I like it for my HyperX Cloud Revolver S.
Poll: *** Xbox Series X|S - General Discussion Thread ***
Soldato
If you have hi def music on a hard drive, the loss is big .
Compared to what ?
Caporegime
You what?
It wouldnt surprise me if it appears on a refreshed model later but probably only for Series X. The decision was ridiculous. Also from my research I think VRR only works with a direct connection to the monitor. Luckily every game I played so far on my Series S is locked at the frame cap it is set to.
Yeah it seems the only way to do this now, for us headphone users, is Console -> HDMI TV -> (e)ARC -> HDMI AV receiver -> AMP -> Headphones.
Which is frankly ridiculous.
But on top of that, you become depended on what the TV will pass through. Seem (e)ARC is a very loosely defined protocol, and implementers are able to pick and choose which parts they want to support. I.e. which audio formats can be passed on.
And you will lose the headphone virtual surround options, which are only available if you use the controller 3.5 output.
Seriously poor.
Or you use the 3.5 controller output, accept the highly compressed audio, and swap out your 100+ ohm headphones for something in the 30-50 ohm range. And accept it will sound like garbage.
Thanks, MS.
I'll be very surprised if it does.
The problem here seems to boil down to Optical Out being more important on Series X|S than it was on Xbox One, owing to the new consoles reliance on the new HDMI 2.1 standard. It seems likely that whoever made the decision to remove the port had failed to understand its importance at launch. All they've seen is a massive saving (it's $2 per console × tens of millions of consoles) and (likely) low utilisation% on Xbox One.
Three or four years down the line, support for HDMI 2.1 on soundbars, amps, audio extractors, etc. will be good enough that removing Optical might actually be the right call. It'll still be a problem for some users. But far fewer than now.
I don't think the problem is so much the sound. It's extracting the sound while passing through the HDMI 2.1 signal to the TV that's the big problem. You can extract the sound easy enough, but you lose HDMI 2.1 in the process.
The only alternatives are to use a high-end TV which can pass through audio, or a monitor with a 3.5mm jack, or use the 3.5mm jack on the controller. But the TVs cost a lot of money. And 3.5mm just isn't a substitute for audio via optical or HDMI.
Six to twelve months down the line, more gear will be able to pass a HDMI 2.1 signal while splitting off the sound. At that point, being able to use the full HDMI feature set and high-end audio is simply a matter of buying a new receiver, soundbar, or audio extractor.
If I've understood the problem correctly.
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Any half decent headphones will sound a lot worse via the controller 3.5 output.
And any half decent headphones with an impedance greater than, say, 50 ohms will almost not work at all.
People have already invested in good DAC/amps for PC and console usage. Before they could plug those directly into the console via optical out. This is plenty sufficient even for uncompressed stereo output.
Now they can't plug them into anything. That's the problem.
And although AV receivers have HDMI, show me pure audio equipment (headphone amps, DACs, etc) that have HDMI input... certainly none that I've seen. Pure audio equipment tends to have USB in, coax in, optical in, RCA in, etc. Not HDMI.
So now you need an AV receiver or some other intermediary just to take HDMI and output a line signal, or optical, etc.
Flip the question on its head...
...how are you supposed to use decent headphones with the XSX
Anyone that wants to use headphones with decent sound, really. As for the wireless sets, I think only specific models that have been approved by/partnered with MS work with the XBox. Because they strictly lock down what the USB ports can be used for. So a lot don't work.
Audio out over USB works fine on a Mac mini 2018. I use an elcheapo Behringer UCA202 that has optical out into my Z5500 when I'm listening to Spotify and such.
Microsoft could have at least allowed their USB ports to do this. My guess is it has something to do with them charging vendors for a license. The tightwads
Microsoft could have at least allowed their USB ports to do this. My guess is it has something to do with them charging vendors for a license. The tightwads
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Yeah and the headsets that work/ are allowed to work with XBox are like £250-300
Which is more than many Sennheiser or other well-known "decent" headphones cost The compatible entry-level "gaming headsets" (which I must assume sound like total garbage ) are £100+.MS being MS, I guess. Create a problem that can only be solved with expensive licensed peripherals.
Man of Honour
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Yeah and the headsets that work/ are allowed to work with XBox are like £250-300
MS being MS, I guess. Create a problem that can only be solved with expensive licensed peripherals.
They don’t sound garbage at all at that price if you buy the right headset. Those that connect through the Xbox interface aren’t that price either.
For me its my setup, I have a very compact setup in my room in that I share components between different devices.
Generally my PC is on 24/7 and I have 2 monitors, my setup is something like this.
Monitor that supports multiple inputs.
PC and 1 or 2 consoles through one monitor, and second monitor is used as second screen for either laptop/pc and other console's.
Sound on all my consoles I have usually routed via soundcard on my pc, which means it benefits from sound processing if I want to use it and means I have one set of headphones plugged in one place that is used for "everything".
Better then having separate screen, and headphones for console, saves money and most importantly saves clutter.
Recently I did buy a elgato usb capture device to record FF7 remake footage on my PS4 pro because sony blocked a lot of the game from been recorded or even screenshots taken, this turned out to be extremely fortunate due to the lack of optical out on the xbox series consoles, that has been my get out of jail card for getting the audio to work to my satisfaction. OBS has to be running, as the usb device otherwise doesnt pass the sound. Obviously when I buy the PS5 I will have the same problem likely with the same solution as sony made the same decision.
My headphones are fairly high end but I cannot remember the model now, brand is sennheiser, they cost me a ton of money and obviously I want to maximise my investment using it for everything.
If anyone is considering something like a hdmi audio extractor I would get the elgato hd s60+, it goes right up to 4k60, its a good price considering what it does, has a headphone jack on the unit itself as well if you want to use it just as an extractor and will also serve as a means to capture game footage (given its a capture device), if you going to spend money, may as well get more features. It does do chroma 4:4:4 passthru so wont reduce image quality on the monitor. The PCIE version is obviously better, but also more expensive and not so flexible in that its not a external usb device powered device. MYidea is of no use if you want something with optical out though, I think need a usb sound device for that sadly.
Sadly this is a long term downside of consoles, they have a low entry cost, but accessory spending as well as clutter can quickly get out of control, as connectivity standards change from generation to generation and sometimes even mid generation.
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If its only 0.1%, then they could have afforded to provide a £100 voucher with the purchase to compensate the end user for having to replace their audio setup and the financial outlay would have been a pittance if the claimed 0.1% is true.
What has made this even worse is the revealing its only a meaner $2 cost to them, and little thought has been put into the consequences other than "hoping the market brings out new compatible products that are affordable". Is there really that many people who dont care about audio quality in games?
Yeah and the headsets that work/ are allowed to work with XBox are like £250-300
MS being MS, I guess. Create a problem that can only be solved with expensive licensed peripherals.
I expect after sales on accessories is a factor in the decision, the more I think about it the more this $2 sounds ridiculous.
Soldato
I agree completely with this, have my PC setup with a PS4 Pro (Soon to be PS5) and an XBox Series X and like to have all sound routed through my PC into one headset.
I've got an old Elgato HD60 Pro which doesn't pass through anything higher than 1080p so that's a no go, if I get an Audio Extractor i'm limited to 1080p as well until better ones come out and even then it stops the use of VRR.
Right now i've got a ghetto setup with some slight background noise of an aux cable going from my monitors headphone out port to my sound cards line in port. This allows me to hear the Series X sound through my PC headset and still allows me to use Discord and watch films/youtube/twitch etc while playing. It's a shame really as a simple inclusion of an optical out on the SeriesX/PS5 would have kept everyone happy.