Use bluetooth phone for both phone and audio?

[gmunson]

I think I already know the answer to this, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask in case anyone else has figured out a solution.

For background, I'm coming from a Ford Edge, with SYNC. Although I love my Camaro more than any car I've ever owned, GM's bluetooth setup just flat-out sucks when compared to SYNC. They're really not even in the same ballpark.

With that said, I'm trying to set up my bluetooth as closely as possible to my old setup. I've successfully connected my phone (Palm Pre) to the car as both a phone, and a music player. My question is, is there any way to do both at once? So far, I've been able to only set it up as one or the other at one time. So, for instance, if I'm listening to Pandora on my phone over the car's speakers, and a phone call comes in, I can't take the call over the car's mic/speaker setup. I'd have to disconnect the bluetooth, and then reconnect it as a phone. This setup is just unworkable.

Any suggestions?

[spectrepig]

That is the only way. It uses only one source at a time. The only thing I can think of is use your phone to talk, and the stereo will work independently. If you are using your phone for your music and to talk, there is no solution. Unless someone else figured something out, I think you are out of luck.

[UCF w00t]

This is partially up to how your phone handles it.

The problem is that it's pairing with two seperate devices. From the phone's perspective you've got both a bluetooth hands free headset and you've got bluetooth headphone. I guess your phone can't pair with two devices at once. I'm not 'blaming' it on your phone as the best solution would've been for GM to integrate both but some can do two at once.

[Mikk2K]

Originally Posted by UCF w00t

This is partially up to how your phone handles it.

The problem is that it's pairing with two seperate devices. From the phone's perspective you've got both a bluetooth hands free headset and you've got bluetooth headphone. I guess your phone can't pair with two devices at once. I'm not 'blaming' it on your phone as the best solution would've been for GM to integrate both but some can do two at once.

I'm sorry but I'm blaming GM on this one. I've got the same problem that OP is having. In the same light I have a cheap 20 dollary stereo bluetooth headphones that can do both. It has mic built into the side of the headphones. With these headphones I can be listening to music, and when I get a call the music stops and I take the call. When the call is finished the music begins again. It has nothing to do with the phone it has everything to do with how the reciever handles the data.

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by Mikk2K

I'm sorry but I'm blaming GM on this one. I've got the same problem that OP is having. In the same light I have a cheap 20 dollary stereo bluetooth headphones that can do both. It has mic built into the side of the headphones. With these headphones I can be listening to music, and when I get a call the music stops and I take the call. When the call is finished the music begins again. It has nothing to do with the phone it has everything to do with how the reciever handles the data.

It's a fact of how the systems work. There's two seperate modules. The headset you have has one bluetooth radio that supports both profiles. In the Camaro, the hands free is done through the OnStar module and the PDIM does the music portion, two seperate bluetooth radios. Of course they could've added A2DP to the OnStar module but there very well may be hardware limitations in the chipset used in the OnStar module. So yea, it's GM's fault for not coming up with a better solution but I think you have a situation where you've got the OnStar team content with not adding A2DP (or not easily being able to do so) and you've got the PDIM guys trying to add a nice feature that isn't widely supported across the industry in general.

All that said, there's no reason why your phone doesn't handle it more gracefully. It may be a hardware limitation on it's end but it should be able to pair with both at the same time and the software should be smart enough to pause the music and answer a phone call with the hands free profile device to communicate.

[mlee]

The OP was trying to pair a Phone AND a completely different music device to his Camaro.

Now we are talking about a Phone that also has a music ). I haven't tried it, but I would think since it's only paired to the phone the call would come in while listening to music. Am I assuming correctly that this is not possible either.

BTW I love the bluetooth functionality. Just wish it would pair to multiple phones at once.

[gmunson]

Originally Posted by mlee

The OP was trying to pair a Phone AND a completely different music device to his Camaro.

Now we are talking about a Phone that also has a music ).

To clarify, I was (and still am) trying to pair one device (my phone) that also has music to the car. There wouldn't be a problem if I was using 2 separate devices, because they could both be connected at the same time, thus negating the problem.

Sounds to me like GM just has some catching up to do in this area. I don't know of many phones out there that can pair to two separate radios at the same time.

Honestly, the system's not all that bad, I was just spoiled by SYNC. It's leaps and bounds ahead of most of the other stuff out there.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by gmunson

To clarify, I was (and still am) trying to pair one device (my phone) that also has music to the car. There wouldn't be a problem if I was using 2 separate devices, because they could both be connected at the same time, thus negating the problem.

Sounds to me like GM just has some catching up to do in this area. I don't know of many phones out there that can pair to two separate radios at the same time.

Honestly, the system's not all that bad, I was just spoiled by SYNC. It's leaps and bounds ahead of most of the other stuff out there.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

My phone (HTC Touch Pro with Windows Mobile 6.5) can pair both and I know the iPhone can as well.

[mlee]

Thanks for clearing that up for me... I'll give it a try with my blackberry.