yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dan 6a:
I am glad this issue has been reraised by someone else, when I made a post in the general forum the reaction was, who uses fm stereo anyway. Hopefully samsung will pick up on this.

with the earphones included you get stereo output playing mp3s and in ALL the several fw's i have tested NONE of them were able to produce FM in stereo.

I have tried my technics headphones and still only FM in mono.

The included headphones play stereo mp3 so it seems that it is not a hardware problem, I understand the jack is special due to the tv out function. but it seems like samsung could improve on this aspect.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
Funny thing. they have to sell millions to finally start appear people that thinks is rather stupid to have a mono radio. Many persons that I've talked about this problem told me their radio sound "ok" and didn't noticed any problem, let alone complaint about this.

Some guys think I'm picky because I'm complaining not having a Stereo radio. It's incredible how low are these standards nowadays. The more high tech we go the less demanding?

This should teach us a lesson also about all those guys telling my GPS is ok. My camera takes rather nice photos.My battery last me 4 days, etc. etc.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
1 battery wont even last me past 1 day, i need 2 battery to last through a full day

i'm quite sure in future software releases they'll address the Stereo sounding like a mono FM radio

i can't even phatom a mono FM chipset :p that's like going backward in time
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Roy Ngan:
Guys, may I know what's the "AF" button for? Mine is always with the green bar on, all the time.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] plemen:
hahahah - wow mono FM!! I just noticed it it. This is ridiculous to the point of being comical...

I really hope there is an update for this.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] MoWa22:
It's "Alternative Frequencies" - part of the RDS system that will take you to another frequency with the same station if the one you listen too gets too weak. Having something as "advanced" as RDS in a mono radio is hillarious. :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] poolcin:
It's a function of RDS. AF (Alternative frequency) is an option that allows a receiver to re-tune to a different frequency that provides the same station, when the first signal becomes too weak. For example when you drive across the country it switches automatically to the stronger frequency of the same radio station.

Edit:

Ugh, MoWa22 was quicker ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
The Australian i9000 supports Stereo FM radio at least (with RDS):

http://www.optus.builtforbusiness.com.au/phone/samsung_galaxy_s

I severely doubt optus would lie (or they would get sued). I haven't tested the Aussie firmware, but RDS is working in the XX version (unrelated).

Not sure about whether it is operating in stereo here, its hard to tell (but I don't think so). Generally these days receivers though apparently shift between different states of Stereo and Mono, rather than two states, only mono, or only stereo. It might just be sucky signal too, which might lead to us only getting a tiny bit of stereo.

Anyone with an Optus i9000 willing to check if they can identify stereo sound?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] miki4242:
As a reply from someone who has been lurking around xda and GPS forums (no don't groan, I'll explain in a moment!):

- As far as I can tell from what I've found in some technical specs and dissecting drivers and such, the audio chip on the SGS has two (=stereo) inputs reserved for the radio, so if the FM radio chip supports stereo, the SGS should, too.

- I've not found any conclusive evidence that the FM radio (+ other stuff) chip in the SGS only supports mono, but ofcourse that doesn't mean it's stereo.

- The driver stuff and the Service Menu app I've looked at seem to suggest that the FM radio stuff is quite configurable, and only a fraction is actually used in user apps (e.g. the FM player app).

What seems to be missing from the FM player but present somehow in the driver and Service Menu:

- RSSI indication (Relative Signal Strength Indication)

- Some RSSI thresholds, one below which to start looking for an alternative station broadcasting the same program, defined in the RDS data stream.

- A few things I can't explain, some might (futile hope?) be a threshold above which to enable stereo, but I simply am not sure.

Now about the GPS stuff, in several forums including xda there have been discussions about RDS-TMC (Traffic Message Channel, used for road traffic information): besides a GPS receiver, some navigation devices have built-in FM radios to receive this TMC data.

Some of the devices have apps for listening to FM radio.

Some of these FM radios have only mono output. The explanation was that the radio chips were designed primarily for RDS-TMC reception, providing audio for listening to radio was simply a by-product requiring very little extra engineering/production cost, but stereo simply wasn't a priority.

For those who dare, I would suggest poking around in the drivers, the FM radio app and the Service Menu app, the rest of us can only hope and wait. Maybe a firmware update will give us stereo FM :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] MoWa22:
No worries, we just supplied an answer in stereo. :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
this is the best technological sound answer i've seen so far, and it does make sense to have a mono FM if it was intended for something else other than audio listening
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
I think there are 2 cases for this.. It is a stereo chip (Optus advertises it as such), and obviously, it is possible to hear the difference because it does add a "3rd dimension" when done properly. From that aspect it is fair to be annoyed.

