XBox One AND PS4 Discussion

[DivotMaker]

If you're on the fence, stay on it. you don't need any of these at the moment. And if the games this next gen are going to offer the same experience as last gen, which it seems like, then you really don't need to buy one ever.

I'm not going to go as far as to say "you must buy one now!" but I could not disagree more with this sentiment. My experience has been very different.

While I do tend to be more of a gamer than many here, the Xbone has truly further enkindled my enthusiasm even in the midst of the early launch paucity of titles. As much as I'd like to dive deeper into the 360 games I played over Xmas when I was without the next-gen systems and finish off that next playthrough of Dragon Age Origins, or dive into the later episodes of Telltale's Walking Dead which I bought on sale, every time I hit the guide button while watching TV and think about gaming, I get drawn right to FIFA or Battlefield on the Xbone.

These early releases for next gen are for my money so much better, so much "more" than their last-gen counterparts that they really seem like entirely new games to me. Especially FIFA, which just about fulfills the promise on the field for sports games that we've been pining for through the last several console generations. It's that close to being the perfect soccer game. Add in Forza, and I've got all the gaming I need, because all these games have depth to spare. When it's all wrapped with the ability to have the TV going on the side while I wait for an online matchup or a battlefield map to load, or to check out game clips from friends and others, or especially to turn the whole system on and off with a simple voice command, well, there certainly nothing here that would make me say "the same experience as last gen." And yes, I'm talking about gameplay, graphics, sound and ancillary gaming features as well as "snap" and other non-game specific features of the system.

But hey, to each his own.

Very well put.

Ditto.....

[wco81]

So, I played a bit more with the Xbox One this afternoon, and I'm starting to understand the intricacies of the system. I pinned my favorite games and apps (Powerstar Golf, Peggle 2, Xbox Fitness, Youtube, ESPN, Skype, etc. This makes for a more seamless method of moving around the UI. Thanks for the suggestion Aristo.

What I'm not overly thrilled about is if I turn off the system, then I have to wait longer than I want to watch tv because it's hooked up through the Xbox One. Thus, I've told everyone in the house that when they're done doing whatever they are doing, leave the "watch tv" function on. That way, when we just want to watch tv, we can use the remote and there is no waiting for the system to boot up. The downside however is that the Xbon One will always remain on. Does anyone else always leave their system on? Or is there another suggestion? At this point, I don't want to disconnect that feature.

They want you to leave it on, connected to your main input.

Kinect is waiting for instructions, like to turn the TV on so it has to be on.

Of course, some people think having Kinect on all the time means it could be collecting data even when not playing games, such as how you react to certain commercials.

[Zeppo]

So, I played a bit more with the Xbox One this afternoon, and I'm starting to understand the intricacies of the system. I pinned my favorite games and apps (Powerstar Golf, Peggle 2, Xbox Fitness, Youtube, ESPN, Skype, etc. This makes for a more seamless method of moving around the UI. Thanks for the suggestion Aristo.

What I'm not overly thrilled about is if I turn off the system, then I have to wait longer than I want to watch tv because it's hooked up through the Xbox One. Thus, I've told everyone in the house that when they're done doing whatever they are doing, leave the "watch tv" function on. That way, when we just want to watch tv, we can use the remote and there is no waiting for the system to boot up. The downside however is that the Xbon One will always remain on. Does anyone else always leave their system on? Or is there another suggestion? At this point, I don't want to disconnect that feature.

They want you to leave it on, connected to your main input.

Kinect is waiting for instructions, like to turn the TV on so it has to be on.

Of course, some people think having Kinect on all the time means it could be collecting data even when not playing games, such as how you react to certain commercials.

On Settings, under Power and Startup, you can set it to either "Instant On" or "Power Save" mode. Instant On means it will go to sleep when you turn it off rather than shutting down completely. This allows the Kinect to listen for the "Xbox On" command and wake up the system.

That's how I have mine set. It does take a few seconds longer to get to TV than if you do not have the TV going through the Xbone, between waking up the system and starting up the TV app. Also, in this mode it will automatically download any system updates, after which it will shut off completely, so you'd then need to use the controller to turn it on and it will take longer to boot up. This would be majorly annoying if you were in a hurry to get to TV like if you were rushing to catch the end of a game or something.

I don't think anyone would ever leave it fully powered up and on all the time. Though I'm sure the machine is designed to handle it, the intention seems to be that one would say "Xbox turn off" when done, and the machine will turn off your TV (and your audio receiver if you have it set up to do so) and then put itself to sleep ("Instant On" mode) or shut itself completely off.

