PS3 Voice Chat Quality

[Dregun]

I searched the forums to find some information but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for; so I'm starting a new thread in hopes of some insight.

First I would like to say that my main experience with Voice chatting in games was with the use of Teamspeak on the PC. I did a lot of voice chatting with that software using standard stereo headsets and the voice quality was always superb. (Been 5 years since I have used TS)

Since I recently got my PS3 hooked back up to the internet I have been doing some online gaming (mainly UC2) and have been pretty disappointed with the quality of Voice Chat. It seems no matter who is playing the sound quality is extremely poor, it only gets marginally better when I disable or turn off my headset to allow others to be heard through my surround system.

After talking (over the BT chat in UC2) with a friend he made note that it seems the sound quality is dependent on the game or studio rather then the headset being used. Case in point he says the sound quality of Madden is superior over the sound quality of UC2; as I don't have Madden I am unable to confirm this but I did notice that LBP had just a touch better clarity than UC2.

I have found it very difficult to discern what individuals are saying, even more so when others have increased amount of static or background noise. For me everyone's voice has too much bass, or too much low end and not enough mid range.

What I would like from this thread is if it possible for others to fire up a couple of different games with the same individuals and see if the voice quality is different across different games or if I am simply having a placebo affect.

I'm contemplating purchasing a higher grade BT headset but only if indeed it is the main factor in the quality of sound being heard and spoken. I have a cheap ol $20 Emerson headset while my friend has an expensive Jab(something) that he paid well over $100 for and he said my Voice Quality was just as good as everyone else he has played with. So either everyone else online has a cheap headset like me or more factors are involved with the sound quality.


Thanks,

Dregun

 

[Billy Idol]

I searched the forums to find some information but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for; so I'm starting a new thread in hopes of some insight.

First I would like to say that my main experience with Voice chatting in games was with the use of Teamspeak on the PC. I did a lot of voice chatting with that software using standard stereo headsets and the voice quality was always superb. (Been 5 years since I have used TS)

Since I recently got my PS3 hooked back up to the internet I have been doing some online gaming (mainly UC2) and have been pretty disappointed with the quality of Voice Chat. It seems no matter who is playing the sound quality is extremely poor, it only gets marginally better when I disable or turn off my headset to allow others to be heard through my surround system.

After talking (over the BT chat in UC2) with a friend he made note that it seems the sound quality is dependent on the game or studio rather then the headset being used. Case in point he says the sound quality of Madden is superior over the sound quality of UC2; as I don't have Madden I am unable to confirm this but I did notice that LBP had just a touch better clarity than UC2.

I have found it very difficult to discern what individuals are saying, even more so when others have increased amount of static or background noise. For me everyone's voice has too much bass, or too much low end and not enough mid range.

What I would like from this thread is if it possible for others to fire up a couple of different games with the same individuals and see if the voice quality is different across different games or if I am simply having a placebo affect.

I'm contemplating purchasing a higher grade BT headset but only if indeed it is the main factor in the quality of sound being heard and spoken. I have a cheap ol $20 Emerson headset while my friend has an expensive Jab(something) that he paid well over $100 for and he said my Voice Quality was just as good as everyone else he has played with. So either everyone else online has a cheap headset like me or more factors are involved with the sound quality.


Thanks,

Dregun

Yes, this is something I recognized as well: the sound quality (the whole chat feature itself) highly depends on the game, i.e. on the implementation!

But I had the feeling that chat in UC2 worked rather well (for being a PS3 game!)...there are much worse PS3 examples out there!

 

[corduroygt]

I use the ps3 official headset and UC2 voicechat quality is the best I've heard on PS3, along with Resistance 2. Fifa games (haven't played fifa 10 yet), Battlefield 1943 are two that come to my mind that have pretty bad voice chat quality.

 

[Dregun]

Yes, this is something I recognized as well: the sound quality (the whole chat feature itself) highly depends on the game, i.e. on the implementation!

But I had the feeling that chat in UC2 worked rather well (for being a PS3 game!)...there are much worse PS3 examples out there!