But the reason why many of us don't really care (me inclusive), is that FM broadcasts as L+R, and L-R so information isn't really lost (you will always hear all information from the song, but stereo just makes it's more spatial). A good song is a good song, and there are only a few songs which use stereo to enhance their experience (such as the rockafeller skank). In fact, it's probably similar to movies, research has shown that HD or merely acceptable quality, good movies are enjoyed equally, unlike crappier movies (which is probably why Sony is so eager for Blu-ray, whilst Miramax doesn't seem to give a damn). I'd like stereo, but honestly, I never even realised it was missing, my experience has probably been the same...

Someone should confirm the optus firmware first though because they advertise it as stereo (maybe only some firmware handles it properly currently). It's possibly an issue with the european firmwares..

That being said, if you listen to a lot of stereo music, both channels do sound similar generally, because of the way they are recorded.. It's entirely possible that the FM has some stereo.. Anyone jacked it into their line-in on their computer to confirm? First we should prove that it is definitely 100% mono (hearing as we all know can be highly prone to opinion)... Also, it could possibly be a "grade" of stereo...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xnox:
I am using Optus i9000, and am in Perth :) And am using the lastest firmware update:

PDA: I9000DDJG4

PHONE: I9000DDJG4

CSC: I9000ODDJG4

The way I test is to plug the headset into the HTC Desire, listen to the radio and then plug the same headset to SGS, and listening to the same radio channel, I can definitely detect the difference.

I know there may not be that many people who might use the FM radio, but I do, and when you realise it's MONO, it's just plain frustrating!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Have you emailed Optus (just curious how they will respond).
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xnox:
I have just terminated my contract with them, so should I be contacting Samsung instead?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
i'm not sure it'll work if you hook it up to the line in of the PC to record the sound for analysis.

to get FM on the phone you need to jack in a headphone, as it uses the headphone as the FM antennae

so if you hook it up directly to another recording device, it might not work properly as a FM antennae, or at least not be able to record a proper sound even if it does work in some way as an FM antennae without the RF interference from the in-line port of the PC obstructing the reception.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nickporwal:
Guys FM in SGS is MONO. Although sammy can fix it using firmware update. Its shame that such a high end android phone doesnt have stereo FM.

I am using DDJG4 for india.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Francesc9:
The mine it sounds in mono mode, but I have to say that I'm having little problems with the jack, because the output tv (Hama cable with 3 jack) doesn't work in my SGS.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
You people worry to much. If stereo is FW caped, you can surely bet that is a way to activate. Remember that android is basically Linux and you can do anything on Linux.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
Don't swet. if it's a FW issue we surely can fix it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
andrewluecke I don't agree with you. Using your line of thought, why bother to have stereo on music player, the info is all there and a good music....

And in films? stereo? For what? They just talk and the effects, go to the movie if you want that.

And the headphones? A pair of heaphones? For what? If all is mono you cut costs by sending just one phone. And you can choose what ear to use it.

Sorry. FM mono is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Samsung should be ashame of this. For me is not better or worse than the crappy GPS stuff. It's subpar stuff. This is a phone from other galaxy. I bet they have 2 ears in the other galaxy. You can't hide the shame of having an high-end phone with a MONO radio and a non usable GPS.

The explanation miki4242 gave us is great but the reason for the chip being mono cause of being a crappy stuff adapted from TMC data receiver doesn't make sense because you have high-end features (for FM) like RDS and AF. Mono doesn't fit here.

Regarding the quality of stereo broadcasts I can assure you that with a good quality FM radio (almost impossible to get nowadays, you have to get stuff from the 70's and 80's) listening to a high-end broadcast you'll hear the most amazing sound you'll ever hear. You'd say "THIS IS FM??!?" Of course I don't want that. Just something like my daugther 50€ phone has. Decent plain FM Stereo.

Oh and BTW. The FM radio is 100% mono. I can hear. It's simple to hear the difference. No need for fancy equipment or test. After all mother nature made us with 2 ears. I'm not exactly demanding some feature from other galaxy.

Here is the introduction from the, as usual, excelent wikipedia article:

The first stereo transmission was made telephonically by Clément Ader in 1881. The BBC made radio's first stereo broadcast in December 1925. In the 1930s, Alan Blumlein of EMI patented stereo records, stereo films, and also surround sound.[1] Harvey Fletcher of Bell Laboratories investigated techniques for stereophonic recording and reproduction. The first commercial motion picture to be exhibited with stereophonic sound was Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). By the mid-1950s, multichannel sound was common for big-budget Hollywood motion pictures.[2] In 1953, Remington Records began taping some of its sessions in stereo, with the first stereophonic phonograph discs available to the general public in 1958. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced stereophonic FM broadcasting technical standards in April 1961, and licensed regular stereophonic FM radio broadcasting, to commence that same year. In 1984, multichannel television sound was adopted by the FCC as the United States standard for stereo television transmission.

