News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Jwm]

There's a start button? Or do you mean the menu button? I don't think I've ever used the button on the left side of the xbox button.

I'm using the Sling app for my free month anyway, and it seems to work fairly well. It takes it a bit to initially load and if the menu guide doesn't load beneath the channels, you have to exit the app, kill it with the menu button and restart. It seems if it doesn't "sync" on the initial boot, then it never does and you'll never be able to tell what is currently playing.

The video quality is great after the initial blurry buffer that lasts a few seconds and I've only had one live buffer delay while watching a program. I haven't tried using it on anything other than the Xb1 though, so I don't know how it interacts with smartglass or anything else.

The one issue that was really annoying me turns out not to be a function of the Sling app, but of the Xb1 - closed captioning. There's a couple universal settings for closed captioning that are in the console settings.

Once I got that sorted, it was pretty good. I don't know if I'll keep my subscription though, I'd only be paying for the ESPN networks which is an additional $5 over the base $20 and really the only other thing I care about watching live other than sports is news broadcasts and Sling has a surprisingly limited selection of those.

I'm leaning towards cancelling it after my 30 days trial and then maybe subscribing again next time college football season rolls around.

I will admit I am impressed with the quality of the picture, dare I say it is better than what my cable picture gives me. I had forgotten how many commercials were on TV.

I understand the HBO add-on has shows on-demand, but I have not tried that trial to see. Yes whatever that button formerly known as the start button brings up some useful options. I was pressing B like you would in Netflix, Media Center, etc.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Ugh. Really? MS thought all those trolling articles about the Xb1's power consumption was such a big deal they had to respond?

Unbelievable the weak skin over in Redmond.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/04/xbox-o...s-hands?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[BadTB25]

Ugh. Really? MS thought all those trolling articles about the Xb1's power consumption was such a big deal they had to respond?

Unbelievable the weak skin over in Redmond.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/04/xbox-o...s-hands?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

It's an option...options are cool!

 

[Dave Baumann]

Ugh. Really? MS thought all those trolling articles about the Xb1's power consumption was such a big deal they had to respond?

Unbelievable the weak skin over in Redmond.

Or just an opportune moment to point out a new firmware feature that was already in the works.

 

[iroboto]

I wonder if they could do a scheduled hybrid mode. Certain times of day do a full power off. Certain other times have it ready at standby. Granted you will lose suspend mode once it shutdowns further, but you would know to save before turning off for the night or leaving to work

 

[NRP]

Loved the storm trooper controller.

I want a Darth Maul controller. With horns and all.

 

[AlNom]

I want a Darth Maul controller. With horns and all.

Weren't there rumours of a separable playstation controller a while back?

*ahem*

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Weren't there rumours of a separable playstation controller a while back?

*ahem*

Only if someone cut it in half with a lightsabre.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Okay, quick! Somebody explain this to me before my head explodes.

Last generation, I thought the primary difference between wired and wireless controllers was cost. The 360 even came with a wired controller originally, didn't it? The wireless cost more, and of course, you then needed to buy charge & play kits or rechargeable batteries or constantly replace batteries that are all additional extra costs.

Why do we still have wired controllers in this generation? All versions of the console come with wireless controllers, why would anybody want a wired controller at this point? Why would anybody waste time manufacturing them? Are they so much cheaper to manufacturer that even though they sell for less, the profit margin is still worthwhile?

Or is this some sort of latency thing for "hardcore" gamers like how "true" PC gamers use wired gaming mice?

There's a very small bit of latency for wireless, but it's not anything most people would ever notice (the best HDTV's game mode will have far more latency than what is introduced by wireless). And with the XBO controller, once you plug in the USB cord (attached to XBO or PC) then it is a wired controller (no wireless latency).

And considering this is a 3rd party controller, maybe MS didn't want to give them access to the security keys/hash/whatever for wireless and/or they didn't want to pay the licensing fees to MS for wireless support. Not to mention MS likely wouldn't allow them to use the MS Play and Charge kit. So it was probably just a lot less hassle and a lot cheaper for them to just make a wired controller.

Regards,
SB

 

[AlNom]

Only if someone cut it in half with a lightsabre.

