Android Auto vs Android Head Unit?

[MJ DOOM]

JBL Returns To The Dash With $399 CarPlay/Android Auto Headunit

http://www.jbl.com/connected-car/CP100+LEGEND.html?cgid=connected-car&dwvar_CP100%20LEGEND_color=Black#start=1

 

[Robbie Doo]

I vote for Android Auto due to the fact it is set up to make thing safer and to distract the driver less.

Voice activation works great.

It's still in it's infancy stage, so I assume it'll get much better as time goes on - and more apps are created to accommodate it.

It's simplistic, and does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I agree with you. It's still in its simplistic stage but in time it'll get better. I think it differs from one vehicle to another dependent on the manufacturer's installed HU. We'll see!

 

[Grewe02]

What a coincidence this thread was updated today... I have had it tabbed open in chrome for about a week and finally found time to read this thread this morning.

I'm very interested in this topic, and comparing the two platforms. I have never had anything besides a regular old CD player in my dash and am ready to upgrade. I really like the pricetag of the CHUs, but I am not too keen on providing it with a hotspot / 3g chip, or the long boot times. On the other hand, I really like the idea behind AA, how your phone really controls everything. It seems like there are less things that could go wrong, less to worry about, less to deal with.

Then again, like this thread has repeated so many times, AA is very limiting. And we all have androids mainly for the reason of user control and customization. I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who has used both systems and what they like / dislike about each.

 

[theLotusCube]

I've had both android auto and Apple car play as my head unit has both. Essentially they are the same just one is OS and the other is android. I enjoy android much more but they both have same functions it's all on preferences on snitch system you like more and tbh they are both fairly expensive

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 03:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 PM ----------

@ slickdonkey, I can't reply to your post directly because I'm still a new user but Tbh it depends on the head unit brand because the OS running it is just fine for both

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

 

[mikereidis]

Then again, like this thread has repeated so many times, AA is very limiting. And we all have androids mainly for the reason of user control and customization. I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who has used both systems and what they like / dislike about each.

I've never owned a Chinese HU, but am avoiding them so far because they all seem to have many little problems that are unlikely to ever be fixed, to say nothing of being forever stuck on Android 4.4 or earlier.

I think most flexible is Pioneer HUs that support AA, CarPlay, AND AppRadio.

AppRadio with the AppRadio Unchained Reloaded app allows full mirroring of your phone to the HU. Voila: An HU that "runs" whatever your phone runs. And with the option of going to AA or CarPlay if needed.

 

[Irzack]

I own newsmy car pad 2 with 8" screen. Fantastic unit and the guys doing xdauto rom make this unit shine. Yes you need to buy a USB mic for voice commands but GPS is very accurate. Only disappointing thing is the wattage 22wx4 I believe

Sent from my unknown using Tapatalk

 

[Myplayerxd]

For me, I have yet to see an Android head unit without deal breaking issues. Crappy in-call experience, radio, music setup and performance, Bluetooth, etc.

I just don't need that when I'm driving. I do miss not having Torque on AA, but it's just not worth putting up with all the other issues in order to have it.

Trust me, if someone made an Android head unit that was like a Nexus with a decent audio section, I'd be all over it, but it doesn't exist. I have thought about putting a tablet in my truck with a good preamp and amps, but there are too many issues, not the least of which is not being able to see it with polarized shades on.

well thats not true because i got on my new toyota corolla 9" android head unit and its working great and i also have one in my opel corsa and it has a few problems the was fix in a few minuts like radio but thats it on the corolla (2015) the radio is better then what it was before and the system look pretty nice seem like android 5.0 when you using it and i truely recomend it , its great for me to use itube on my car without using cables or dumb bluetooth just use it from the unit
and when talking to the unit i can hear and talk without any isuee so i disagree with what you are saying sorry but
for me this unit is just great

 

[ReppinTheSouth]

I got the pioneer 4100avh and l live it. I have an iPod so I can still get music off of there and scroll the whole library. I hate the fact it starts songs or albums over when sending a text or making a call.

As far as android auto goes I love it. My only gripe is I can't scan the entire Google play library. That is frustrating but I am trying to find ways around that.

All in car media headunits are built with safety in mind. For example the 4100 has a DVD player but to watch it or iPod videos the car must be in park. There are hardwired devices around that which I have but I believe even factory HUs have the same thing. To expect less is unrealistic in my opinion. I don't like the limitations but I completely understand them. If you want the full functionality of your phone then get a mirroring app to do it.

