steep for the added functionality.
So, is there a change to add an always on microphone to the 1st Gen Shield TV? Maybe through an USB sound card? Any other ideas?
Thanks!
You can probably buy a cheap usb microphone from amazon or best buy something like that and plug it in or even use an old webcam that has a mic and plug it in I had an old Logitech one laying around and i used it like that basically the shield just needs a mic , so it would probably work it worked with the google search when i tried it.

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