And now in 2010, ladies and gentlemen... SAMSUNG brings us a phone of the future, from other galaxy, 1GHZ, 16GB of RAM, etc. etc. with FM MONO.

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! (people goes crazy) SAMSUNG RULES! SAMSUNG RULES!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] nicoloco:
I would just say that it's not because it 's a very expensive phone, top of the range that it's not possible to have some mono sound.

For instance my canon EOS 500 D has the ability to record movie in HD .... with mono sound !! Most of the other camera able to record video ( even the cheap compact one) have stereo recording sound ...

Now I am no expert and I don't know if having a mono recording chip is as absurd as having a mono FM :D
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
As long as there is clearly identified in the features cahracteristics that the cam records mono sound. No problemo. My Sony TX5 also records HD movies in mono. But I knew that. And underwater stereo is not something that I'm very interested.

If you point me some other phone in this price range, or even 1/3 this price range that has a mono FM radio...

Also the problem here is: nobody knows for sure. Nor samsung AFAIK.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
I really can't understand this people, this things has a thousand a technological marvels and the suddenly the only thing that matters is that the FM radio is MONO.

Some people often forgets, that this is a freaking phone!!!

I can't ignore this issue. In matter of facts i did get a little upset when i discovered this. But i forgot all about it, when i started to use the phone.

I have been researching a little bit and the galaxy not only has a pretty decent graphic processor also have one of the best audio chips in the market (Which have FM stereo support).

The problem here is the software and i can bet all my money on that. Don't forget that FM radio isn't oficially supported by google. And not many android phones has FM radio(Even the Nexus One came out without FM radio). In the last mencionated the only way to get FM radio was over the Internet or a cooked ROM.

Here some proof of that:

http://translate.google.com.ar/tran...radio-fm-en-el-nexus-one/&sl=es&tl=en&act=url

Well, and don't forget that the glorious Iphone 4 doesn't have FM. However the people didn't give a damn when paid a ton of money for him.

But Samsung put MONO radio and suddenly the SGS pass to be one of the best smartphones in the market to one of the worst.

Want i want to say is this, Samsung made a mistake here, no doubt. But that is not reason kill this spectacular phone. Who has most important thing to look that the radio is mono or Stereo.

But keep your hands up. I bet that this thing can easily be fix. By a new Fm player or tweaking the audio chip's driver.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] plemen:
No need for anybody to panic - it's a spectacular phone; stereo FM would be very nice to have.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
you can say that again,

there are a lot of people that forgets that, and expect the phone to have everything including the kitchen sink, and they want that kitchen sink thrown in as an extra to be able to spit fire to boot.

it's extremely funny to see the answer that some people comes up why such and such much be such because they demand it.

if there is a bug, just report the bug, and let the developers fix it.

instead of blasphemering the lungs out for attention.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] xnox:
Well, what we are not happy about is that it says FM Stereo on the box it came in. And it would not matter to most people, but it does to those who do use it. If it had said MONO, then there is nothing to complain at all

I guess we will just have to wait and see if the next firmware update fixes that.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
Nor in the box nor manual says that the Radio is stereo. That Internet or the carriers says that the radio is stereo is another thing.

Perhaps Reviewers didn't even bother to check it either.

The Hardware is capable to do it. For me it's most for a FW or driver issue.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
I'm 99% sure it is.. Optus are advertising it as Stereo. It's possible their FM receiving application just hasn't got stereo implemented yet (maybe because Samsung wanted to do it properly, so it's seamless). Hopefully a sep patch month thing?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] dan 6a:
To whoever suggested to report it as a bug to samsung, how does one do that?

I don't know about you guys but I am 99% sure samsung have people monitoring these threads for issues/problems so I think it is nothing but a good thing making a long thread about it.

Its a cop out to say its a good phone apart from stereo FM, I mean HTC desire owners have all advertised components working. The GPS debacle proves that this phone was released a little premature. I have installed several fw's now and can't wait for froyo to have GPS/fm stereo etc all working as they should be.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
I guess somebody is putting words is other peoples mouth. SGS is not suddenly a bad phone. Nobody slammed the great hardware. But what's the problem with those drama queens that feel utterly bad by having the problems pointed?

I have a SGS and I'm still happy with many aspects of the phone. But that doesn't make the GPS stop being useless. That doesn't make the SGS contacts app being crap and messing a lot of things. That doesn't make the SGS calendar app being totally crap and not syncing with google calendar.

I have no problems in praise the nice features (almost hardware) and slam the bad things (thankfully only software, I hope). I am no SGS fanbioy.

And although there is not stated anywhere the radio is stereo, SAMSUNG support already told me is stereo. But SAMSUNG also told other guy it's mono. So guess what. Nobody knows for sure. For me it's just another problem to be solved... maybe... one of these days.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
I saw guys 100% sure the chip is mono, and guys 100% sure it's a software thing and can be fixed. Samsung Portugal told me its stereo but other Samsung told other guy it's mono.

