All things related to the Xbox platforms
Any coop games that we could all play together @ndboarder @C Pav ?
The scalpers know people are still more or less just sitting at home and things like these are a hotter commodity than normal. Sucks that its still messing with consoles and PC parts as well. B & O made a fancier Xbox wireless headset as well, but at 5 times the price they aren't as tempting.Why are these wireless headsets so hard to get? Scalpers have them online for almost double the price.
@C Pav @jmanz
news.xbox.com
MLB The Show 21 is Coming to Xbox Game Pass on Day One - Xbox Wire
With another thrilling Opening Day in the books, Major League Baseball fans around the world were treated to all the nail biters, dingers, and bat flips they could handle when teams took the field to kick off the 2021 season. But if you thought that was all the big news we’re bringing you this...
news.xbox.com
I hadn't seen this, but that seems pretty big to me since this is the first year the game is not exclusive to PS, and also I believe is still made by a Sony owned studio. No chance I would ever buy the game, but now, who knows, maybe I'd install it and try i tout.@C Pav @jmanz
MLB The Show 21 is Coming to Xbox Game Pass on Day One - Xbox Wire
With another thrilling Opening Day in the books, Major League Baseball fans around the world were treated to all the nail biters, dingers, and bat flips they could handle when teams took the field to kick off the 2021 season. But if you thought that was all the big news we’re bringing you this...
The next new system that I will buy will be the Xbox. When that will be remains to be seen because it will be for the kids, not myself. I pretty much only play when my oldest wants to take me on in Mario Kart. Nintendo fits the bill for the age group for now.
They are great on the Xbox and a pretty good deal for the headset quality and price point. I managed to snag one a couple weeks ago somewhere. Anyway, works great over Xbox protocol. Works good over Bluetooth on phones. Keep those things in mind and that these are primarily made for Xbox and they are excellent for that use.
I learned a bit about the Bluetooth audio stack though and Bluetooth headsets on PC are a nightmare in general, and these headphones cannot overcome the way Bluetooth audio profiles work. Headsets that do have a separate dongle and do not use Bluetooth - which as you'll see can be done here to since there is an adapter (or wired) option to use these on PC the same as they work on Xbox.
Basically a BT headset have a couple profiles on them . There's an audio profile of just the headphone speakers that supports high quality audio output, and another handsfree profile that has the mic and headphones, but lower quality audio output. I presume this is a bandwidth issue and having to share that bandwidth for input / output when using the Mic. Either way - the problem is you can set your PC to use the high quality audio output, but as soon as you launch anything (like a game) that access the mic, a BT headset switches to the handsfree profile and you cannot hear any audio unless you set your PC output to the lower quality handsfree speaker output. The alternative if you must use BT is to use a different microphone as the input on your PC, this way the games/apps use that mic and the headset can remain in the higher quality audio profile for output. My understanding is this is true of all bluetooth headphones, but I have not tested others to confirm the behavior.
So if you intend to use them on PC at all, plan to use them connected by USB or get an Xbox wireless adapter to connect them as an "xbox controller" (the same as if connected by USB actually and same functionality as connected to Xbox). I have an Xbox wireless adapter coming so I can just use them wirelessly on my PC and not worry about other things. Currently I'm using a number of the workarounds I mentioned on PC depending on scenario:
1) For work - I have my PC output the higher quality audio and input as the hands-free mic. When I join a meeting or something they end up on the hands-free profile, but this works out since it essentially automatically mutes anything else I have going on as the meeting software is set to output on the hands-free speaker, while the PC continues to output to the higher quality (that I can't hear since the BT stack switches profiles).
2) For games - if I'm going to play with a friend and need to speak frequently, I plug in the USB so it just works as great as if it was on Xbox. If I'm going to do something alone, I'll just swap my PC's default microphone to the webcam and maintain teh higher quality audio output to the headset over BT.
Honestly, I just like that they are made by Microsoft and I don't have to mess with dongles etc. I really like the control design as well, and I watched a few YouTube videos on them and they mic audio was crisp and worked really well. Also I really like how they incorporate themselves into the xbox infrastructure with the ability to access features right from within the xbox menus. Plus the ability to update firmware is great, and I am sure that Microsoft will push out fixes and maybe even new features. I just plan on using mine solely for the xbox. Are they comfortable @ndboarder ?
Yes, they are comfortable. Compared to other headsets I have, they are a little tighter fitting. They also have the faux leather like material on the ear cups, so they seal more around my ears and block out outside sound more even if they aren't noise cancelling per se. Either way I can wear them for hours comfortably, and you can adjust how much side tone they have in their settings through the xbox or the xbox accessories app on PC
Any problems with them? I saw people complaining about random disconnects until the first patch came out. How do they sound? Do you have Dobly ATOMS enabled?
Nope, I haven't had issues. I got a wireless adapter, so using them on PC now the same as I would on xbox. I think they sound great. I do have Dolby Atmos for headphones enabled. I've heard they maybe come with a 6 month trial of that or something. I bought the license for it long ago, as well as the DTS:X for headphones from the Dolby app so I'd have them available on my Xbox and PC. For the price I think these are great, and sound better than other headsets I have, which include some that were more expensive. As far as connection, I haven't noticed any issues, they connect just like and xbox controller. the range is pretty good, but this could be impacted by other things just like the connection of a controller wirelessly. If your controller isn't having disconnects while playing, i would imagine the headset will perform just as well.