[Paul Davidson]

Hey everyone.

I have a HTC 8X running Windows Phone 8. I pay the monthly subscription for Xbox Music and download the albums to my phone. I have a new car that has a USB port that I used to plug my iPhone into to play music, but I cannot get this working with my new phone.

If I use my car stereo I can see all my playlists, albums, songs etc but when I choose to play an album nothing happens, it simply scrolls through each song unable to play them.

Any ideas?

[cbixby]

Try using bluetooth

[Paul Davidson]

Thanks for the reply. However I am sure bluetooth was an added extra on my car that I didn't take. Seeing it had a usb port already.

[inteller]

knowing what model of car you have would help.....but yeah Bluetooth is the common connectivity method. Lots of these cars have USB, but the playback signalization is proprietary apple crap.

[John Kwon]

Does your car stereo have a 3.5mm audio port (AUX)? If so, get this. http://amazon.com/SMARTmini-Bluetoot...wpcentral00-20
I got it because my car didn't have Bluetooth. Now, with this and my Lumia 920, I can use Bluetooth for music and the phone has a neat feature that, when connected via Bluetooth, it can alert, read and transcribe by voice your incoming/outgoing text messages through your car's stereo!

[Paul Davidson]

I have a new Astra GTC.

I just assumed the USB was for any gadget that could play music, and had a USB cable with it. Especially seeing my stereo could see all my albums, playlists etc but jsut not play. So I assumed it was jsut an issue with the DRM.

Are you suggesting I can't use the USB port on the car?

And yes I have an AUX port, which I could potentially use, but I always thought the USB port was better.

[Robert Carpenter]

This problem pertains to the DRM. Try adding a song to your phone that is not from Xbox Music and try playing that song instead. Bluetooth streams music, where as the USB method you are using pulls the entire file from the phone, relying on the stereo to utilize the file.

[vel0city]

I've got the same problem with Ford Sync. Its a DRM issue. What blows my mind is that Sync wasn't made to handle Xbox Music files. They should have a master key to decrypt all Xbox/Zune music that gets offered to it, or at least treat it in a similar fashion to a Zune which worked fine.

[Paul Davidson]

That sucks lol.

Oh well, I have ordered an AUX cable and will play it that way. It's just not ideal to then have to look at your phone to select albums to play, rather than using the car stereo.

Grr

[matrixcruiser]

And again you get punished because of using legal mp3 music :(

But am I right: Connecting the phone via usb to read the files with the car does work but just plays if it's non DRM material?

[jasqid]

the usb port usually is only for iphone. the 6 weeks i had an i5 it would do exactly what you said... show artist name and such. i lugged my 8x in and nothing. not even a charge. so i synced through bluetooth. my only issue with BT is every once in a while it starts to stutter and i have to pause/play to fixnthe stutter.

[Paul Davidson]

That sucks. Oh well, still waiting on the AUX cable coming (only cost me £2) to do it that way.

[tofu.]

That sucks. Oh well, still waiting on the AUX cable coming (only cost me £2) to do it that way.

don't forget to turn off beats if you're connecting it to your car stereo. you want the signal to be as close to a pure line-out as you can get it

[gsquared]

How new is the car?

If your talking "just drove it off the lot new" take it back and get BT added. Shouldn't be no more than replacing the head unit. If your a good negotiator you may get then to do it for free.

[Paul Davidson]

Na it isn't that new, got it new in March lol I'd need to pay for a full BT integration, ain't goni happen with everything I've been buying recently! i.e. windows 8, surface, WP8, Sonos etc lol

[MoggSquad]

Yesterday was the first time I tried USB over bluetooth since I bought the 8x.

My 8x works fine via bluetooth, but DRM with xbox music doesn't work. The funny thing my g/f has a Zune player using my xbox music subscription and it plays music fine.

I have a 2012 Ford Focus with MyFordTouch and I prefer the USB feature because you can tell it vocally to play a song, artist,ablum , etc which cannot be done via bluetooth, but it works perfectly fine otherwise.

[GRANT2013]

Are the songs you downloaded in a WMA DRM (Digital Rights Management) format on your phone. If the content is not MP3 (non-DRM) then your radio head unit may not be able to play the content even though it gets your playlist and other metadata about your songs. Try playing specific song title that you know are stored in MP3 format on your phone to check this theory.

[freestaterocker]

It's a DRM issue, which any device not connected to your music pass account will have. I don't have a home internet connection, so I can't play my Xbox Music Pass content on my Xbox via USB. (non-music pass content and tracks/albums I've purchased work fine) I can't play them on my computer, either.