Xbox Series X | S

[MattyP]

2 hours ago, Sane said:

I'd urge anyone using headphones to do this, I found there's a pretty big difference with the windows sonic stuff. Enough to spend the 20 euro on the dolby license anyway.

 

The dolby app also let's you chance some settings that have a big impact on the way things sound. Counter intuitively for me the movie settings sound best, also for games. Nice to get so much control over this stuff on console. 

Indeed the difference is quite impressive! Just not sure which one to go for?! Think Dolby Atmos has the slight edge although DTS seems less "in your face" and more subtle. The sound is also less compressed.

 

Too many choices 🤣

[carlospie]

To make it even harder, you can buy it for about two quid from various countries other than England!

[TehStu]

 

This is the update that'll let you turn off the boot animation sound.

[Sarlaccfood]

Yes finally!

[Kayin Amoh]

I love that boot animation sound. It's like a tiny blast of Tetris Effect every time you turn the console on.

[Jg15]

6 minutes ago, Kayin Amoh said:

I love that boot animation sound. It's like a tiny blast of Tetris Effect every time you turn the console on.

It's the best Xbox Boot sound and I will not be turning it off! I was upset when they shortened it.

[ilpostino]

1 hour ago, Jg15 said:

It's the best Xbox Boot sound and I will not be turning it off! I was upset when they shortened it.

 

I wish it was customisable and I could pick this:

 

 

[Hitcher]

If it was customisable this would be mine -

 

 

[Kryptonian]

 

[Sane]

6 hours ago, MattyP said:

Indeed the difference is quite impressive! Just not sure which one to go for?! Think Dolby Atmos has the slight edge although DTS seems less "in your face" and more subtle. The sound is also less compressed.

 

Too many choices 🤣

Yeah it's not an obvious choice. In the end I chose dolby because I liked the way it sounded and the app design is much better, but DTS is probably just as good. 

 

It's worth noting here that you only need to buy the license for use with headphones. Using Atmos or DTS X on a home theatre setup is free. 

[Dan]

I remember adjusting my settings and using this Reddit post as a starting point 

 

 
This YouTube video was handy too:

 

 

[carlospie]

Hole cow bright memory infinite looks incredible and plays incredible. It's like if I made a game when I was six years old. Can't believe it's not on gamepass, I bought it for about three pounds. 

[Lorfarius]

I've been trying to use the cloud service with a few GP games, doesn't seem to matter what time of day it is but never seems clear on the screen, some pixellation at times and a bit of controller lag thrown in. I'm with Plusnet on its full fibre service with 67.3Mb guaranteed and 17mb upload speed on average, router in the same room. I don't have this problem on any other system in the house, torrent, streams etc. Is cloud play just a bit gnaff? I turned everything off in the house last night to play Matchpoint but still had the same issues.

 

The ingame video reminds me of the difference between a 720P and 1080P video on Youtube, its just off and not sharp enough but if I download the game there's none of this.

[thesnwmn]

1 minute ago, Lorfarius said:

I've been trying to use the cloud service with a few GP games, doesn't seem to matter what time of day it is but never seems clear on the screen, some pixellation at times and a bit of controller lag thrown in. I'm with Plusnet on its full fibre service with 67.3Mb guaranteed and 17mb upload speed on average. I don't have this problem on any other system in the house, torrent, streams etc. Is cloud play just a bit gnaff? I turned everything off in the house last night to play Matchpoint but still had the same issues.

 

No not generally gnaff.

 

It's always going to suffer from some variability. It's the trade-off of installs and patches and that vs instant access and access when you couldn't normally (i.e. not at an XBox). It's also going to suit some styles of games much more than others.

But the basic "my line is amazing" isn't quite so simple for streaming. A real time game is a very different beast to a download like torrents and streams. A fat pipe is important but not on its own. The route your data goes down due to your ISP, the shit they put in their network, the business of their infrastructure, the distance from the severs, variability in your line (maybe it's fantastic but shits the bed for one second every minute for some reason). There's so much outside of your control that for some people it's just not going to work. Oh, and if you're on wireless then all that is much worse.

 

This is why streaming is a little tough to say definitively it's good enough without trying it. And many will give up after they find it's not good on their line or setup. Or not good enough for them at least (no slight, just some people will value convenience over quality).

 

I don't know if they do but MS could probably do with a dedicated experience tester game. Something you can launch on XCloud that is designed a calibration/monitoring app. Where the player can test input latency and image distortion without wondering if it's the game itself dropping frames or behaving oddly.

[Lorfarius]

Just now, thesnwmn said:

 

No not generally gnaff.

 

It's always going to suffer from some variability. It's the trade-off of installs and patches and that vs instant access and access when you couldn't normally (i.e. not at an XBox). It's also going to suit some styles of games much more than others.

But the basic "my line is amazing" isn't quite so simple for streaming. A real time game is a very different beast to a download like torrents and streams. A fat pipe is important but not on its own. The route your data goes down due to your ISP, the shit they put in their network, the business of their infrastructure, the distance from the severs, variability in your line (maybe it's fantastic but shits the bed for one second every minute for some reason). There's so much outside of your control that for some people it's just not going to work. Oh, and if you're on wireless then all that is much worse.

