News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Rockster]

I think you guys might have hit on something regarding plasma TV's. I was having recognition difficulties as well with the senor both above and below my 65" LG plasma. I never even noticed the buzzing until you mentioned it, but the Kinect microphones seem to be SUPER sensitive. Did some testing with the TV off and just hooking up a small LCD monitor instead to test and recognition was significantly better. Tried to make everything as quite as possible, so I could listen for other noise sources. My STB/DVR hard drive makes a constant racket, but turning it off and on didn't seem to make much difference, so I think it's far enough away. One think I picked up on were the neon lights in my kitchen had a similar buzz as the TV and turning them off seem to help some too, which I found surprising considering how far away they are (25' ish). Hence my comment about Kinect mic sensitivity, with everything quite other than the stereo blasting away game audio, I could almost whisper and it would still pick me up.

It really is amazing when it works and incredibly frustrating when it doesn't. Now to come up with a plan which doesn't involve a new TV. Best option for me would be to tuck the sensor into one of a pair of stereo racks I have bracketing my TV, in which things are much quieter. Does anyone know what sort of issues you can run into with the sensor not centered with the TV?

 

[Pugger]

I have a Pani VT20 plasma and have the Kinect located centrally right in front of the TV (causes problems when watching 3D films as the TV sensor is centrally located and kinect blocks it) I would say most voice commands work first time 90% of the time, when they don't work it's usually due to other people in the room talking. I can even get kinect to turn the volume up and down on my Amp.

The only problem I have is it does not recognise my wife's voice at all, well I would say she gets a 10% hit rate. I have set her up with an account now and hopefully this will improve things.

 

[blakjedi]

I have a Pani VT20 plasma and have the Kinect located centrally right in front of the TV (causes problems when watching 3D films as the TV sensor is centrally located and kinect blocks it) I would say most voice commands work first time 90% of the time, when they don't work it's usually due to other people in the room talking. I can even get kinect to turn the volume up and down on my Amp.

The only problem I have is it does not recognise my wife's voice at all, well I would say she gets a 10% hit rate. I have set her up with an account now and hopefully this will improve things.

did you set her up with a guest account? how? my xb1 tries to create a TrueBlakjedi1 account but that hasn't really been a successful approach.

 

[AzBat]

Morph of all Xbox controllers...

Pretty neat to see how things changed over the years.

Tommy McClain

 

[NRP]

Ah the "Duke". Was my first controller. Melee'd a lot of fools in Halo with that one. I've liked all of the iterations of the Xbox controller. Hopefully, I'll like the new one too.

 

[joker454]

Ah the "Duke". Was my first controller. Melee'd a lot of fools in Halo with that one. I've liked all of the iterations of the Xbox controller. Hopefully, I'll like the new one too.

Even the original? I think that one was designed for Wreck It Ralph, man it was a monster!

 

[dobwal]

I had a heck of a time getting Kinect to reliably respond to voice commands until I realize that a slight pause between "xbox" and <command> eliminated 99% of my issues. Would of been nice if that was clearly highlighted.

A numeric keypad would also be nice when viewing Live TV. I would like the ability to not to have to immediately reach for my remote when going from gaming to TV watching. Having a software based keypad and page up and down keys would make the controller a more robust solution. It even seems missing from smartglass which is a little bewildering. The One has one for the passkey function so it would great if it were available TV viewing.

I am also not a fan of charging 50 cent to your CC for each child you want to add to your family account. I am having a hard time believing this is satisfying some type of law requirement.

I tend to be a fan of the general vision of MS's designs but they have a habit of flubbing some of the finer details.

 

[joker454]

I had a heck of a time getting Kinect to reliably respond to voice commands until I realize that a slight pause between "xbox" and <command> eliminated 99% of my issues. Would of been nice if that was clearly highlighted.