NOOOO, I was afraid that might be the case; if I think the sound quality in UC2 is bad I don't even want to know what the sound quality of those other games is like

I don't know what is so difficult about VC that Sony can't get correct, the amount of bandwidth it uses is very small and a typical 768kbs connection is good enough for online gaming & VC.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I've had pretty bad experiences with the PS3 voice chat. Volume and quality varies greatly by user. I'm not sure if most people correctly adjust their input sensitivity. I don't think the menus for adjusting the mic are very good and maybe people don't realize their mics are out of whack.

Does the sound really vary per title? I haven't used my headset too much on PS3. Killzone2 a bit, a tiny bit of Little Big Planet and some Uncharted 2.

 

[Billy Idol]

I use the ps3 official headset and UC2 voicechat quality is the best I've heard on PS3, along with Resistance 2.

Yeah, Resistance 2 is pretty good...I coop-ed with my buddy living in the US and it was very clear! LBP is okay as well...in Killzone 2 I really think that the quality is not so good, UT3 being the worst I have experienced so far (to the point I completely neglect its existance).

I think that the rather bad voice chat quality in PS3 games is one of the reasons no one talks...because it is frustrating and people give up...if there is a good implementation like UC2, it needs some time that people realize that it works good (and that is maybe the reason I experienced that more and more people in UC2 are talking).

EDIT:

NOOOO, I was afraid that might be the case; if I think the sound quality in UC2 is bad I don't even want to know what the sound quality of those other games is like

Welcome to PSN

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Voice chat in my experience on PSN is mostly broken, in that it doesn't work. Warhawk for example was like a terrible mobile phone connection with pops and farts and nothing intelligable. Booty's voice chat often did nothing. U2 has been superb, as clear as a telephone conversation. This is on a GioTeck headset. Both friends I coop with have the same headset. There was one hiccup on one game where I could hear both of them but they couldn't hear each other, but that hasn't repeated itself.

In summary, VC is per title and often poor on PSN.

 

[corduroygt]

I also had great voice chat experience with Burnout Paradise, which is impressive for an old title, and the guys online had Brit accents even (I'm in MD)
On the other hand, voice chat in Borderlands is horrible.

 

[Dregun]

Any speculation on why different games offer different quality of VC?

The PS3 controls the setup of the headset being used (volume, Pitch, output) and one would assume the games would use a standard protocol for its handling.

Is the VC of PS3 games inherently affected by the bandwidth developers are setting aside for its use?
Do the Developers design their own codecs for its use?
Do the Developers have to design their own Code for its implementation?
Do the servers Developers use not sufficient for handling VC?

I'm very sadden by the lack of quality and or attention Sony is giving to Voice Chat support. MS has VC quality far above the PSN and it was what I assumed the PS3 would have after using Live.

 

[AlNom]

Any speculation on why different games offer different quality of VC?

The devs have probably set different sample rates and/or precision, would be my guess. *shrug*

MS has VC quality far above the PSN and it was what I assumed the PS3 would have after using Live.

FWIW, the MS standard for wired MIC is a mono, 16-bit, 48kHz stream whilst the wireless one is 32kHz. I've tried the wireless headset, and the difference seemed pretty noticeable to me.

 

[dobwal]

I'm contemplating purchasing a higher grade BT headset but only if indeed it is the main factor in the quality of sound being heard and spoken. I have a cheap ol $20 Emerson headset while my friend has an expensive Jab(something) that he paid well over $100 for and he said my Voice Quality was just as good as everyone else he has played with. So either everyone else online has a cheap headset like me or more factors are involved with the sound quality.
Dregun

Maybe it has something to due with the quality of your headset speakers and not your mic. If everyone sounds better when played through your home speakers then the problem may lie with crappy headset speakers on your end.

Instead of playing sound through your surround sound speakers try to use some standalone headphones (higher quality the better) to see if the problem lies with your headset or if your ears are more sensitive then others.

 

[Dregun]

Maybe it has something to due with the quality of your headset speakers and not your mic. If everyone sounds better when played through your home speakers then the problem may lie with crappy headset speakers on your end.

Instead of playing sound through your surround sound speakers try to use some standalone headphones (higher quality the better) to see if the problem lies with your headset or if your ears are more sensitive then others.

I thought about this and I think its because when it is played through my BT it is much clearer, but what I mean is that my left ear is only hearing the garbage coming in from my BT (which is the VC). However when it is output to my speakers a lot of the static/bad quality is hidden by other sounds and or ambient sounds of the game.