 

This is why streaming is a little tough to say definitively it's good enough without trying it. And many will give up after they find it's not good on their line or setup. Or not good enough for them at least (no slight, just some people will value convenience over quality).

 

I don't know if they do but MS could probably do with a dedicated experience tester game. Something you can launch on XCloud that is designed a calibration/monitoring app. Where the player can test input latency and image distortion without wondering if it's the game itself dropping frames or behaving oddly.

 

I was having the same problems with that new Plague Tail game, opening was a bit ropey and didn't look how it should. Gave up in the end but was as slow paced as they come as just wandering around a field so hardly anything about.

[Garwoofoo]

The cloud service has definitely improved recently and I've used it to play a few things on my laptop of late. When it works, it's pretty good and (for slower-paced games) pretty comparable to local play.

 

Sometimes it does seem to have problems with constantly refreshing the screen though - like a line of garbage that wipes from the top of the screen to the bottom, every few seconds. It's quite off-putting, sometimes it happens constantly and other times not at all. When it's happening, it makes the service almost unusable even though there's no lag or other issues. I wish I could work out what's causing that. My internet connection's bandwidth is far in excess of what the service requires.

 

(In terms of streaming services in general, though, Xcloud isn't a patch on GeForce Now. That's genuine witchcraft).

[Lorfarius]

I keep seeing all this blurb about them releasing a dedicated could service device and I keep thinking if this is the best they can do its just not worth it. Wouldn't have minded having a TV with it built in but won't bother from what I've seen so far as don't think its worth the money.

[thesnwmn]

I've found it pretty amazing on Steam Deck on WiFi at mine. No fancy speedy connection really. But only done a few hours of play. Beacon Pines was perfect. Nice story book on the sofa look great mostly but occasional drops in image quality.

 

It's not as good as local on an XBox obviously but I cannot play that on anything but my main TV.

[Kryptonian]

16 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

I keep seeing all this blurb about them releasing a dedicated could service device and I keep thinking if this is the best they can do its just not worth it. Wouldn't have minded having a TV with it built in but won't bother from what I've seen so far as don't think its worth the money.

 

I don't have the issues you've mentioned and my connection isn't as fast in either direction as yours. I suspect it must be something to do with your set up or conditions in your home/network  

[Lorfarius]

2 minutes ago, Kryptonian said:

 

I don't have the issues you've mentioned and my connection isn't as fast in either direction as yours. I suspect it must be something to do with your set up or conditions in your home/network  

 

I thought that but I also tried it on my mobile hotspot which is with Tesco and had the same issue.

[carlospie]

Just changed my headset to those above settings, makes them even better 

[PikaStu]

On 20/10/2022 at 11:46, carlospie said:

Hole cow bright memory infinite looks incredible and plays incredible. It's like if I made a game when I was six years old. Can't believe it's not on gamepass, I bought it for about three pounds. 

I don’t need another game in my backlog, but I looked this up on YouTube and it looks epic! £2.79 for an Argentinian code? Done!

[carlospie]

6 hours ago, PikaStu said:

I don’t need another game in my backlog, but I looked this up on YouTube and it looks epic! £2.79 for an Argentinian code? Done!

Haha it's blooming amazing. I love games like this it's like the Asuras wrath of next gen 

[carlito]

If I have a load of games stored on a USB external HDD on my Xbox One S and I buy a Series S can I just plug it in and play them? I am thinking about grabbing one just because the old One S takes so long to load but I want to continue to have lots of installed games that I look at, never play and ultimately watch as they get removed from Game Pass (and remain installed).

[Transient Curse]

6 minutes ago, carlito said:

If I have a load of games stored on a USB external HDD on my Xbox One S and I buy a Series S can I just plug it in and play them? I am thinking about grabbing one just because the old One S takes so long to load but I want to continue to have lots of installed games that I look at, never play and ultimately watch as they get removed from Game Pass (and remain installed).

Yes, it'll work (assuming you log your account in, they're on gamepass / you own them. Anything with a disc will not be able to be authenticated)

[carlito]

Thanks

[Hitcher]

Unless they're enhanced for Series consoles; in which case they update.

[ScouserInExile]

Played done Minecraft Dungeons with my kids on their Xbone. My life, I'd forgotten about loading times. I guess you get used to these things so you don't remember them being bad, but it was honestly painful going back now I'm so used to how quick the S is.

[MattyP]

2 hours ago, ScouserInExile said:

Played done Minecraft Dungeons with my kids on their Xbone. My life, I'd forgotten about loading times. I guess you get used to these things so you don't remember them being bad, but it was honestly painful going back now I'm so used to how quick the S is.

 I picked up an OG Xbox to play some older digital content but found it torturous to use TBH the SSD is the biggest single upgrade that has improved gaming on this gen consoles for me. 

[JoeK]

Quick question to those who know - does the Series S run backwards compatibility in 4k? I'm thinking games like the original Gears trilogy. They look bloody fantastic in 4k and 60fps on an X, but wondering if they do the same on the S?