I wonder if they purposely did that to differentiate from xbox the command and people just using xbox while talking casually. Like if you have some friends over just gaming and chatting then there is a good chance the word xbox will be said while talking, and you don't want the xb1 suddenly trying to parse commands when its just people talking among themselves. Perhaps the xbox-pause is there specifically so that they know you really are talking to the console and not to a friend.

 

[blakjedi]

I had a heck of a time getting Kinect to reliably respond to voice commands until I realize that a slight pause between "xbox" and <command> eliminated 99% of my issues. Would of been nice if that was clearly highlighted.

A numeric keypad would also be nice when viewing Live TV. I would like the ability to not to have to immediately reach for my remote when going from gaming to TV watching. Having a software based keypad and page up and down keys would make the controller a more robust solution. It even seems missing from smartglass which is a little bewildering. The One has one for the passkey function so it would great if it were available TV viewing.

if you futz around with the controller theres some hidden functionality there. I agree that there should be the ability to call out channel numbers and not just names.

 

[Cyan]

Ah the "Duke". Was my first controller. Melee'd a lot of fools in Halo with that one. I've liked all of the iterations of the Xbox controller. Hopefully, I'll like the new one too.

The new one is the best of them -features like triggers providing feedback aside- for a simple reason; it is the more universal of the three. By universal I mean designed for men, women and children.

I think it clearly shows the philosophy of the console. -something that quite a few people aren't getting and their comments (except for the true haters) about the console bring me a grin-.

The gamepad is lighter, more comfortable to use. The new controller is better at everything compared to the Xbox 360's gamepad, save LB and RB, I prefer those on the Xbox 360.

 

[Cyan]

I had a heck of a time getting Kinect to reliably respond to voice commands until I realize that a slight pause between "xbox" and <command> eliminated 99% of my issues. Would of been nice if that was clearly highlighted.

A numeric keypad would also be nice when viewing Live TV. I would like the ability to not to have to immediately reach for my remote when going from gaming to TV watching. Having a software based keypad and page up and down keys would make the controller a more robust solution. It even seems missing from smartglass which is a little bewildering. The One has one for the passkey function so it would great if it were available TV viewing.

I am also not a fan of charging 50 cent to your CC for each child you want to add to your family account. I am having a hard time believing this is satisfying some type of law requirement.

I tend to be a fan of the general vision of MS's designs but they have a habit of flubbing some of the finer details.

I sold my soul to Microsoft back in 2004 when I purchased the original Xbox and Halo 2. :smile2:

I have been a fan of the Xbox ever since and I feel like one of those Nintendo fans who don't care about certain things because they have a true cult and a following of whatever Nintendo are about.

Before that I always associated Microsoft with quality -yes, despites OS wars-. I was a kid when I purchased my first computer with Windows 95. The OS disc and manuals were high quality and very nicely packaged.

I also fancied software like Flight Simulator a lot, Train Simulator and Age of Empires 1 and 2 were unforgettable games.

Encarta was very good software too.

Besides that they had those Microsoft gamepads that looked like 100 times better than the competition's in the late 90s, I think they were called Microsoft Sidewinder.

They looked robust and the materials inspired very high quality. I always dreamt about having one of those for my PC til I purchased the original Xbox and I became a console gamer.

The best keyboard ever, imho, is theirs. I mean the Microsoft Natural Keyboard.

Xbox 360 was a bit of a disappointment in that sense, because it was unreliable hardware -RROD-. But Xbox One is a totally different beast, it goes back to the company's roots, and I like that. :smile2:

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Ah the "Duke". Was my first controller. Melee'd a lot of fools in Halo with that one. I've liked all of the iterations of the Xbox controller. Hopefully, I'll like the new one too.

I really like the new one. It's growing on me. I didn't like the analog sticks as much as the X360 controller at first, but now that I've used it a bit more, I like that the analog sticks are lighter and more sensitive. And the D-pad is so much better that there is just no comparison there. I just wish the D-pad was a tiny bit higher.

Oh and the rumble in the triggers is surprisingly immersive. I was highly skeptical of those until the first time it happened.

