Media players going berserk when connected to FM transmitter

[chlimouj]

First of all, I love my Nexus One, but I came across this weird quirk.

I have an FM transmitter that has two ways of receiving audio: It has a USB slot for a flash drive with mp3s, and a 3.5mm stereo input.

When I connect the headphone output of the Nexus One to the stereo input of the FM transmitter, the phone automatically launches ALL media players (used to be both the built in player and Meridian, then I uninstalled Meridian because of this bug to reduce the cacophony) and each will play random songs for a random number of seconds and then switch to another random song.

I don't even want to launch a media player at all... I'm trying to do this to listen to audiobooks on my commute with a dedicated audiobook app. So far, my only workaround was to delete all the mp3s from the SD card. The media players still launch, but with nothing to play they just sit idle. Initially, I tried just unmounting the SD card, and this sort of worked except that the audiobook app needs the SD card for temp storage, so it was somewhat unstable.

It should be noted that the media players otherwise work flawlessly, either with the internal speaker or with headphones... but for some reason the phone panics when tethered to the FM transmitter. In any case, audio quality is not affected (except in the crappiness of the FM transmitter)... I would just like to be able to store mp3s on the SD card and still listen to my audiobooks.

I'm going to try to connect it to my home theater receiver to see if that raises the same issue, since I suspect it is related to the fact that the audio output is somehow dependent on a current-sinking device (ie, headphones).

[dus1988]

I have the same issue with my auxillry headphone jack for the car. i believe that it has something to dowith the connection type going into the phone. i have noticed it only messes thing up when the wire turns or shakes. Probably has something to do with the audio control thing on the standard android headphones. I use another pair of headphones and it doesnt affect it but the 3.5mm male connector for my car radio does, even if not plugs into the port.

[dus1988]

Originally Posted by alphawave7

My G1 did this too, perhaps it's an Andriod thing? Haven't seen this yet on my N1..strange!

I am led to believe that there is a variant in the 3.5mm male connector because it does not happen with any of my other headphones, just that one wire. and its definetly do to the supposrt for the audio controls on the headphones. it picks up the movement and registers it as button presses on the standard headphones.... but only with that wire. i gotta buy a new one cause its pissing me off. lol

[dus1988]

Originally Posted by alphawave7

Plausible. There was a time a stereo headphone jack was just a that! LOL Headphones have never done it on me, but I seem to recall when I plugged it into my car's input, I'd get this (media players auto-starting) on the G1. Strange thing about that is that the audio control buttons don't exist on my steering wheel, since I didn't opt for cruise control 'package', so external control is disabled in the car's 'firmware' program. Still, strange my G1 did it, but not N1...I may have an option/setting that's different btw. them....hope you can fix it simply with a new cable!

I am hoping as well. The way my car stereo is the stering wheel controls do not activate when in that mode, and i know its not that cause if i dont hook the other end into the aux port and twist or touch or pull the wire the phone goes into random or next song or start the song over or goin into " make dustin go crazy and swerve mode .lol

[chlimouj]

I am skeptical about it having to do with the phone interpreting something as a control signal as if it were coming from the handsfree module on the headset for a couple reasons:

1) The handsfree module has a fourth terminal for signals. It is possible that the design of the jack is poor and the tip of a normal 3.5mm plug is intermittently hitting it, but if this were the case then it would be a problem with normal headphones or earbuds also.

2) Neither Answer/Hangup nor the volume controls, if inputted manually, would have this effect. At the most, if this was the problem, the volume would cycle and/or the song would pause briefly then continue, but that is not the case for me.

3) Why the hell would it launch ALL media players installed on the device and start playing random music if it thought the handsfree earbuds were connected? It doesn't do that when I actually connect the handsfree earbuds.

[dus1988]

Originally Posted by chlimouj

I am skeptical about it having to do with the phone interpreting something as a control signal as if it were coming from the handsfree module on the headset for a couple reasons:

1) The handsfree module has a fourth terminal for signals. It is possible that the design of the jack is poor and the tip of a normal 3.5mm plug is intermittently hitting it, but if this were the case then it would be a problem with normal headphones or earbuds also.

2) Neither Answer/Hangup nor the volume controls, if inputted manually, would have this effect. At the most, if this was the problem, the volume would cycle and/or the song would pause briefly then continue, but that is not the case for me.

3) Why the hell would it launch ALL media players installed on the device and start playing random music if it thought the handsfree earbuds were connected? It doesn't do that when I actually connect the handsfree earbuds.

it launches the media player because there is a play button on the hands free terminal on the ear buds. if u press that it turn on the music. or in our case if you tugg on the wire a severely small amount

[rasher]

A widget to work around this problem by simply catching and discarding all headset button presses (whether real or imagined by the phone) has been made and is available on the market: Reddit thread by the author

[Beer Goggles]

I use several devices plugged in to the headphone jack and don't have these issues. One is an FM transmitter, one is a cassette tape adapter and a couple of different sets of headphones. They all work fine for me.