Jump to content

Looking for a different wireless headset for voice


You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 2718 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Recommended Posts

For voice in Second Life I have been using a Logitech G930 wireless headset. The battery life is great, the microphone quality is top notch, and it has a volume control and a microphone mute switch on the left earphone. The disadvantages are that it is very heavy, and it clamps too tightly on my head, with no way to adjust it to be looser. I am happy with this headset for short term use during DJ sessions, but I would like to have something lighter and more comfortable that I could wear for hours while I'm not DJing.

Recently I was talking on voice with a friend, and asked her what she was using for a headset. She said she was using a cheap cell phone headset, the kind with two earbuds and the mic hanging down on a wire next to her cheek. She sounded great, with very high quality audio. But she plugged her headset into a wire, and I want mine to be wireless. So I am thinking, why couldn't I plug the cell phone headset into my Android phone and use an Android app to make the phone into a wireless Second Life headset? My problem is that I don't know if there is an Android app that would let me do this. I've searched the Play Store and I've searched through Android forum conversations with no success. Is anyone using a cell phone as a wireless headset for SL voice? How did you get it to work?

On a related note (and this is something I've been looking for for several years), it seems to me that someone should be selling a Bluetooth communication module that you can clip on your belt and plug in a wired headset. If I have problems wearing a massive set of headphones that also has the batteries and the radio communications inside of it, then it could be more attractive to have the batteries and the radio inside a box that's clipped on my belt, and wear a lightweight and comfortable wired headset plugged into that box. It seems like a simple product that would fill a need, so there should be several different brands competing for the customers who want it. Instead, it hasn't been invented yet as far as I can tell. Or is it widely used by happy customers, and I'm the only guy who has never heard of it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a wired headset, but smartphones have bluetooth, and so there is plenty of choice for bluetooth headsets with a mic. And not so expensive.

Not obvious, and everyone warns against wifi for Second Life anyway, is that Bluetooth uses the same 2.4GHz ISM band as WiFi. If you're not seeing neighbour's WiFi it shouldn't be a problem. If you are it's one more source of noise for your network to cope with. I have an app called WiFi Analyzer on the phone. There are several people around me using the default Channel 6. I don't use WiFi for Second Life, but just switching away from Channel 6 made a big difference for my Tablet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I do have my smartphone paired with my PC using Bluetooth. But I don't see an app that could be used as the PC's audio in and out. In other words, I want the Second Life voice setup to recognize my smartphone's microphone and earphones as the audio in and out. There's an app called "WiFi-earphone for PC" that lets you send the PC's audio to the smartphone, and there's another app called "WO mic" that lets your smartphone become a wireless microphone for the PC. But I am not finding an app that does both. Maybe no one else on the planet wants that.

I bought this laptop a couple of weeks ago, and it works great for Second Life running only 802.11g WiFi (I have an older router). That runs at 54 megabytes per second, so there should be no trouble running SL over WiFi. The headset connector is a single mini phone jack, and I can plug my cell phone's headset into it and talk and hear on voice. So that works, lets me run SL from anywhere in the house, and I'm very happy with it. I was just hoping for a way to have a little more lightweight voice communication freedom using the desktop PC.

I have WiFi Analyzer on my phone too. There's no one nearby with a strong enough signal to be a problem. The only problem I ever see with the wireless headset is when I'm in the kitchen running the microwave oven. That thing puts out enough broadband radio frequency energy to desensitize the headset's receiver. I have to turn on the microwave and then run back into the family room before I lose the signal from the PC. That was a real shocker the first time it happened. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Were you able to successfully implement the Logitech H800 Bluetooth headset for use in Second Life?  If so, which operating system and SL viewer do you use?  I have not had success with several BT headsets (Bluetooth 2.1 and 4.0) using many versions of Firestorm and Singularity, trying over a few years.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't buy the H800 headset. It was hard to justify the cost when I already have a headset that works well. I tried pairing my Plantronics M50 headset with the PC, but it didn't work. After I read your message I did some Google searching. One person recommended an app on the Google Play Store called SoundWire, from GeorgieLabs. It streams audio from PC to phone, but the free version has a 3 to 4 second delay according to one reviewer. Other recommendations were to use Splashtop Remote, AirBubble - Airplay audio receiver, or Airfoil for Windows. Apparently, the free versions will only run for a few minutes and then you have to restart them. I have not used any of those yet.

EDIT - Thanks for asking here. I had forgotten this thread, which is not good because technology marches on and people are always building new goodies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...
You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 2718 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...