(Tip) Displaying Bluetooth Audio Album Art

[northernstar]

One day, I got annoyed by how the album cover suddenly disappeared when I was playing Bluetooth-connected music (Youtube Music).

It turned out that the Bluetooth AVRCP 1.6 and up supports the album art, and my phone (Google Pixel Pro 8)'s AVRCP was set at 1.5 as default.

In Android devices, the AVRCP setting is hidden inside the developer options.
To enable the Developer Option on Android devices, go to the settings, find the Build number, and tap it seven times.

 

[Nitemist]

I'm reading that v1.6 is very meta data heavy and could degrade audio quality due to less bandwidth availability or something like that. Curious if you notice any audio degradation by switching to v1.6 that could make it not worthwhile.

 

[patmac]

Wow! Had no idea this option was in there. Thanks for sharing!

 

[northernstar]

I'm reading that v1.6 is very meta data heavy and could degrade audio quality due to less bandwidth availability or something like that. Curious if you notice any audio degradation by switching to v1.6 that could make it not worthwhile.

Hmm... Not really.
This is how my phone adjusts when connected to Air.

Standard AAC bitrate format...
Don't really have high expectations as we all know Bluetooth audio is lossless format to begin with.

I am however intrigued to try my other phone, Xperia 1ii as it supports Dolby Atmos and LDAC.

 

[newlucidguy]

dude - P8P new lucid right here. TY for this, will check it out!

 

[newlucidguy]

thanks .. unfortunately didn't work for me .. I changed the setting and still no album art from YT Music. Not sure why, I disconnected and reconnected and also rebooted the car infotainment but no luck. not sure why, maybe it'll come through next time.

 

[northernstar]

thanks .. unfortunately didn't work for me .. I changed the setting and still no album art from YT Music. Not sure why, I disconnected and reconnected and also rebooted the car infotainment but no luck. not sure why, maybe it'll come through next time.

I see you've reset the vehicle and disconnected/reconnected the Bluetooth.

If you haven't done it yet, may I suggest you reboot the phone device completely, remove the phone from the vehicle (Bluetooth:forget), and re-add it?

 

[newlucidguy]

I see you've reset the vehicle and disconnected/reconnected the Bluetooth.

If you haven't done it yet, may I suggest you reboot the phone device completely, remove the phone from the vehicle (Bluetooth:forget), and re-add it?

it's working! I had rebooted my phone and also disconnected and reconnected it. I had not removed and re-added. Didn't drive or get in the car for 1.5 weeks. Got it today and it's working. So great!! Thanks for the tip. Glad it was just the protocol, I had thought it was something that Lucid hadn't implemented. It is a little slow when a song changes but given the other comments about bandwidth etc, that's no problem. It's so much better. Will see if I use Android Auto or just stick to native Lucid since my YTM is now fully good.

 

[Nitemist]

It also worked for me but noticing that the audio is now bit laggy/glitchy in the beginning. I will monitor to see if it's consistent and try reverting back and test again. Hopefully not related to v1.6 protocol having potential audio quality issues due to increased meta data requirements.

 

[newlucidguy]

It also worked for me but noticing that the audio is now bit laggy/glitchy in the beginning. I will monitor to see if it's consistent and try reverting back and test again. Hopefully not related to v1.6 protocol having potential audio quality issues due to increased meta data requirements.

I have no audio lag at all. Pixel 8 Pro, fully up to date, high quality steam. I'm suspecting that the reason for the delay of the album art when the song changes is that it's prioritizing the audio media. Not sure how it knows to do that but that must be what it's doing.

 

[northernstar]

Also, Pixel 8 Pro... I have not experienced any music lag or glitch whatsoever.

My only gripe is that the Bluetooth streaming quality is maxed out at AAC. LDAC support would've been nice.

I have not tested it with my old Sony Xperia phone, which supports LDAC and Dolby Atmos, to see if it improves the streaming bitrate.

 

[newlucidguy]

Which sound system do you have in the car? Also, experia - why did you move to the pixel?

 

[northernstar]

Which sound system do you have in the car? Also, experia - why did you move to the pixel?

I have SSP.

I thought I'd try an all-Google phone and get all the update benefits. It turned out it really didn't have much impact on daily use.

Personally, I think Xperia style + music features align more with my taste.

I'll probably go back to Xperia... If they still exist in the next ~2 years. Lol

 

[newlucidguy]

Also, Pixel 8 Pro... I have not experienced any music lag or glitch whatsoever.

My only gripe is that the Bluetooth streaming quality is maxed out at AAC. LDAC support would've been nice.

I have not tested it with my old Sony Xperia phone, which supports LDAC and Dolby Atmos, to see if it improves the streaming bitrate.

yes I get 44.1 on AAC and that's the only bitrate available. 16 bit depth.

 

[northernstar]

yes I get 44.1 on AAC and that's the only bitrate available. 16 bit depth.

Yeap.

Xperia 1ii connection through Bluetooth didn't make any difference in terms of bitrate and AAC format.

However, the Air was able to play Dolby Atmos music coming from the phone!

 

[borski]

Yeap.

Xperia 1ii connection through Bluetooth didn't make any difference in terms of bitrate and AAC format.

However, the Air was able to play Dolby Atmos music coming from the phone!

View attachment 27035

View attachment 27036

That is not playing in Atmos. It is getting downmixed to stereo.

The car displays a Dolby Atmos icon when it is receiving (and playing) Atmos-encoded content.

 

[northernstar]

That is not playing in Atmos. It is getting downmixed to stereo.

The car displays a Dolby Atmos icon when it is receiving (and playing) Atmos-encoded content.

The car is probably/possibly downplaying it stereomix.

The phone' (Xperia that natively supports Dolby Atmos)s Tidal app, however 'recognizes' the car's capability(?) and displays the track that it is streaming as Dolby Atmos.

Air's Bluetooth connection doesn't tell you the streaming quality or bitrate... So we'll never know.

 

[borski]

The car is probably/possibly downplaying it stereomix.

The phone' (Xperia that natively supports Dolby Atmos)s Tidal app, however 'recognizes' the car's capability(?) and displays the track that it is streaming as Dolby Atmos.

Air's Bluetooth connection doesn't tell you the streaming quality or bitrate... So we'll never know.

It is, without question, downmixing it.

The phone's Tidal app, even if you aren't connected to any external device whatsoever, will always display that it is playing Dolby Atmos-encoded content. On my iPhone, it will say that even when playing through the phone's internal speakers, which are *definitely* not Atmos-capable.

Atmos is a digital processing technology that, as part of recording, can specify the physical location of individual sounds in the audible space. So with Atmos (and DTS:X), you have a base audio track, like 5.1 or 7.1, then you have the object audio with it, in this case Atmos, and what goes with that object audio is metadata. That metadata is used by the AVR/Processor to decode and assign those objects to speakers within the setup.

So think of the Atmos audio objects as additional audio tracks, but instead of being assigned to dedicated speaker locations, they're dynamic and can be on the fly assigned to speaker locations based on the movement of the audio. That's an oversimplification but fine enough.

All the app knows is it is asking for Atmos-encoded content from Tidal. But the *car* is not decoding either the object tracks, or the Atmos metadata, which is why it does not display the Dolby Atmos logo when playing the track.

Easiest way to prove me wrong is listen to the overhead speakers and see if they sound any different from the rest of the car.