Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

Interesting....

@BAMozzy
So DLI will work on SeX with existing Xbox controllers? Very interesting, indeed.

@gingataisen Yes - with a software update. Means I can use my Elite controller on the SeX...

It will be interesting to compare the difference with the XB1 and Sony's PS5/DS5 too.

New to the site. DAY ONE Buy No questions

@Challenger-UK
Welcome, fellow gamer. Articles to the left, forums to the right.

Ok, thanks ^^

Interesting look at Minecraft Ray Tracing...

Sounds like we may get 2 digital events in may and june. Expect lockhart to get announced in the may event.

Interesting article about developers and Series X:

https://www-windowscentral-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.win...

@BlueOcean
Excellent article, indeed. A lot of good stuff to look forward to, come next gen.

I know this thread is called Series X thread but How many of you guys are interested in picking up a cheaper Series S at launch (or the next few month) over the Series X?

It is an interesting idea to think about, because all people can carry their entire library across to the new console and still play their favourite and maybe not finished backlog and so on.

On the other hand personally I play games on a very normal 1080P monitor (which I don't have plans/space to upgrade any time soon). If I was hooking up my console to 55inch 4K OLED tv I would have concerns but in my setup I don't know how big a difference 4k vs 2K/1440p resolution makes.

However, someone buys a SX from the start it is more future proof. I don't know if in this generation there will also be a PS5 Pro or SX+ or whatever they name it. But either way a series X has better long term chances than a Series S I suppose.

@BrilliantBill I have zero interest in a cheap, lower spec and probably all digital version of the next generation Xbox. I do have a 4k HDR TV already but even if I didn't, the fact that very few, if any TV manufacturers are actually making HD TV's would mean that your next TV is very unlikely to be HD - even if its not the 'best' HDR TV. Maybe monitors will follow suit too?

I can see the advantage for maybe a 'family' with kids and the Kids having their own box, having a 'second' (or more) console, someone that may not game a lot and/or just has 'Game Pass' - those situations where it maybe difficult to justify spending that much on something that may be a secondary gaming device, not something they would use a lot or for a kids room so I can see its place. For me though, I would rather buy the best I can and get all the features/benefits that offers rather than buy a 'stripped' down version first. I would rather of paid 'more' upfront and bout a PS4 Pro/XB1X in 2013 than upgrade halfway through the generation too. A lot of games would have been more enjoyable, smoother performance etc in the first 3-4yrs.

No doubt the 'Lockhart' will offer some upgrade to the XB1X experience - most notably on average frame rates with a much better CPU but with its GPU, I doubt we will see comparable resolutions as the GPU would have to draw more frames per second than the X does - twice as many going from 30fps to 60fps - and if it offers ray tracing too, I can see it being just a HD version with maybe more aggressive VRS or lower average graphical settings to offset the significantly lower overall computational power of the Series X. Without any upgrades to frame rates or visual settings, I would expect the rumoured 4TF GPU to be around the same capability of the 6TF X but if you double the frame rates and half the time it has to draw a frame, you will have to compromise somewhere - most likely resolution.

As I’m going to pre-order the Series X as soon I’m able to, I’m planning on buying a new TV in the next couple of months and wondering if anyone has any suggestions which to go for that will go well with the Series X.

I’ve heard that hdmi 2.1 will be a big plus as it will support games running 120fps but I’ve not seen any TVs out there that have it yet, only seen some with 2.0a or 2.0b.

As am looking to spend no more than £1,000 and only considering a Samsung or LG (not interested in OLED) I’m currently looking at a 65” Samsung QLED that’s £999 with a PQI of 3100 but no hdmi 2.1. I’ve seen other TVs that are 75” at £799 but surely those TVs are not as good as the 65” Samsung QLED? I’ve always preferred Samsung TVs because they usually have low input lag and I do like LG TVs too because almost every LG TV I’ve seen have had amazing picture quality.

@BAMozzy As we have/had the same Samsung TV (KS8000) are you looking to upgrade or have you already do so, or are happy with sticking with the same TV for next gen?

@MaccaMUFC I will be looking to upgrade to get HDMI 2.1 - it seems pointless to upgrade for any other reason as my Samsung is still performing well. I don't know if I will upgrade 'before' the new consoles or wait until next years models are at least announced. You may also find that 'cheaper' models come with HDMI 2.1 too but at the very least, the higher end models from this year should be cheaper too.

Samsung and LG currently lead the way in gaming TV's but if you are not interested in OLED tech, I would only consider Samsung. LG LEDs don't compete with Quantum Dot panels with PQ and black levels at all and may not be a step up from what you already have in PQ. I would NOT worry about Samsungs PQI as that is just marketing BS and some formula they have created to try and sell you a TV. Its like HDR1000 (a TV that has a Peak Brightness somewhere between 500 and 1000nits) or HDR1500 (a TV that has a Peak Brightness of 1000 to 1500nits), its a rounded up figure, not necessarily in the 'best' picture mode(s), based on their own set of rules that is used to make their TV's seem more impressive and no other manufacturers use the same formula to compare. PQI includes some 'value' for just having a 4k panel and having a 'curved' screen added more to this figure than having a flat screen so its really meaningless...

Another interesting article. This one talks about a Perfect Dark reboot with online interactions and a Forza Motorsport reboot with off-road circuits. AND a Japanese studio joining Xbox Game Studios. I love the three ideas.

https://www.thegamepost.com/2020/04/23/forza-motorsport-perfe...