 

[_phil_]

I had very good Voice chat experiences playing RE5 and burnout.Warhawk was pretty bad most of the times.

 

[specwarGP2]

I always assumed VC quality was dependent on the headset since you can use any BT headset. I have 3 BT headsets and they all sound quite different. Playing MW2, some people sound great, most sound crappy.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The headset determines sound quality - bassiness, muddiness of the midtones, etc. Quality of data is the VC system. Warhawk's package system dropped data all over the shop and the end result was useless.

For speech quality the best I've experienced is a decent pair of cans and the PSEye as an external mic. Good headphones will make the audio far clearer than any cheap BlueTooth headset, but then you'll lose any surround you have (unless you ahve funky 'phones!) and will annoy teammates with the mic picking up background audio.

Incidentally, there tends to be a lot of background audio in general from what I hear. Often dogs and kids etc. I take that to mean other folk using a fairly open mic, and I presume on Live! everyone uses the headset and it's not an issue?

 

[specwarGP2]

I always assumed the thought feedback was caused by open mics like PSEye.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It will be if it's too close to the sound source. I've heard some terrible cases of feedback and amplifying echoes on WH. In my case, wearing headphones meant the PSEye couldn't pick up the game audio.

 

[h0munkulus]

the biggest ps3 voice chat problem is not the quality but the lack of any background/crossgame voice chat.

i sincerely hope 2010 is finally the year sony fixes this unexplainable lack of one of the most important and basic multiplayer features...

 

[Dregun]

the biggest ps3 voice chat problem is not the quality but the lack of any background/crossgame voice chat.

i sincerely hope 2010 is finally the year sony fixes this unexplainable lack of one of the most important and basic multiplayer features...

Not sure what you mean,

Do you mean the ability to chat with someone playing a different game?

If so I'll be glad if they don't add that feature, it's bad enough hearing people carying on conversations with other people on a cell phone; or their parents/wives yelling at them about something while they are VC. The only way I would like this feature is if it automatically disconnected the user from the games VC; however doing so will remove any aspect of teamwork that barely exists as it is. However being able to talk to a friend while playing single player games would be nice.

Do you mean the ability to chat with someone before you start a game?

That would be great, in UC2 I have to wait for my friend to join my party before we can start VC'ing. Sometimes I get a little too aggressive with the O button and back out to far and never say "Good Bye" or "Good Nite" and feel like a jackass.

I would like to see the VC be independant from the game you are playing, give the control to the system and not the game being played and I think a lot will improve. Simple code inside the game to allow you to select "ALL" for voice chat and still allow you to mute the ones you want would be great. Bring the funtion to the PSN and not the game server.

 

[Prophecy2k]

Not sure what you mean,

Do you mean the ability to chat with someone playing a different game?

If so I'll be glad if they don't add that feature, it's bad enough hearing people carying on conversations with other people on a cell phone; or their parents/wives yelling at them about something while they are VC. The only way I would like this feature is if it automatically disconnected the user from the games VC; however doing so will remove any aspect of teamwork that barely exists as it is. However being able to talk to a friend while playing single player games would be nice.

Do you mean the ability to chat with someone before you start a game?

That would be great, in UC2 I have to wait for my friend to join my party before we can start VC'ing. Sometimes I get a little too aggressive with the O button and back out to far and never say "Good Bye" or "Good Nite" and feel like a jackass.

I would like to see the VC be independant from the game you are playing, give the control to the system and not the game being played and I think a lot will improve. Simple code inside the game to allow you to select "ALL" for voice chat and still allow you to mute the ones you want would be great. Bring the funtion to the PSN and not the game server.

To be rather honest i'm a bit surprised by all the comments here. I'm probably naive though since i've had next to no problems with VC on PSN. I used to use a motorola BT headset fro my phone but that was pretty crappy in some games like WH and RE5. Since the Official headset was released, i've had no problems what so ever, and my experience with VC in UC2, KZ2, R2, RE5, LBP etc has all be rather clear and perfectly acceptable.

Although i have definitely experienced the annoyance of other PSN users using a PSEye for voice chat together with screaming children in the background... grrr