Xbox Series X | S

[womble9]

Something has just made me happy. 

 

Like not just a bit happy, but mega big grin happy......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Garwoofoo]

Having constant audio issues with my Series X at the moment, I mentioned this before briefly but I just wondered if any of the experts here had any advice.

 

I've recently upgraded to a proper surround system (it's a Sony HT-A9 which does all sorts of fancy virtualisation tricks but is to all extents and purposes a Dolby Atmos system). I've got this connected to my LG CX TV via the eARC port HDMI 2, with the Xbox connected to HDMI 3.

 

Generally the system works really well and the eARC is working but I have two specific issues with the Xbox:

 

1) Generally the speakers turn themselves on when the TV does (I have HDMI-CEC turned on at both ends) - UNLESS I have left the TV on the Xbox input, in which case this doesn't work. Something about the Xbox is blocking the HDMI-CEC communication for the speakers, and I can't work out what. I don't even need to have the Xbox on, just having it on that input and turning the TV on prevents this from working.

 

2) This is the most frustrating - the Xbox keeps on sending sound to the wrong speakers! I'm using Uncompressed 7.1 and generally it works fine but Dolby Vision games in particular seem to like to throw all the sound out of the rears, or out of one speaker in particular, until I flip in and out of DV or turn things off and on. Doesn't happen every time and doesn't cause any "errors" when it does but it's very frustrating to sit down to play something and realise that the sound is just wrong. This doesn't happen with anything else I own (TV apps etc always work correctly), it's definitely an Xbox issue. My suspicion is that this is related to the HDMI Handshake issue that occasionally causes the Xbox to boot up in the wrong resolution on LG TVs but this is way more common and significantly more irritating than that issue.

 

I've tried everything I can to fix this, flipped everything off and on in the Xbox settings and tried various orders of booting things up and nothing has resolved either of these issues or helped in any way. I can't find ANYBODY reporting these issues on Google although admittedly they are difficult things to search for.

 

Does anyone have any ideas at all? This is driving me crazy.

[scottcr]

Does anyone know a quick way to actually get to speak to a person for gamepass support? My account isn’t letting me pay - which means we can’t use it and it’s abojt to be cancelled. Have tried multiple attempts, different payments mechanisms and all fail.

 

spoke to support on chat and after about 45 minutes they accepted the problem was on their end and could see it but couldn’t do anything about it and the issue was escalated…

 

but I wasn’t given a case ID and I’ve received no follow up.

 

driving me and my son nuts. 

[Hitcher]

1 hour ago, Garwoofoo said:

Having constant audio issues with my Series X at the moment, I mentioned this before briefly but I just wondered if any of the experts here had any advice.

 

I've recently upgraded to a proper surround system (it's a Sony HT-A9 which does all sorts of fancy virtualisation tricks but is to all extents and purposes a Dolby Atmos system). I've got this connected to my LG CX TV via the eARC port HDMI 2, with the Xbox connected to HDMI 3.

 

Generally the system works really well and the eARC is working but I have two specific issues with the Xbox:

 

1) Generally the speakers turn themselves on when the TV does (I have HDMI-CEC turned on at both ends) - UNLESS I have left the TV on the Xbox input, in which case this doesn't work. Something about the Xbox is blocking the HDMI-CEC communication for the speakers, and I can't work out what. I don't even need to have the Xbox on, just having it on that input and turning the TV on prevents this from working.

 

2) This is the most frustrating - the Xbox keeps on sending sound to the wrong speakers! I'm using Uncompressed 7.1 and generally it works fine but Dolby Vision games in particular seem to like to throw all the sound out of the rears, or out of one speaker in particular, until I flip in and out of DV or turn things off and on. Doesn't happen every time and doesn't cause any "errors" when it does but it's very frustrating to sit down to play something and realise that the sound is just wrong. This doesn't happen with anything else I own (TV apps etc always work correctly), it's definitely an Xbox issue. My suspicion is that this is related to the HDMI Handshake issue that occasionally causes the Xbox to boot up in the wrong resolution on LG TVs but this is way more common and significantly more irritating than that issue.

 

I've tried everything I can to fix this, flipped everything off and on in the Xbox settings and tried various orders of booting things up and nothing has resolved either of these issues or helped in any way. I can't find ANYBODY reporting these issues on Google although admittedly they are difficult things to search for.