I have 0 experience with android head units but they do sound interesting. If they're Chinese made that is a deal breaker. I have a back up camera on my car and I went through 3 or 4 cheap Chinese made cameras in a couple of years. They would stop working out of no where. Thanks but no thanks on the no name units.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

 

[aergern]

I got the pioneer 4100avh and l live it. I have an iPod so I can still get music off of there and scroll the whole library. I hate the fact it starts songs or albums over when sending a text or making a call.

As far as android auto goes I love it. My only gripe is I can't scan the entire Google play library. That is frustrating but I am trying to find ways around that.

All in car media headunits are built with safety in mind. For example the 4100 has a DVD player but to watch it or iPod videos the car must be in park. There are hardwired devices around that which I have but I believe even factory HUs have the same thing. To expect less is unrealistic in my opinion. I don't like the limitations but I completely understand them. If you want the full functionality of your phone then get a mirroring app to do it.

I have 0 experience with android head units but they do sound interesting. If they're Chinese made that is a deal breaker. I have a back up camera on my car and I went through 3 or 4 cheap Chinese made cameras in a couple of years. They would stop working out of no where. Thanks but no thanks on the no name units.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

I have a 80GB library of music on my 6P and Google Play Music has trouble with basic functions when using it with Android auto so my solution was playlists and the largest I've found that doesn't work is around 12GB of music. It's where GPM goes squirrelly. So I have several under that and they work fine.

My 8100NEX and your 4100NEX are technically Android head units as they run Android 4.2.2 as their OS. It's just that Pioneer doesn't make cheap garbage. My wife's '16 Accord runs the same version of Android ie. Jellybean but it has a different skin.


You and others could find out that most of these head units run Android 4.2.2 by looking at the firmware update zip files that the manufacturers post on their site. The current for your 4100 is 1.05 (same ver as mine) and each update above 1.0 have been fixes for Android Auto to make it better. Once the zip is unzipped in prep to put it on an SDcard or USBstick .. you can wander through the install files and see that the kernel version is Linux and matches 4.2.2 Jellybean.

 

[ReppinTheSouth]

I have a 80GB library of music on my 6P and Google Play Music has trouble with basic functions when using it with Android auto so my solution was playlists and the largest I've found that doesn't work is around 12GB of music. It's where GPM goes squirrelly. So I have several under that and they work fine.

My 8100NEX and your 4100NEX are technically Android head units as they run Android 4.2.2 as their OS. It's just that Pioneer doesn't make cheap garbage. My wife's '16 Accord runs the same version of Android ie. Jellybean but it has a different skin.


You and others could find out that most of these head units run Android 4.2.2 by looking at the firmware update zip files that the manufacturers post on their site. The current for your 4100 is 1.05 (same ver as mine) and each update above 1.0 have been fixes for Android Auto to make it better. Once the zip is unzipped in prep to put it on an SDcard or USBstick .. you can wander through the install files and see that the kernel version is Linux and matches 4.2.2 Jellybean.

The playlist thing is a good idea. I could break my library up and be able to scroll through. Not ideal but better then nothing. What I am actually working on is putting my music on an SD card and inserting that directly into the headunit. I have to get the tags right because right now it sorts album tracks alphabetically and not by the track number. I am an audio head and I also noticed the music from Google play isn't as high of quality as the music from either the iPod or the SD card. It's not a huge difference but noticeable. I'm not saying this is happening but it's like the iPod/SD card are 192kbps and GPM is 128kbps.





Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

 

[aergern]

The playlist thing is a good idea. I could break my library up and be able to scroll through. Not ideal but better then nothing. What I am actually working on is putting my music on an SD card and inserting that directly into the headunit. I have to get the tags right because right now it sorts album tracks alphabetically and not by the track number. I am an audio head and I also noticed the music from Google play isn't as high of quality as the music from either the iPod or the SD card. It's not a huge difference but noticeable. I'm not saying this is happening but it's like the iPod/SD card are 192kbps and GPM is 128kbps.

I think it's GPM that is at issue with the amount of music it will handle properly when talking to AA because AA really just takes it's queues from GPM. What would be ideal for me is that PowerAMP's dev gets the new version out with AA support because PowerAMP is quite good. The problem is that I can't control PowerAMP's BT streaming when the 6P is linked up to AA or at least I haven't tried to get it to work properly that way yet.

