Xbox Live Audio Update

30/8/2010

When Xbox Live was released broadband was in its infancy, speeds were slow compared to today and the amount of data that could be transferred was much lower. In order for the Xbox live system to work with as many household as possible certain restrictions had to be put in place to keep the data transfer down to a minimum.

One of the things that was done was to implement an audio codec that didn't require much in the way of bandwidth. However this of course lowered the quality of the sound and often caused crackling or buzzing. Think of it like a music track in MP3 format. The lower the bit rate, the lower the file size but the poorer the quality of the music.

Obviously time has moved on and the quality of broadband has significantly improved. However the Xbox live system has stayed the same. Microsoft has now taken the decision to address this issue by planning in an update to improve the audio codec on the Xbox Live system to improve the audio when communicating between players on multiplayer games. Obviously this will increase the amount of bandwidth that is required, but the countries broadband network has come to a point where it should be able to handle this type of small extra strain with ease.

Xbox live headset The release of this update is set to coincide with the highly anticipated release of Microsoft's Kinect gaming interface. Together these updates will once again take the user even deeper into their games.

The expected date of release is currently set to be around November.

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