There is only one thing for sure. THE ACTUAL RADIO IS MONO. Nobody knows for sure it ever will be/can be fixed.

Period!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gllu:
I agree that Mono FM is absolutely unfit for marketing in 2010 (or 2000 as it goes).

All the idea behind FM is having two channels. It seems like Samsung wanted to add one feature to the list and did it quite badly.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sturmeh:
Dw guys just press the 5.1 button and you'll be having the surround sound experience in no time!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
you're joking, right?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
well after all the SGS is advertized with 5.1 sound... have no clue where the SUB woofer is comming from... on a stereo headset. :p

i'm quite sure the 5.1 is only meant to be used with the TV out option
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ickyboo:
Its used only when using built in audio player. Top right corner. Can't remember if it works in videos. Either way its fair 5.1 but does sound good

Sent from my Apple Newton 2100
[Galaxy S I9000 General] ickyboo:
I noticed I get rds-tmc data with the big radio stations in Sydney like station names and scrolling song title. Maybe having all the junk makes the fm mono?

Sent from my Apple Newton 2100
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Roy Ngan:
Thanks for the info
[Galaxy S I9000 General] snapper.fishes:
Never noticed that the radio is in mono....

Odd indeed. My old SE K750i had stereo radio.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
Optus advertises it as Stereo FM, so it probably has stereo FM hardware, but the firmware is doing something silly like ignoring the second channel...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
I'm not fanboy neither. But you are talking like the Radio is the most important thing on the phone. And it's not(unless for me), it's more if i didn't read this i would never figure it out.

Don't forget that many android phones doesn't even has FM radio.

I understand your frustuation. But it's not reason the get sarcastic either. No phone it's perfect everyone has a problem, big or small but they has it. if you not believeme ask Jobs..

And by the way, the calendar's and the contact's application is one of the best i saw on a phone. And believe me i saw a lot. But this is a matter of taste.

Relax guys, this is not a big deal or the reason to pull your hair .It's just a little detail to be fix.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] format:
Nobody is freeking out on this. And by any means is the most important feature.

The issues discussed here are:

1 - Not having a STEREO FM radio on a phone like this is bad. Use it or not. Like it or not. It's just plain stupid.

We're not saying everybody should use it or not. I think its stupid also not having a flash led on the camera. But hey, I knew that from the begin and I bought it. So no problems

2- Nobody knows for sure if it's the firmware, the hardware, the software, and nobody has the phone number of the only korean that knows for sure. So this is utterly stupid also.

It's not because I don't use much of a certain feature that i'm gonna say it's not important.

But people come to this thread just to say that because they don't use it much or never, so it's not important, and it's a fantastic phone the radio being mono you're just picky....

Nobody is smashing the SGS. We just think it's incredible stick a MONO radio in a high-end phone.

We don't need to hide the problems. And as you can see for many persons in this thread an FM mono radio is a joke and doesn't belong to this equipment.

Also I'm not frustrated with that. Just sad. I don't needed so much that it frustrates me. Nevertheless its not working as expected. Maybe someday it will.

You say, not many Android phones have radio? It's not fair to compare the best android phione with many. I only compare this phone with Desire. (both are available in my country). Guess if the desire radio is mono....

Also how many android phones have front camera and video call? In my country 1. This one. And it works. And for me this was a feature that made the difference. If it only works in Black and White, or didn't have sound in video calls I would blame Samsung also. Don't care if many androids have it one or not. Don't care if many use it or not.

FM radio is less important to me, but since it's flawed why shouldn't we complaint about it?

PS

Last night JM6 firmware appeared in Kyes in my country. Tonight I'm gonna update and report back if made any difference in the radio.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cba1986:
If the chip support stereo audio it surely support stereo radio. The major problem here are the drivers. Much of them are not fully mature for android. So my guess is that this is a soft issue. But i could be wrong.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] andrewluecke:
That, and if it isn't, it's deceptive advertising for MANY vendors.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] miki4242:
Good news! Well, promising at least.

There is yet hope the FM radio is stereo!

At least in the mid-level drivers there is evidence of stereo support.

For the techies out there (taken from stock JF3 ROM):

$ nm -CD lib/libfmradio_jni.so | grep -i stereo
000030d9 T FmRadioController::SetStereo(unsigned long)

There you have it, no denying it. I only hope this isn't yet another example of something Samsung left in when there is no actual hardware support for it...

Strangely, the FMRadio app doesn't seem to call this method at all.

edit: using some toolz, saw that there is actual code there, poking at real hardware (well, sending an ioctl up to the kernel anyway). No disappointing empty stub, so the news just got better!

edit: Anyone know more about Java than I do (it wakes me up in the morning, and my Mom was born somewhere over there) who could write an app so we can twiddle this thing and see what it does?