AA/GPM should play mp3's and other files at the bitrate they are encoded at. I do not believe it reduces the quality on it's own. 99% of my music was either ripped by me from CD before I stopped buying CD's .. or I've bought though Amazon an theirs are 320kb. The noticeable thing for me is just the era that songs are recorded in and the levels they did in the studio. I don't think unless an 80's song is remixed that it will sound as good as something recorded and mastered in '15. The equipment just wasn't as good. I don't sweat that though. I do wish the EQ in the NEX series had more Custom options than 2 ... unless I missed something. It's presets are ... ok .. but not great. And having just 2 custom EQ settings to swap between is crap.

 

[ReppinTheSouth]

I think it's GPM that is at issue with the amount of music it will handle properly when talking to AA because AA really just takes it's queues from GPM. What would be ideal for me is that PowerAMP's dev gets the new version out with AA support because PowerAMP is quite good. The problem is that I can't control PowerAMP's BT streaming when the 6P is linked up to AA or at least I haven't tried to get it to work properly that way yet.

AA/GPM should play mp3's and other files at the bitrate they are encoded at. I do not believe it reduces the quality on it's own. 99% of my music was either ripped by me from CD before I stopped buying CD's .. or I've bought though Amazon an theirs are 320kb. The noticeable thing for me is just the era that songs are recorded in and the levels they did in the studio. I don't think unless an 80's song is remixed that it will sound as good as something recorded and mastered in '15. The equipment just wasn't as good. I don't sweat that though. I do wish the EQ in the NEX series had more Custom options than 2 ... unless I missed something. It's presets are ... ok .. but not great. And having just 2 custom EQ settings to swap between is crap.

GPM probably does play at the bitrate it was encoded at. It's funny you mention the EQ settings because that is where I noticed the difference in the sound. I have component speakers and subs and I listen to a lot of bass heavy music. As I was trying to set up my EQ I would bounce between GPM and my iPod. My speakers would pop on one source and not the other. I then would play the same song on one and then the other and I could hear the difference.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

 

[aergern]

GPM probably does play at the bitrate it was encoded at. It's funny you mention the EQ settings because that is where I noticed the difference in the sound. I have component speakers and subs and I listen to a lot of bass heavy music. As I was trying to set up my EQ I would bounce between GPM and my iPod. My speakers would pop on one source and not the other. I then would play the same song on one and then the other and I could hear the difference.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

Also, I found out tonight on the way home that GPM has a playlist limit of 999 songs. I had a playlist with 2066 songs in it and GPM itself would only address 999. I split that playlist up by 33.3% and I'm just noting that until another player gets AA support .. my playlists are hobbled. What a POS. I have yet to try my iPod Classic with this deck ... not sure I want to do more work arounds and other crap. I'm gonna stick with the 6P and GPM for now so I can make sure both Custom1 and Custom2 are solid. I've got things pretty solidly split between 2 tweeters in the dash and four decent Fosgate speakers in my doors along with a sub ... I'm in a king cab midsize truck so I'm not going for competition level just a good balance and crisp, clear sound. My main genres are 80's rap, Metal and random crap.

AA is so friggin new that I sometimes think us early adopters are beta testing it. But then again on another thread an XDA'er said " I went Apple and have had no issues. " which I know to be a friggin lie as my wife's '16 Accord has both and they run on Android 4.2.2 with a different skin and she has an iPhone 6. She still has issues with Carplay.

 

[ReppinTheSouth]

Also, I found out tonight on the way home that GPM has a playlist limit of 999 songs. I had a playlist with 2066 songs in it and GPM itself would only address 999. I split that playlist up by 33.3% and I'm just noting that until another player gets AA support .. my playlists are hobbled. What a POS. I have yet to try my iPod Classic with this deck ... not sure I want to do more work arounds and other crap. I'm gonna stick with the 6P and GPM for now so I can make sure both Custom1 and Custom2 are solid. I've got things pretty solidly split between 2 tweeters in the dash and four decent Fosgate speakers in my doors along with a sub ... I'm in a king cab midsize truck so I'm not going for competition level just a good balance and crisp, clear sound. My main genres are 80's rap, Metal and random crap.

AA is so friggin new that I sometimes think us early adopters are beta testing it. But then again on another thread an XDA'er said " I went Apple and have had no issues. " which I know to be a friggin lie as my wife's '16 Accord has both and they run on Android 4.2.2 with a different skin and she has an iPhone 6. She still has issues with Carplay.

