Xbox 360 Wireless Headset on PC

Professor Snugglesworth · August 2009

Today I received my 360 wireless headset in the mail. I also purchased a PC gaming receiver in a local Play N' Trade, mainly to use my 360 controller on my PC. What I discovered, however, was that I could also use my wireless headset in conjunction with the PC receiver, thereby allowing me to use the headset for PC games as well.

I tried this setup with Left 4 Dead on Steam, and the issue I'm having is that the game's audio, sound effects, and so forth are outputting from the wireless headset, basically acting as a mono headphone. All I want is to hear voice chat through the headset, not game audio, so I'm trying to figure out how I can configure the headset to do just this.

In my control panel, the headset is listed as both headphones and a mic. I tried disabling the headphone portion, but then it doesn't transmit any sound at all, including voice chat.

So how do I turn my headset into a gaming mic? Do the changes have to be made on each game, or is it something you configure in control panel? I tried using the options in L4D to try and fix it, but so far no luck.

wunderbar · August 2009

I don't think you can do that in Windows. Maybe in GFW titles, but I'm not sure.

Mustachio Jones · August 2009

You cannot split the voice and the game without using a program like Vent. I was dismayed to find this out. It's a pain in the ass, particularly since 7 has voice recognition features and has options to quiet all the sound but the voice, and it's spotty, but it's still something. Not at all what I wanted though.

Professor Snugglesworth · August 2009

Well that sucks. I was looking forward to playing L4D on a 1920x1080 resolution, all comfy in my bed. Without buying the 360 version, I mean.

Does Vent work on Vista, or is it too much of a pain to set up?

While I'm on the subject, does the 360 controller go to sleep mode on PC like it does on the 360. What do I do if I want to turn off the controller? Only way I've managed to do that so far is by unplugging the receiver.

DekuStick · August 2009

Vent works flawlessly with Vista.

Professor Snugglesworth · August 2009

Can I get a link to it? As well as instructions on how to make the headset output voice only?

Mustachio Jones · August 2009

I believe I led you on to thinking Vent was something that it wasn't, and that is my fault for poor wording. Ventrilo is voice chat program, where servers are set up for it and players join it independently from the game. It's because of this that you can tell the voice to output differently: the only sound coming from Vent is voice.

Professor Snugglesworth · August 2009

Ah, I see. And naturally if I wanted to play a game using it, everyone would have to be running it as well, correct?

wunderbar · August 2009

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

Ah, I see. And naturally if I wanted to play a game using it, everyone would have to be running it as well, correct?

yes

Professor Snugglesworth · August 2009

There's really no other way? I figured someone would've been able to come up with an easy patch or mod for this headset. So it only works properly on Games For Windows?

Mustachio Jones · August 2009

Games for Windows doesn't even have push-to-talk. It's all right now, but it's still not very good. It does have an option to choose a voice output device though, which is what you're looking for. No idea if it works or not, though.

NailbunnyPD · August 2009

I am fairly certain I have been able to use my sound card for audio output, and 360 headset for mic input.

Vent will make it very easy to accommodate, as Vent allows you to select the audio device, and you would simply select the 360 headset. This will send all Vent comms though the 360 headset.

But for in-game voice through the headset, you need to specify that in Windows itself. Since the voice and game audio will use the same channel, voice will come out through the speakers, but the 360 headset should still function as your mic. This is set under your Audio Properties accessible from Control Panel. I am running Windows 7 so I am reluctant to try and walk you through it. Basically, you want your Playback set to your sound card/speakers, and your Recording set to the 360 headset.

Penny Arcade

Quick Links

Xbox 360 Wireless Headset on PC

Posts