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[XBox] Solution for Headset Chat Audio Stutter/Freeze/Loss - I can repro this at will

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oehk
oehk
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I recently came back to ESO XB1 last week. Everything was fine when playing by myself, no headset issues.

Free weekend rolled in, got our friends to try it out, and turned my wifes account back on.

We instantly started having chat audio issues. I (and only I) would start hearing digital stuttering and sticking in chat audio (old farts like me, think of Max Headroom...) Then eventually would not be able to hear other party members.

To clarify, by party members I mean XBox Live Party chat. I tested and made sure everyone in the game group, and XBL party, left any other in-game chat channels.

If I opened the XBL party slide, I could see friends icons glow as they were taking, and they could hear me when I spoke, and my icon glowed as well. However nothing I did resulted in me hearing them.

I hard reset, and that worked briefly, then issue returned in minutes.

<insert lots of testing and cursing here>

I tried turning off kinect (I am only party member with one)
I plugged in my headset to PC and confirmed no firmware update available.
Loaded other games, with same group. NO ISSUES. (GTA online, 7 Days to Die, Neverwinter, BF1, COD, on and on we tried)
I sat in party for over 2 hours without ESO loaded, no issues. Literally 2 minutes into loading ESO at character creation, BOOM, issue is back.

I read several threads here about plugging in the headset, or other interesting ideas. Nothing worked.

So I stared at my setup, while finishing off my glass of Jack.

My setup, XB1 -> via HDMI -> 7.1 Reciever -> via HDMI -> TV (headset is TB 800x via optical)

Here is what solved it for me, and I have a feeling would have good success rate for others. I am not up to date on HDMI knowledge, but I know some here are (maybe @NewBlacksmurf still reads here? I remember they were always quite informed of things...) I think if I had a higher quality HDMI cable to handle more data per second perhaps it may resolve issue? Not really sure, but sounds logical no?

In XBox settings, I turned off HDMI audio, was set to 7.1 (since, stereo muted while using headset)

Problem INSTANTLY went away. Turn HDMI audio back on to 7.1, INSTANTLY start hearing audio issue again.

After turning it off again, I played from 8pm, until 4am with NO CHAT AUDIO PROBLEM.

I am willing to test more if it helps resolve this issue, as I have seen posts about it as far back as June this year.
  • NewBlacksmurf
    NewBlacksmurf
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    Hey...
    I'm still around :wink:

    I'd suggest to never use HDMI audio
    Always go HDMI from the Xbox one directly to your tv.

    Then always use a coax cable out the Xbox one to your audio device.
    Settings should be

    In the Xbox one settings menu:
    Audio Output (settings)
    HDMI audio - off
    Optical audio - bitstream
    Bitstream format - DTS Digital Surround or Dolby Digital (I prefer DTs Digital)

    Volume (settings)
    Sound mixer - in the middle
    Chat mixer - do nothing or reduce the volume of other sounds by 50% (note reducing sound impacts ESO when in any voice chat channel regardless of if you have a deadsrt in)
    Party chat output - headset or headset and speakers


    That's should make everything work but never use HDMI sound. It's just asking for issues
    Even with three different receivers now.
    -PC (PTS)/Xbox One: NewBlacksmurf
    ~<{[50]}>~ looks better than *501
  • oehk
    oehk
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    Not sure I agree with not using HDMI. Never had any issues with it on anything, period, until this.

    Besides, the console sends video and audio in the HDMI to the tuner, which passes video to the TV. The optical out is used for the headset. Pretty sure there isnt another output to the tuner from the XB1.

    Either way, the more I think about this issue, the less I start to think its really tied to that. The headset gets audio via optical. So I totally am not understanding how turning off HDMI audio, affects this. But yet it totally does.

    Played again Sunday, and had to quit game, turn off HDMI, restart game. Then no chat audio issues.

    Just boggled that the HDMI audio out setting on console solves chat audio issue in the game via headset.

    Again, no other game has this issue, but no other game has its own chat channels like this one, that we play at least. (maybe neverwinter, but I dont think its the same as this)

    Do you think, the game/software is having issue sending chat+game audio to both HDMI out and optical(headset)? Turning 1 off cuts the processing in half for that perhaps?
  • DinOwned
    DinOwned
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    oehk wrote: »
    I recently came back to ESO XB1 last week. Everything was fine when playing by myself, no headset issues.