Regards,
SB

 

[NRP]

Holding both controllers in my hand right now (360 and Bone), and I can already tell I don't like the shoulder buttons on the Bone controller. My index fingers slide from the triggers to the shoulder buttons much easier on the 360 controller.

By the way, how long does the Bone stay in the "Initial Update" phase? I swear it's been like 20 minutes already with no apparent progress other than "Getting ready . . ."

There is activity on my modem though, so something is happening. I think.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Holding both controllers in my hand right now (360 and Bone), and I can already tell I don't like the shoulder buttons on the Bone controller. My index fingers slide from the triggers to the shoulder buttons much easier on the 360 controller.

By the way, how long does the Bone stay in the "Initial Update" phase? I swear it's been like 20 minutes already with no apparent progress other than "Getting ready . . ."

There is activity on my modem though, so something is happening. I think.

It didn't take me anywhere near that long, but it could just be your download speed.

 

[NRP]

Alright, I just restarted the console and the update is progressing normally. Whew! Thought I was boned there for a while, LOL!

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I had a heck of a time getting Kinect to reliably respond to voice commands until I realize that a slight pause between "xbox" and <command> eliminated 99% of my issues. Would of been nice if that was clearly highlighted.

For what it's worth PlayStation camera is exactly the same. You need a very slight gap between "PlayStation" and the command. You also need to be mindful of keeping gaps in phrases too, e.g. "PlayStation Homescreen" sometimes works but "PlayStation Home Screen" always works. The latter is what the PS4 prompts you to use.

 

[BRiT]

Holding both controllers in my hand right now (360 and Bone), and I can already tell I don't like the shoulder buttons on the Bone controller. My index fingers slide from the triggers to the shoulder buttons much easier on the 360 controller.

That's what I initially feel as well. I'm hoping it's only because the buttons are new and not worn in, but I doubt that's the case. I think it's because the new shoulder buttons have a pivot instead of an entire slide-in feel, and the pivot point sticks out more.

 

[NRP]

Even the original? I think that one was designed for Wreck It Ralph, man it was a monster!

Yes, even the original. I loved the offset analog sticks and the triggers. It felt perfect for FPS games (well, for a game pad anyway).


Well, initial impressions after a couple of hours screwing around with it. It is pretty confusing at first to figure out what the hell to do. Voice control is indeed pretty amazing. I've got my Kinect about about a foot to the left of my big ass center channel speaker, and voice recognition so far has been 100%.

However, there is a relatively big problem - TV just doesn't work at all. I've got my setup configured as follows: Dish Network sat receiver>Xbone>Onkyo AVR>TV. The Bone correctly recognized all my components and seems to be able to control them properly. However, the picture from the sat receiver just freezes. Every 20 seconds or so it will play normally for a second or two, then freeze again for another 20-30 seconds. Also, I can pull up the channel guide but it won't change to the channel I select. It just sits there, frozen. Unless there is some configuration issue I missed, I'm going to just bypass the Bone and run the sat receiver directly into my AVR like I did before.

Also, "Xbox, turn off" works properly, shutting down all my components. However, when everything in shut down, "Xbox, turn on" won't turn the system back on. I either have to start it with the controller, or the button on the Bone itself. Anyone else experience this? Know how to make it work? It seems silly to be able to turn it off with voice, but not be able to turn it back on.

Anyway, I downloaded BF4 and am ready to get my terrorist on.

By the way, Amazon sent me a Day One edition console. IR code scanning is badass.

 

[Scott_Arm]

For whatever reason, the only command I have trouble with is xbox on. I'd say my success range with that is about 50%.

 

[BRiT]

For whatever reason, the only command I have trouble with is xbox on. I'd say my success range with that is about 50%.

For this command try it without any pause between "xbox" and "on", and also do not use "turn on". I had some hit and miss when I thought it was "xbox turn on" or "xbox, on" instead of "xbox on". At least that's what is working for me all the time now.