As far as Kinect monitoring your reaction to commercials and such, that seems quite a stretch. I'm sure I'm not the only one who rarely if ever uses the One Guide or voice commands to change channels, so it usually doesn't know what channel I'm watching (it shows you when you put the TV app into Snap what channel it thinks you are watching). Also the TV app can't seem to deal with DVRs as yet, so if one is watching a recording, Xbone knows nothing about it. Mostly I use the good ol' Harmony remote to change channels and check out the cable guide or look at what's on my DVR, so if MS hopes to garner meaningful data through Kinect or the TV app about watching habits, they will not succeed.

[Aristo]

Mostly I use the good ol' Harmony remote to change channels and check out the cable guide or look at what's on my DVR, so if MS hopes to garner meaningful data through Kinect or the TV app about watching habits, they will not succeed.

This exactly how I watch TV. Voice is just for pause and play, and occasionally volume. My wife actually got pretty good at FFing through commercials, but it is way easier with a remote. You can also skip back with a voice command.

I do wish I could leave mine in Instant On mode, but my DirecTV Tivo freezes up when I do. I may upgrade to a Genie, which will get me a bigger HD and the ability to record more shows at once, in addition to playing nice with the One. But I need to convince DirecTV to give me one to retain my business.

[wco81]

I recall reading somewhere that MS has either marketed this biometric monitoring capability to advertisers or they could do so.

I guess the only thing they could do is to see if your pulse increases in reaction to something. It doesn't sound like something a game would do, to read your heart rate to trigger some action in a game.


Edit: MS denies but seems to leave themselves some room to hedge:

http://techland.time.com/2013/10/08/let ... vertising/

[Pete1210]

So, I played a bit more with the Xbox One this afternoon, and I'm starting to understand the intricacies of the system. I pinned my favorite games and apps (Powerstar Golf, Peggle 2, Xbox Fitness, Youtube, ESPN, Skype, etc. This makes for a more seamless method of moving around the UI. Thanks for the suggestion Aristo.

What I'm not overly thrilled about is if I turn off the system, then I have to wait longer than I want to watch tv because it's hooked up through the Xbox One. Thus, I've told everyone in the house that when they're done doing whatever they are doing, leave the "watch tv" function on. That way, when we just want to watch tv, we can use the remote and there is no waiting for the system to boot up. The downside however is that the Xbon One will always remain on. Does anyone else always leave their system on? Or is there another suggestion? At this point, I don't want to disconnect that feature.

I am using an HDMI splitter out from my cable box. If I'm planning to watch TV only I bypass the XB1.

[Aristo]

I recall reading somewhere that MS has either marketed this biometric monitoring capability to advertisers or they could do so.

I guess the only thing they could do is to see if your pulse increases in reaction to something. It doesn't sound like something a game would do, to read your heart rate to trigger some action in a game.


Edit: MS denies but seems to leave themselves some room to hedge:

http://techland.time.com/2013/10/08/let ... vertising/

I'd say it is possible for them to do more in the future, but at this point it just doesn't seem feasible. Tivo and any other DVR service provider can send a lot more curate information than whatever the Kinect could do.

As for me, I leave the camera covered, because we just don't use it for anything other than the random logins. So it doesn't "see" anything in our house. The cover does not block the mic, so we still use the voice commands all we want. So if I need to use the Kinect camera, it's as easy as sliding the cover off.

I wish the Xbox One was fully baked. It's not perfect, and as an early adopter, I'm paying to beta test stuff, which can be a hard sell for families. I had actually taken the TV out of the console, and my wife asked for it back, just so we could access the voice controls for regular TV. She has already gotten used to that, and how instantly she can jump into Lego Marvel, Amazon Instant, or Netflix. She had more issues trying to figure out how to get back to TV when I left the receiver set to a different HDMI input when I was playing a 360 game. The Harmony remote is awesome, but it still confuses her when things are different than normal. Although, we have not picked up the real Tivo remote since we got one.

Somebody needs to kick whoever is responsible for surround sound in the nuts repeatedly. The [beta] surround is the source of my DVR's issues with the HDMI handshake that causes it to freeze, lag and go black. If I disable surround, it works just fine, but my TV is not longer in 5.1, which is unacceptable, even to my wife. Worse, they still do not have Dolby working via the optical output, which means I can only get stereo in my X41 headset instead of 5.1. I don't even care about chatting with the headset, but I do want the 5.1 sound they do so well with the 360. Both issues are known and have been promised to be coming soon.

Actually, the headset issue, when fixed will be another cool feature enabled by the TV integration. Because I can get stereo, which is better than nothing late at night, it's nice that I can now use the headset for regular TV as well as games and streaming media. When it finally gets bumped to 5.1, it will be really nice, and I will upgrade to the new Turtle Beach headset for the One.

For now, I'm working around the issues, and it is great console for games and media. The sound is frustrating, but once it gets fixed, which I'm sure it will sooner than later, the console will be set up to really start changing how we consume media in a ton of ways.