 

Does anyone have any ideas at all? This is driving me crazy.

Disable DV gaming. Very few games actually support it correctly.

[Garwoofoo]

2 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

Disable DV gaming. Very few games actually support it correctly.

 

Yeah that was going to be my next step, reverting to regular HDR to see if it made any difference. I've been using DV for ages with my old soundbar without any issues at all though, it just seems to be this new sound system that's triggered the issues. Possibly a bandwidth problem?

[Eighthours]

56 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

Disable DV gaming. Very few games actually support it correctly.

 

I've turned DV off because of the audio lag to my Sonos Arc. Cutscenes just weren't lipsyncing properly in any game, and HiFi Rush was a nightmare. As soon as I turnred it off, everything lined up correctly and tbh it isn't a noticeable downgrade because, as you say, few games use DV properly.

[Garwoofoo]

On 28/02/2023 at 09:47, Hitcher said:

Disable DV gaming. Very few games actually support it correctly.

 

Sadly this didn't work. I see the same issue with HDR10.

 

I think I've tried everything now, including new cables, completely rebooting and reconnecting every device, and flipping every option on the Xbox settings. It's weird, it's just like about one time in ten when the Xbox is doing an HDMI handshake (either when it's booting up, or more commonly when it's switching between HDR and SDR), it will end up scrambling the sound and stuff ends up coming out of the wrong speakers. The rest of the time it sounds perfect.

 

I see that the current Xbox system update patch notes specify under known issues both "audio problems" and "HDMI-CEC issues" so maybe it's an actual Xbox bug. But if so I can't work out why I can't find anyone, literally anyone at all, reporting this problem.

 

Guess I can try 5.1 uncompressed or even Dolby Digital, see if that makes any difference. Shouldn't sound TOO different, right? Sadly Atmos has audio lag or I'd try that too.

[Alex W.]

 

Ball’s in Sony’s court now, time for that PS3 health grill.

[Super Craig]

[Shimmyhill]

On 01/03/2023 at 18:29, Garwoofoo said:

 

Sadly this didn't work. I see the same issue with HDR10.

 

I think I've tried everything now, including new cables, completely rebooting and reconnecting every device, and flipping every option on the Xbox settings. It's weird, it's just like about one time in ten when the Xbox is doing an HDMI handshake (either when it's booting up, or more commonly when it's switching between HDR and SDR), it will end up scrambling the sound and stuff ends up coming out of the wrong speakers. The rest of the time it sounds perfect.

 

I see that the current Xbox system update patch notes specify under known issues both "audio problems" and "HDMI-CEC issues" so maybe it's an actual Xbox bug. But if so I can't work out why I can't find anyone, literally anyone at all, reporting this problem.

 

Guess I can try 5.1 uncompressed or even Dolby Digital, see if that makes any difference. Shouldn't sound TOO different, right? Sadly Atmos has audio lag or I'd try that too.

Have you tried turning all the HDMI-CEC off? It’s never worked since day one, it will never ever work properly - too many manufacturers implement it differently leading to the frustrating and hard to replicate issues you have - Sony and LG kit is particularly bad at it hence why you may be running into issues.

[womblingfree]

Final instalment of £28.99 went out from Klarna for my Series X today.

 

I was expecting an Achievement to pop up.

[Garwoofoo]

16 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

Have you tried turning all the HDMI-CEC off? It’s never worked since day one, it will never ever work properly - too many manufacturers implement it differently leading to the frustrating and hard to replicate issues you have - Sony and LG kit is particularly bad at it hence why you may be running into issues.

 

It is a bit of a crapshoot I agree. I do kind of need it though to make sure the TV turns off when my son turns off the Xbox as he's a right bugger for leaving it on

 

In terms of the speakers problem, it seems fine with 5.1 uncompressed. The problem only seems to occur when the Xbox is set to output 7.1. It must be something specific to this setup, maybe this combination of sound system/TV/eARC, as I still can't find anyone else reporting it online. But for gaming I find 5.1 sounds perfectly acceptable (especially given the virtualisation the HT-A9 does), and I have a dedicated player for movies, so as a workaround I'm reasonably happy with this until something gets patched somewhere along the line.

[Jg15]

Anyone use an additional cooling fan on their Series X and have any recommendations? I keep looking at the G-Story one on Amazon which seems to have good reviews (although people report it is noticeable in sound).

