Some neighbors of mine are setting up their expensive Christmas lights and synchronized radio display again this year, and I was hoping to get a little bit of video recorded along with the music. I'd like to use either my N9 or N900 to record the spectacle, since they both have an FM receiver built in. But I can't seem to make it work . . .

On both phones, if I start the FM radio (with any radio app I've tried) then switch to the camera, the radio stops playing as soon as I change to video mode. If I start the camera first, it goes into standby mode when I try to start radio playback. Does anyone know a way to work around this, or are the two processes competing for the same resource and therefore can't be used at the same time? According to this page, the FM radio is a video4linux device, maybe that's the conflict. Or am I asking too much of GStreamer or maybe the DSP?

I'm sure I could use a separate radio (or the other phone) coupled either acoustically or electronically to do this, but I thought it would be cool to tell people I'd recorded it with just one device (and they can't. )

I've tried searching for a thread here along these lines, but I haven't had any luck. (Also, Power Search isn't working for me in Kubuntu Chromium right now but is okay for Firefox: weird.)

Suggestions appreciated, or if anyone knows it just can't be done so I can forget about it without regret . . .

On my N9, I know that music or video (of any type) has always stopped while using the camera.
I am also interested to hear if anyone has a work around.

I am not an expert but having seen the source of two apps working with audio (VU meter and Orecchiette), it seems like the app has to select the audio source. So the answer would be no, unless you change the Camera app. Or unless someone clever comes up with a trick to swap the sources at the system level.

I have no problem to use simultaneously radio (QmlRadio, QRadio) and camera on n900.

The question was not about using them simultaneously but about using the radio as an audio input for the camera instead of the microphone.

Yes, that's exactly how it works for me. I recorded video with fm station as an audio source.

It's kind of both, since if the programs can't coexist it won't matter if sound can be routed from one to another. Luckily, Q Radio solves both issues.

Low and behold, Qradio does it on N900. Start the radio, tune your station. Then start the stock camera and set video mode. Sometimes I need to wait a little while till all the camera buttons get rendered onscreen. Then hit record and go.

Oh, and it doesn't seem to matter if Q radio is playing to speakers or headphone. Camera records sound either way. Just can't listen along if sent to headphones that are merely a short patch cable to nowhere.

I haven't tried qml radio on N900 yet. I did try qml radio on N9 and it always quits playing when I try to record video.