Right now, Microsoft is playing nice with cable, but they have the capability to start letting cable networks sell access to their content in the a la carte manner so many of us want. What if you could buy access to just AMC, FX, and a few other good channels. You might get those for $5 a month or so, making it even easier to cut the cord. Let me buy local sports over an app, and the cord is cut yesterday. At that point, the One Guide is no longer going to be a list of your TV channels, but rather a list of your TV apps. You can already put Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, and other apps in the One Guide. That makes so much more sense than trying to use it for live TV.

[XXXIV]

As far as Kinect monitoring your reaction to commercials and such, that seems quite a stretch.

Yeah but that is irony baby!

That is the same "person" that defended the hacking of all our info on psn.

[wco81]

Right now, Microsoft is playing nice with cable, but they have the capability to start letting cable networks sell access to their content in the a la carte manner so many of us want. What if you could buy access to just AMC, FX, and a few other good channels. You might get those for $5 a month or so, making it even easier to cut the cord. Let me buy local sports over an app, and the cord is cut yesterday. At that point, the One Guide is no longer going to be a list of your TV channels, but rather a list of your TV apps. You can already put Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, and other apps in the One Guide. That makes so much more sense than trying to use it for live TV.

The company that pulls that off will have the next big hit.

Right now, the cable TV companies have no incentive to give you a la carte and they control the pipes so they could f*** with Netflix and whoever tries to cut into their TV business.

HBO is more profitable than Netflix (Time Warner actually broke out HBO's profits for the first time last week) but it's growing more slowly. So could they try to bypass the cable and satellite cos and market directly to consumers, get them to sign on for HBO Go? Even if the ISPs didn't try to f*** with HBO, there are no guarantees that they'd have more subscribers or higher revenues than their current setup, which is to get subscribers through cable and satellite.

So MS, Google, Apple and others are all after this, trying to be "disruptive" to the TV business. But the Comcasts aren't going to play along and they own NBC.

[Inuyasha]

Right now, Microsoft is playing nice with cable, but they have the capability to start letting cable networks sell access to their content in the a la carte manner so many of us want. What if you could buy access to just AMC, FX, and a few other good channels. You might get those for $5 a month or so, making it even easier to cut the cord. Let me buy local sports over an app, and the cord is cut yesterday. At that point, the One Guide is no longer going to be a list of your TV channels, but rather a list of your TV apps. You can already put Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, and other apps in the One Guide. That makes so much more sense than trying to use it for live TV.

The company that pulls that off will have the next big hit.

Right now, the cable TV companies have no incentive to give you a la carte and they control the pipes so they could f*** with Netflix and whoever tries to cut into their TV business.

HBO is more profitable than Netflix (Time Warner actually broke out HBO's profits for the first time last week) but it's growing more slowly. So could they try to bypass the cable and satellite cos and market directly to consumers, get them to sign on for HBO Go? Even if the ISPs didn't try to f*** with HBO, there are no guarantees that they'd have more subscribers or higher revenues than their current setup, which is to get subscribers through cable and satellite.

So MS, Google, Apple and others are all after this, trying to be "disruptive" to the TV business. But the Comcasts aren't going to play along and they own NBC.

Is there a FCC law or something why a network like HBO can't just do their own subscription business without comcast and all the other cable/dish carriers? The time is ripe for it and someone like HBO would make a killing.

[MizzouRah]

Every now and then I have no picture in the AM.. I finally figured out if I go into setup on the XB1 and change it to 720p, the TV signal comes back and then I can change it back to 1080p and watch without issues... strange.

[sportdan30]

Every now and then I have no picture in the AM.. I finally figured out if I go into setup on the XB1 and change it to 720p, the TV signal comes back and then I can change it back to 1080p and watch without issues... strange.

I didn't think about changing the picture settings. I'll have to see what mine is set at because I do find the picture to be a little less sharp since I've got the tv going through the X1.

[Zeppo]

Every now and then I have no picture in the AM.. I finally figured out if I go into setup on the XB1 and change it to 720p, the TV signal comes back and then I can change it back to 1080p and watch without issues... strange.

I didn't think about changing the picture settings. I'll have to see what mine is set at because I do find the picture to be a little less sharp since I've got the tv going through the X1.

Make sure to check the output resolution setting of your cable or satellite box. For some reason, my cable DVR box will default to 480p from time to time when I do a full boot of the Xbone from power off ("power save" setting). I need to go into the cable box settings and force the resolution to 1080i only to get it back to the correct setting.

It's very annoying and threw me off for a while as I chronicled earlier in the thread.

[fsquid]

I'm curious, how loud do your voice commands have to be? My couch is about 7 feet away and I'm worried about being too loud changing the channels if I bought this.

