Bluetooth audio streaming

[Lexman8]

I never normally stream audio via Bluetooth but a mate asked me to check it out as he just got the Sensus 2 update and is convinced that previously album art appeared on the Sensus display while streaming from his iPhone but it doesn't now. I tried it using my Android phone and no album art appeared.

Has anyone seen album art when streaming via Bluetooth?

As an aside, I'd read elsewhere that Bluetooth streaming reduced the audio quality so I compared the sound quality of streaming Spotify from the phone with playing the same track using the in-built Spotify app. The Bluetooth stream was noticeably inferior but this could be for a number of reasons, particularly which codec is being used. What happens is that the 2 devices negotiate which codecs they have in common and aim to select the highest quality one they have in common. Unfortunately, most devices only implement the mandated basic one called SBC so that's the one that gets used.

[Chief inspector]

Im talking XC60 here, but you get the grace note album art on the HDD or via USB, but you only get text if streaming from Spotify over Bluetooth from an iPhone

[gmk666]

Some of my streamed albums display artwork, some don't.
I can only assume the difference between these two is one was downloaded to my phone directly via iTunes, the other via my mac.

[Bicax]

Lexman, I know you already replied to this question the other day, but I just want to make sure I didn't misunderstand you.

If you stream Spotify on the phone and send the sound to the car via Bluetooth, there definitely should be a reduction in sound quality.

But if you connect your phone to the car via Bluetooth so that the car uses the phone's data plan, the quality of the in-car Spotify app is no different than if it was connecting to the car via WiFi?

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by Bicax

Lexman, I know you already replied to this question the other day, but I just want to make sure I didn't misunderstand you.

If you stream Spotify on the phone and send the sound to the car via Bluetooth, there definitely should be a reduction in sound quality.

But if you connect your phone to the car via Bluetooth so that the car uses the phone's data plan, the quality of the in-car Spotify app is no different than if it was connecting to the car via WiFi?

That's correct. The maximum data rate that Spotify uses for streaming (in Extreme mode) is 320kbps which is well within the standard Bluetooth data transfer rate of 2.1Mbps.

Bluetooth tethering also has the advantage that it uses considerably less power than WiFi tethering and on Android phones it can be left on all day with minimum impact on battery life. I don't know if iOS on an iPhone allows it to be left on.

[uro1]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

That's correct. The maximum data rate that Spotify uses for streaming (in Extreme mode) is 320kbps which is well within the standard Bluetooth data transfer rate of 2.1Mbps.

Bluetooth tethering also has the advantage that it uses considerably less power than WiFi tethering and on Android phones it can be left on all day with minimum impact on battery life. I don't know if iOS on an iPhone allows it to be left on.

Yes you can let bluetooth always on the iPhone without noteble impact on the running time. It is the preferred way to connect your iPhone to the car as the wifi connection will not start always automatically due to power saving measures.