Microsoft talks up audio quality boost through use of Skype codec

30 Aug 2013

Microsoft's Major Nelson

Microsoft has begun trumpeting the significant difference in audio quality in voice calls via the Xbox One Chat headset compared to the experience on Xbox 360, driven by the use of Skype’s audio codec.

Microsoft’s Xbox cheerleader Major Nelson said: “Thanks to integration with Skype’s audio codec, which has a proven track record of high-quality voice through billions of hours of use within Skype, as well as dedicated audio processing (for Xbox One conversations via Skype and multiplayer party chats), Xbox One offers higher quality voice chat with the Xbox One Chat Headset compared to Xbox 360 – whether you’re chatting in-game or through party chat with Skype on Xbox One.”

He said the improvements don’t stop there and that the Xbox One wireless controller’s new expansion port dramatically expands the data transfer rate between the controller and console.

“Combined with Skype’s audio codec, this enables crystal-clear digital audio with the Xbox One Chat Headset, both capturing and rendering speech at 24 KHz PCM, which is triple the rendering sample rate and a 50pc capture rate improvement over Xbox 360 headsets. And, as we shared before, the Xbox One Chat Headset comes with every Xbox One console,” Major Nelson said in the Xbox blog.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com