    Free weekend rolled in, got our friends to try it out, and turned my wifes account back on.

    We instantly started having chat audio issues. I (and only I) would start hearing digital stuttering and sticking in chat audio (old farts like me, think of Max Headroom...) Then eventually would not be able to hear other party members.

    To clarify, by party members I mean XBox Live Party chat. I tested and made sure everyone in the game group, and XBL party, left any other in-game chat channels.

    If I opened the XBL party slide, I could see friends icons glow as they were taking, and they could hear me when I spoke, and my icon glowed as well. However nothing I did resulted in me hearing them.

    I hard reset, and that worked briefly, then issue returned in minutes.

    <insert lots of testing and cursing here>

    I tried turning off kinect (I am only party member with one)
    I plugged in my headset to PC and confirmed no firmware update available.
    Loaded other games, with same group. NO ISSUES. (GTA online, 7 Days to Die, Neverwinter, BF1, COD, on and on we tried)
    I sat in party for over 2 hours without ESO loaded, no issues. Literally 2 minutes into loading ESO at character creation, BOOM, issue is back.

    I read several threads here about plugging in the headset, or other interesting ideas. Nothing worked.

    So I stared at my setup, while finishing off my glass of Jack.

    My setup, XB1 -> via HDMI -> 7.1 Reciever -> via HDMI -> TV (headset is TB 800x via optical)

    Here is what solved it for me, and I have a feeling would have good success rate for others. I am not up to date on HDMI knowledge, but I know some here are (maybe @NewBlacksmurf still reads here? I remember they were always quite informed of things...) I think if I had a higher quality HDMI cable to handle more data per second perhaps it may resolve issue? Not really sure, but sounds logical no?

    In XBox settings, I turned off HDMI audio, was set to 7.1 (since, stereo muted while using headset)

    Problem INSTANTLY went away. Turn HDMI audio back on to 7.1, INSTANTLY start hearing audio issue again.

    After turning it off again, I played from 8pm, until 4am with NO CHAT AUDIO PROBLEM.

    I am willing to test more if it helps resolve this issue, as I have seen posts about it as far back as June this year.

    I have a similar setup as you except I am using a Turtle Beach XO Four headset. Ever since the Thieves Guild update I've had periodic audio loss. The solution for me has been to just unplug the headset for a few seconds and plug it back in. Haven't played many other games over the last year to tell if it's only an ESO issue or an Xbox issue.
  • oehk
    oehk
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    Also, btw glad you are still around @NewBlacksmurf !
  • HaloGod
    HaloGod
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    Sadly this did not fix chat for me. Went out three times last night with HDMI audio off.
  • oehk
    oehk
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    HaloGod wrote: »
    Sadly this did not fix chat for me. Went out three times last night with HDMI audio off.

    Sadly, the same happened for me last night too. Worked for almost 4 days with no issues for me though.

    This is so frustrating. It was a happy 3 days though. Still, this is only happening to me in this game. No other game having this issue.
  • NewBlacksmurf
    NewBlacksmurf
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    oehk wrote: »
    HaloGod wrote: »
    Sadly this did not fix chat for me. Went out three times last night with HDMI audio off.

    Sadly, the same happened for me last night too. Worked for almost 4 days with no issues for me though.

    This is so frustrating. It was a happy 3 days though. Still, this is only happening to me in this game. No other game having this issue.

    Everyone who has this....

    Do you all use different Turtle Beach headphones by chance that have a receiver that needs updating?

    I ask because regardless of headset my mic would go out even when remaining plugged in but not sound. Are you all loosing sound but not your mic?

    Not sure if the mic is network related or just a ESO issue
    Edited by NewBlacksmurf on December 3, 2016 12:26PM
    -PC (PTS)/Xbox One: NewBlacksmurf
    ~<{[50]}>~ looks better than *501
  • pod88kk
    pod88kk
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    I used to have this issue but then it got fixed and haven't had it since, think I'm just one of the lucky ones though
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