My wife has an iPhone but I have yet to try it to see how car play works. If your phone is rooted, there is an app that will let you completely mirror your phone on the screen. I think it's $30. I can't remember the name of it but I've seen people on here talking about it. That would solve the issue of not limiting the playlist size or what you can view. I thought about doing that but I like the simplicity of AA. I just hate that I can't view all of my music.

IPod classic........ yeah. So I have an 80 gig iPod classic that would have been the perfect solution. I bought the cable off of amazon and everything. I can view my whole library just how I want. Sounds good right? Problem is whenever I ask Google a question or send or read a text, the song I'm listening to will start over, the album will start over, or it will go to the very first song on the iPod. It may not sound annoying but it is. I had a Kenwood dnx headunit I bought in 2007 and it didn't do that. I think the problem is when you access certain features, the hardrive shuts off. I can hear it starting back up when I get done sending the text or whatever. I tried an iPod touch which has a flash memory and it worked flawlessly. Pioneer should be able to fix that. That is the reason I moved on from the iPod to the SD card. If all your music is on an SD card on your phone, you may want to give it a shot. It's not voice activated like GPM but it will get the job done. I don't think it'll be too difficult to set up your EQs. I figure putting in the work now will be worth it in the long run. No need to settle. I commend android for trying to make AA safe for drivers, but the GPM viewing limits just isn't going to cut it. I tried Amazon Prime and something else thinking maybe it was just a GPM issue but I quickly found out that is just how AA is set up to work. Still love the headunit though.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app

 

[mikereidis]

My wife has an iPhone but I have yet to try it to see how car play works. If your phone is rooted, there is an app that will let you completely mirror your phone on the screen. I think it's $30. I can't remember the name of it but I've seen people on here talking about it.

AppRadio Unchained Reloaded: http://xdaforums.com/general/paid-software/android-4-0-root-appradio-unchained-t2955966

Needs root, $30 and a Pioneer HU that supports Appradio.

 

[hello00]

i recently bought the 10.1 pumpkin android stereo and everything works out of the box. i paid $418..well worth it

 

[mikereidis]

i recently bought the 10.1 pumpkin android stereo and everything works out of the box. i paid $418..well worth it

Please come back in 30 days or so and let us know if you are still as happy.

I hate to be a "downer", but reading the forums I can see that many people come across many little problems in day to day usage, and they post on XDA asking if anyone has solutions.

Of course, as always, people who are happy are less likely to post. And if you are happy, that's great and I'm happy that you're happy. I'm not posting just to criticize and be a "hater".


Are you OK with this device having Kitkat, and likely no upgrade ever to Lollipop ?

 

[hello00]

Please come back in 30 days or so and let us know if you are still as happy.

I hate to be a "downer", but reading the forums I can see that many people come across many little problems in day to day usage, and they post on XDA asking if anyone has solutions.

Of course, as always, people who are happy are less likely to post. And if you are happy, that's great and I'm happy that you're happy. I'm not posting just to criticize and be a "hater".


Are you OK with this device having Kitkat, and likely no upgrade ever to Lollipop ?

it has been over 3 months and if anything were to happen i would either try to fix it or exchange it for a new one..yeah im fine with kitkat..now if a new android unit comes out i would get it

 

[mikereidis]

it has been over 3 months and if anything were to happen i would either try to fix it or exchange it for a new one..yeah im fine with kitkat..now if a new android unit comes out i would get it

I'm REALLY wondering when we'll see the first Chinese HU supporting Lollipop. I will strongly consider buying one and would like to support my Android Auto Headunit app on it, if possible (none of the current devices has good enough H.264 decoding it seems.)

Android 5.0 has been available on Nexus for over 14 months now (November 2014), and we had a developer preview in June, 2014.

 

[aergern]

Are you OK with this device having Kitkat, and likely no upgrade ever to Lollipop ?

The Pioneer Nex series runs Android 4.2.2. and quite well I might add. They update Android Auto about every 60 days with fixes and whatnot.

My question is ... why does running Marshmallow (Lollipop isn't the top dog anymore) is even a question. The underlying OS is skinned and as long as it does what we want ... it's not running games or any apps that require the OS to be the newest and shiniest version. It just requires the latest Android Auto and as long as Google puts out the updates for the headunit makers and the app on our phones ... again why should we care?