@BAMozzy Samsung’s “marketing BS” with PQI numbers led me to believe the 3100 was superior to anything less. They fooled me so good to know from you that it’s meaningless.

I’m happy to wait until Samsung bring HDMI 2.1 to their QLED range but the wife wants the Samsung I’m using now upstairs in our bedroom so I don’t think she going to let me wait. If I don’t get a new TV that has HDMI 2.1 what exactly am I going to miss out?

Samsung QLED is confusingly-marketed overpriced LCD:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/5-big-reasons-peop...

My LG C9 from last year has four HDMI 2.1 ports. The picture quality and contrast are unbelievable. It's OLED of course but has a lof of features to avoid burn-in. After OLED I don't know anybody wanting to go back to LCD.

https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs/lg-OLED55C9PLA

@MaccaMUFC If you don't get HDMI 2.1, you won't get 4k at up to 120 (just 4k/60) or higher resolutions, potentially VRR (although it can be added to HDMI 2.0b) and auto Low Latency mode (essentially automatically turning on/off game mode), Dolby Atmos/DTS-X pass through etc - anything that requires more bandwidth than HDMI2.1.

Basically, at the moment anyway, HDMI 2.1 is very much the best update for gamers as they are the ones most in need of bandwidth with HFR and High resolution content. VRR is the big one and means any game over 45fps will sync the TV refresh rate up with the frame rate of the game so you never get 'judder' or Screen tear - it will appear much smoother but as games can also now go above 60fps on console, you will be able to see that on the TV. I don't know if they will 'cap' the game to 60fps or just send a 60fps video whilst the game runs faster internally. Its unknown what will happen with older HDMI 2.0 TV's at the moment.

If you have a 'decent' audio set-up, you will miss out on uncompressed audio if you opt to pass that through the TV and if you opt to pass the picture through the Audio system to get the best sound, will miss out on VRR, 4k over 60fps etc too. With HDMI 2.1, you can pass uncompressed Audio through the TV via ARC to an external audio system with auto-sync - whether that's 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.4 etc. Arc right now only allows compressed 5.1 audio to pass through.

There are a few TV's that do offer HDMI 2.1 right now - not sure if ALL the features are enabled - like not ALL HDMI 2.0 ports offer 'everything' HDMI 2.0 can offer - you only have 1 ARC port on a TV for example so it depends on the HDMI controller that the HDMI port is connected to. At the moment, LG OLEDs are definitely at the forefront of the HDMI 2.1 features and does pass Dolby Atmos through (I believe) as well as the benefits of VRR etc. Not sure about the Samsung Q90R as I haven't really looked into that TV yet but it didn't support eARC (enhanced ARC - a feature of HDMI 2.1) and not sure if the HDMI ports have been updated yet...

@BlueOcean Burn in isn't the ONLY risk to an OLED. Because of the 'individual' sub-pixel build and each having its own lifespan which will fade with usage, you also risk 'uneven' wear which can appear similar to Burn-in BUT is a result of some sub-pixels wearing more, and so fading more than others. If you have a 'bright red' Logo/health bar on screen, the red sub-pixels will be on continuously and brightly to illuminate that health bar. The rest of the red sub-pixels will not be on so brightly or continuously so not wearing as much.

If you look at RTINGs real life test results, the CNN logo on the maximum brightness has worn the red sub-pixels out - hence it looks 'black' on a red slide. Because its not 'worn' out the 'Blue' or 'Green' sub-pixels, that CNN logo does not appear on the Blue or Green slides - so it is not 'burned in'. As Magenta is a combination of blue and red, the CNN logo appears 'Blue' because there is 'no' red being emitted as these are worn out and on the yellow (red and green), the logo looks Green for the same reason. On a grey slide, as grey is a combination of all three RGB sub-pixels, the logo looks cyan because just Green and Blue pixels are working.

On the 200nit version, the red still hasn't worn out to the same extent, because the red sub-pixels have not been on as brightly so not worn as fast, but have still faded. You can even see a vague human like shape where the news reader sits which obviously had much more red in the image than the background but because they do 'move', the shape isn't as defined as a logo.

The issue of 'wear' is accumulative. In other words, it doesn't matter if you only play 3hrs a day and spend 3hrs watching other things, running screen wash/anti-burn in measures etc - that's 3hrs of 'more' wear than the rest of the screen. Repeatedly playing over a long time will cause that difference in wear to become more visible as those pixels will fade more until eventually, you will start to see that image in a Red Slide - a darker shadow of it because those red sub-pixels cannot get as bright as the others anymore.

Its the same with watching some 'news' with boxes/scrolling ticker tape etc, searching on Netflix and having the netflix logo on screen for a while whilst searching, letting your kids watch Nick Jr for a few hours every day etc - all of these type of viewing will build up and accumulate more wear to those sub-pixels in that area of the screen. That's why people are having issues 2 or 3 yrs on despite NOT watching or leaving those elements on screen for hours on end in one continuous sitting.

Its not the 'image' that is burning in to the screen, but that certain content is wearing out certain sub-pixels much faster than other areas on the screen and thus causing them to fade more which results in that shape appearing on screen and the 'colour' balance is now inaccurate. Wear is accumulative so its a result of displaying the same HuD/logo/box etc over and over again regardless of how careful you are to prevent 'burn in'

@BAMozzy I know but the 2019 and 2020 models dim HUDs and logos and those tests are really extreme and also newer models are better prepared for dealing with all those issues. The picture quality is so much better that I think it's worth it and they also consume less electricity.