[Danimal]

So I moved my new XB1 into my main gaming area my dark theater room and besides the Kinect cable barely reaching where it needs to go (do they sell an extension?) I've found the system works about 100% better with voice and recognition. Which was surprising considering it is in an enclosed dark room with a 7.1 sounds system blaring at it. I'm guessing the darkness is what is helping it and the smaller room is helping with the voice commands.

[Inuyasha]

I yearn for the days when you could plug in a console and it would just start working correctly.

[Zeppo]

I'm curious, how loud do your voice commands have to be? My couch is about 7 feet away and I'm worried about being too loud changing the channels if I bought this.

I don't think it cares how loud you talk. I find it's more important to enunciate clearly.

I think it's safe to assume there is some pretty sophisticated software working away that can filter out the sounds the Xbone itself is producing, whether from games or when passing through the TV signal, and thus it can hear what you say easily even if the volume is up. This is surely why it's key to do the very quick Kinect audio calibration with your system's volume way up higher than you'd normally use it.

However, this would also mean the Kinect can't understand you if there is a lot of other noise going on, noise not being produced by the Xbone. If you're like me and sometimes like to play music while flipping channels or watching sports, well then the voice commands won't really work. At least that's been my experience. Also if you're in a situation like Terry where there are multiple conversations going on in the room, I doubt you'll have much success.

But when watching TV through it or playing a game, I find I can speak in a normal tone of voice (pretty quietly, actually) as long as I enunciate clearly and don't slur or mumble. This has proven to be true for me with the "Xbox on" command. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but I've noticed more and more that it's less about volume (the natural response when it doesn't work is to say it louder, and then louder) but more about enunciating very clearly, with a generous pause between "Xbox" and "On."

Danimal, have you ever checked out "what Kinect sees" in the settings? It uses IR for the most part to do its work, and it's bathing the room in a low level IR wash all the time. So it's not surprising at all that it works well in a dark room.

One of the most amazing things to me is how well the thing works as an IR blaster to control other devices, just by reflection of the IR it sends out from the the Kinect. It frankly blows my mind. I've had numerous other devices that require the long wires with the little L-shaped thingamajigs that I'd have to put right in front of the device I'm trying to control. I had expected Xbone to come with something similar, but no - the Kinect just does what it does and even facing away from the devices' IR sensors, it has no trouble controlling the other devices under the TV thanks to the reflections of the IR signals around the room. Very cool.

[Aristo]

I yearn for the days when you could plug in a console and it would just start working correctly.

Wait, I thought you were all pumped to no longer give a crap about consoles. Go read a book or take a walk on the frickin' beach.

Methinks you've just graduated into full curmudgeonhood.

[Diablo25]

I'm curious, how loud do your voice commands have to be? My couch is about 7 feet away and I'm worried about being too loud changing the channels if I bought this.

Numerous times I have been out of my living room in my kitchen and said "Xbox, watch <insert channel>", at a decent volume, and the damn Kinect hears me and changes the channel. Needless to say you don't have to speak very loud.

[Inuyasha]

I yearn for the days when you could plug in a console and it would just start working correctly.

Wait, I thought you were all pumped to no longer give a crap about consoles. Go read a book or take a walk on the frickin' beach.

Methinks you've just graduated into full curmudgeonhood.

it's true. i'm sort of pissed off at them right now. i think i may just unload of the one i have and call it a day. right now loving the amazon lending library. free books, are you freaking kidding me (with prime)! If you're into history check this one out :

http://www.amazon.com/War-State-Origins ... +war+state

[dbdynsty25]

http://majornelson.com/2014/02/11/xbox- ... r-details/

I'll finally be able to use my XB1 w/ headphones. Can't believe I have to pay ANOTHER $25 for the privilege however. Again, Sony did it right building it into the controller. Just another reason it's far superior to the XB1 controller.

At least there's a solution now (well, in march anyway), not just a theory that they'll support standard headsets.

[sportdan30]

As I'm sure everyone has heard, the first update for the Xbox One is coming later this week, not today as was scheduled.

[sportdan30]

MLB The Show '14 for the PS4 releasing in May. April 1st for the PS3 version.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2014/02/13/ml ... ack-to-may

[Diablo25]

MLB The Show '14 for the PS4 releasing in May. April 1st for the PS3 version.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2014/02/13/ml ... ack-to-may

Sh!t

[fanatic]

MLB The Show '14 for the PS4 releasing in May. April 1st for the PS3 version.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2014/02/13/ml ... ack-to-may

Sh!t

IGN has just released a nice preview. Nice beard graphics, even though I hear that the Sox are shaving them off if I remember correctly.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/02/13/m ... oking-game

Excited for quick counts. Game length has always been a barrier for me baseball games.

The other cool thing that was mentioned is the "Player Lock" feature, which lets you play as only one player (and perform only his plays) like in RTTS, but in any mode. Great idea - I wonder if you'll be able to switch players game to game? It would be great to play my Jays franchise, but alternate between favorite players.