[womblingfree]

Can you watch movies purchased on the MS Store on a telly without an Xbox or streaming from a PC?

 

Is there a telly app?

[thesnwmn]

9 hours ago, Jg15 said:

Anyone use an additional cooling fan on their Series X and have any recommendations? I keep looking at the G-Story one on Amazon which seems to have good reviews (although people report it is noticeable in sound).

 

Why would it need one? Is it just people who wish they'd bought a PC instead?

[carlospie]

On 08/03/2023 at 07:52, Garwoofoo said:

 

It is a bit of a crapshoot I agree. I do kind of need it though to make sure the TV turns off when my son turns off the Xbox as he's a right bugger for leaving it on

 

In terms of the speakers problem, it seems fine with 5.1 uncompressed. The problem only seems to occur when the Xbox is set to output 7.1. It must be something specific to this setup, maybe this combination of sound system/TV/eARC, as I still can't find anyone else reporting it online. But for gaming I find 5.1 sounds perfectly acceptable (especially given the virtualisation the HT-A9 does), and I have a dedicated player for movies, so as a workaround I'm reasonably happy with this until something gets patched somewhere along the line.

You know, my Xbox used to turn off my TV, now it doesn't do it either. It's definitely the newest update. And it's annoying as fuck 

[Jg15]

11 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

 

Why would it need one? Is it just people who wish they'd bought a PC instead?

It's me. I just worry the console is overheating, especially when playing the proper next gen stuff. I know the internal fans do their job and it's all probably fine, just a fault of mine!

[Hitcher]

It will simply shutdown if it is overheating.

[HarryBizzle]

I ran my consoles in a closed cupboard throughout the heat of the summer and had no issues whatsoever. 
 

As someone who also replaced the thermal paste on their PS4 and forgot to plug the fan back in, can confirm they just switch off before you can fry them. 

[JPL]

2 hours ago, Jg15 said:

It's me. I just worry the console is overheating, especially when playing the proper next gen stuff. I know the internal fans do their job and it's all probably fine, just a fault of mine!

You don't need one.

[MattyP]

On 11/03/2023 at 11:38, Jg15 said:

Anyone use an additional cooling fan on their Series X and have any recommendations? I keep looking at the G-Story one on Amazon which seems to have good reviews (although people report it is noticeable in sound).

From my experience both the Series consoles have great cooling solutions out of the box. In fact MS have been pretty good at keeping things cool after their learnings from a certain RRoD incident...

 

[deerokus]

The Xbox cooling is very well designed. Don't add anything to it.

[Boozy The Clown]

If flames shoot out the top, just pee on it.

[Kryptonian]

Does anyone elses Microsoft Store seem to want to update every fucking day? And despite being a small update it always takes ages and/or fails. No issues with anything else.

[Skull Commander]

3 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

Does anyone elses Microsoft Store seem to want to update every fucking day? And despite being a small update it always takes ages and/or fails. No issues with anything else.

Yup. That happens regularly with me. Thought it was a quirk particular to me. 

[Rayn]

11 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

Does anyone elses Microsoft Store seem to want to update every fucking day? And despite being a small update it always takes ages and/or fails. No issues with anything else.

 

Yeah. It seems the MS Store isn't a stand alone app, though, but rather integrated in the actual OS which is why it's so slow and 'delicate'. Why it needs updating so frequently is beyond me, though, but I'm guessing it has to do with security issues as it handles payment info. 

[evilashchris]

Can anybody recommend a good controller clip that holds your phone?

 

I just got gifted a lovely design lab controller for my 50th and don't want to scratch it up or anything.

 

Cheers!

[Kryptonian]

14 minutes ago, evilashchris said:

Can anybody recommend a good controller clip that holds your phone?

 

I just got gifted a lovely design lab controller for my 50th and don't want to scratch it up or anything.

 

Cheers!

What phone is it?

[evilashchris]

Huawei P30,

 

I thought they all just clamped any phone to be honest

[Kryptonian]

1 hour ago, evilashchris said:

Huawei P30,

 

I thought they all just clamped any phone to be honest

I was just thinking some phones are bigger than others really  

 

The OtterBox and Power A ones get good reviews but not sure if slight scratches would be inevitable unless you cushion it yourself?