Hey guys, Ok I am no stranger to buying a headset. I have bought a large number over the years, many got broken. I have tried various brands and liked most of them. Its been a while, however, since I last used one. I now need to get two for an upcoming LAN Party. Basically I got fed up of breaking the mic off the headsets and a long while ago I got myself a desktop mic (Logitech USB) and I have loved every minute of it. Means I can use my Logitech Speakers with ease, and no more broken mics, and the mic is good enough to cancel out the speaker noise, so no feedback. So, before I go trundling back to order one of the ones I have used in the past, I am just wondering whats 'new' and if there are any good deals out there! I also need a good quality webcam for live skype calls - I am completely in the dark for this so I have no idea where to look. I seem to remember CPC doing a LABs test on this some time ago but I wasn't able to find it....maybe they didn't... Anyway some help would be very much appreciated!! Thanks in advance!
I bought a Creative Sound Blaster Tactic3d Sigma (god what a name) some time ago. I used to have Zalman ZM-MIC1 attached to my Sennheiser HD-650, but got fed up with the mess of wires every time I wanted to use it. So the Creative headset comes with a detachable USB soundcard, so I can just stick them to my Obsidian's front panel whenever I need to use them, and I just toss them to a drawer at other times. They have pretty decent sound quality, surprising for the price even. The mic is great, too. Build quality isn't the sturdiest out there, but it shouldn't fall into pieces in your hands either.
Can you not use your good table mic? A LAN party surely wouldn't oppose it? Anyway - as you are getting two I assume you want cheap headsets - your best bet is probably the fatal1ty series. They can be had cheaper from other places though I think. I, personally, haven't used them - but i've heard good things about them (for their price). If you aren't going for cheap - I would go for another good desktop mic (or Zalman MC1 as SMS said) and some decent headphones. 99% of which will be a lot better than any gaming headset. Even Sennheiser HD201, which are around £20, would be better than most headsets. Good luck with it xD
It really depends on how much you are willing to spend. However I had the same issues that you refered, mic's breaking and headsets of the gaming varitity being cheap, brittle and uncomfortable over long periods of time. That was until I found the ASUS Vulcan, it is simply the best Headset I have used for gaming, I also watch a fair few films with it and its not half bad as a stereo headset either. I have also used the headset for 8 hours + and find that neck and head fatigue is fine. £75.00 is a lot - but after spending 25-30 every 6 months on headsets, this has paid for itself 2-3 times over since I've had it. As far as webcam go, I have the Microsoft HD LifeCam this on the other hand hasn't been all that great. I have had issues with 1080p recording and streaming, juddering and stuttering. At lower resolutions is it OK, but I feel that the price tag really outweighs the expected quality and support. If I had my time again, I would cough up the extra and get the well proven Logitech C920 I was after a HD webcam, but of course you don't need one of these for Skype use, but I would steer clear of the Microsoft webcam products. Hope this helps
I have used the creative one before and the Zalman. The Zalman was quite good but found it quite bulky. Prefer the Creative one, but well it broke....twice...LOL. (My brother had this one) I'm buying for my brothers so I'm happy with my desktop one! Having said tho - why can't I get them a desktop mic too....hmmm.... That's a very nice headset indeed! Buying two isn't cheap unfortunately...... Some thinking to do here.....problem I have is if I go to Scan and check out their headsets....they have dozens....many brands I recognise...but its just like...hmm...are they any good...
Well, had to rush to get these but in the end went for two of these.....never broken one of these - I just got myself a wireless one back in the day that wasn't very good...lol.... I just saw the CPC stamp....fished around fora bit longer....tried to find the best price....was Scan with free delivery! http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-vengeance-1100-communication-analog-usb-headset-with-mic And I love the colour blue....lol....
As Bennie mentioned, go for the Logitech C920 At the moment I'm using the slightly older C910; difference is that the maximum video recording quality of the C910 is 1280x720 (720p) while the C920 can record on 1920x1080 (1080p). More detail about their differences here. As a bonus, both these cams can be set to light up blue on both sides of the lense permanently or whenever the cam is in use.
We use the Facevision touchcam N1 at work. They have an on board H264 encoder chip that will compress the data before it leaves the cam. There was a blog post by a guy who works for Radvision where he stated that USB2.0 is not fast enough even at its max rate of 480mbps to be able to receive uncompressed HD video at 30FPS, I will see if i can find the link as it is quite interesting. I cant remember if he was talking exclusively about the Scopia desktop VC app or all Video chat systems in general. As for a headset I cant recommend one as I hate them and cannot stand using them. If I had to I would go wireless and use a Bluetooth one but that is personal preference.
Found it, http://blog.radvision.com/videoover...ert-the-perfect-desktop-confernecing-machine/ Before anyone shoots me down, Yes I know it was written 2 years ago and hardware has moved on but the theory is solid. Im not sure how it would apply if you used a USB3.0 camera as that has a higher bus speed, I guess the higher bus speed will eliminate the need to compress the data before it is sent from the camera to the PC but the PC would still need to do the encoding so you will only be as good as the slowest part of the system. and to Quote the article.
Been reading up. I really like the Logitech C920. Read some great reviews of it in multiple places. I can also get it from Amazon for £58 inc. delivery....making it the most attractive webcam on offer by far. I like its features, and its ability to work well as a camera and HD video. Seems software has some good features. Thanks for the recommendation guys. I'd have never thought of going at this price range but on balance I prefer quality and I will spend the extra for something that's worth it. As a side note. Those Creative Vengence 1100 headsets I got are awesome! They are very comfortable, very stylish, the mic is SOLID, it will take some real roughage to break it, and will require some hefty force....only thing I can think is falling on top of it....LOL...its also very stylish and the mic picks up sound extremely well. Sound quality is great too! Thank you Scan and CPC!! :