Help me Obi-One Controller, you're my only hope

 

[orangpelupa]

on DS4 the wireless mode add 10ms if i believe the DS4windows status window

 

[Cyan]

on DS4 the wireless mode add 10ms if i believe the DS4windows status window

If purists and traditionalists know this there is going to be a spike in wired controllers sales.

As I said in a different forum, quite a few PC gamers play their games on displays with 1ms of input lag.

Okay, quick! Somebody explain this to me before my head explodes.

Last generation, I thought the primary difference between wired and wireless controllers was cost. The 360 even came with a wired controller originally, didn't it? The wireless cost more, and of course, you then needed to buy charge & play kits or rechargeable batteries or constantly replace batteries that are all additional extra costs.

Why do we still have wired controllers in this generation? All versions of the console come with wireless controllers, why would anybody want a wired controller at this point? Why would anybody waste time manufacturing them? Are they so much cheaper to manufacturer that even though they sell for less, the profit margin is still worthwhile?

Or is this some sort of latency thing for "hardcore" gamers like how "true" PC gamers use wired gaming mice?

Sometimes the batteries fail and that was one of the reasons I used to play wired.

Then there was the stronger vibration of wired, less latency -think of an Ethernet cable vs wi-fi- and most of all, the Xbox One has a very light gamepad now which feels even more lighter if you remove the batteries. That's why I play wired most of the time if I can help it.

 

[Cyan]

Ugh. Really? MS thought all those trolling articles about the Xb1's power consumption was such a big deal they had to respond?

Unbelievable the weak skin over in Redmond.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/04/xbox-o...s-hands?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Apparently they are going to prompt new Xbox One users to select their preferred power saving option by adding it to the set-up process. That's not a bad idea, but they shouldn't need to explain everything like in that article you linked to.

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[Deleted member 11852]

If purists and traditionalists know this there is going to be a spike in wired controllers sales.

Every DualShock 3 and 4 can be connected using it's USB cable. You don't need to buy a separate [wired] controller - there's no such thing, every controller is by nature dual wireless/wired depending how you connect it.

What the latency of wireless controllers is on Xbox One I don't know, but Microsoft went with a non-standard protocol - perhaps to solve this very problem.

 

[AlNom]

The 360 controller doesn't seem particularly laggy. :s

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The 360 controller doesn't seem particularly laggy. :s

As I mentioned, the additional lag is so small the vast majority of people wouldn't notice. And of those that do, for some, it may just be a placebo effect.

You had a similar thing in competition (amateur and professional) gaming on PC with FPS and RTS gamers. The vast majority would never notice the additional lag of a wireless mouse, but some of the professional players actually could, even in a double blind test.

This is, of course, if it's a well designed and implemented wireless controller. If it isn't the lag can be noticeable to a lot more people although most likely still wouldn't notice.

Regards,
SB

 

[AlNom]

hm... I suppose. I mean I can tell the difference between wired & wireless mice, but the console controllers seem close enough (I use wired 360 controller for PC).

googled this video:

Sounds like the response time is essentially the same for 360. Thought I recalled some article about it a while back, but... I don't remember.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah, the wireless implementation in mice can vary greatly as it depends not only on the wireless implementation itself, but on how often the mouse reports it's location back to the computer. I remember back to when the Logitech Mx700 revolutionized wireless mice for gaming by upping the polling rate to 125 times per second when wireless mice were still reporting at anywhere from 30-60 times per second. Again most people wouldn't notice, but anyone in competition gaming noticed it a lot. It went a long ways towards making wireless mice useable in competition gaming.

No idea on the implemention that MS used on the X360 pad, but I'd imagine they did a much better job on it than the vast majority of wireless mice in the wild at the time.

Heck the polling issue wasn't even limited to wireless mice. Carmack introduced mouse "smoothing" into iD's FPS games due to this (and some other factors). Mice with low polling rates and not terribly accurate sensors (ball mice and many many many optical mice at the time) meant herky jerky mouse movements in FPS games at the time.

Regards,
SB

 

[NRP]

I Kinect Sports Rivals any good? I might pick that up to supplement the drinking games my friends usually insist on.

 

[Rockster]

I'm confused. Those power options aren't new they have always been there. I guess the "new" part is providing a more detailed description when selecting the option as part of the OOBE?