Question Headphone Sound between PC and Xbox HDMI Inputs

[JoeFig44]

I have an LG OLED as a monitor.
I have my PC on one HDMI input, my Xbox Series X on another.

I'd like to get some wireless gaming headphones that seamlessly allow sound to switch between PC and Xbox Series X so that when I stop playing a game on PC and can instantly play a game on the Xbox.

Which headphones should I get and how should I connect them so as to achieve this?

 

[boju]

Probably https://www.xbox.com/en-AU/accessories/headsets/xbox-wireless-headset as it works on PC.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help...reless Headset works,a compatible USB-C cable.

Some more digging.

https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox/s/ZSgtGHYAUB

 

[Paperdoc]

The issue here is how the audio from two devices can get to your headset. Somehow there needs to be a junction point for two sources to get to one headset. Now, that junction already exists - maybe. Right now each of the sources (PC and Xbox) feeds both video and audio to your monitor via HDMI cables, so BOTH are there and each audio source is switched "on" when you switch the video signal chosen. The first missing piece here, then, is how the signal your monitor's speakers normally put out can be re-directed to one headset. One common way is if your MONITOR had a 3.5 mm Sound Output socket where you can plug in a stereo cord to feed to some external system like a set of separate speakers, an amp, or a transmitter. IF your monitor has this, then there's at least one way.

If you go looking for wireless headsets (either just the earphones, or ones with a mic also) there are MANY that connect to a Bluetooth system built into your PC, for example. That way would be easy IF your MONITOR has a Bluetooth system in it already to send signals out to a wireless headset of this type. Not likely, but maybe, so check that possibility.

Next possibility is a headset of this type that claims you can use it via Bluetooth for TWO connections to different systems, and switch easily between them. THEN if there are Bluetooth systems already built into BOTH your PC and your Xbox units, you may be able to set BOTH of them up to use Bluetooth communication with a headset for sound output instead of sending sound via HDMI to your monitor. That way you could use that type of headset and switch between the two sources.

Next possibility is a slightly different headset type. This type comes also with a transmitter unit that plugs into a stereo sound output jack on your monitor. So this system does not require that the MONITOR have its own Bluetooth system built in. That transmitter unit uses either Bluetooth or some other wireless technology to communicate with the wireless headset. Then whichever source unit you are using for audio and video into the Monitor (PC or Xbox), the output from the monitor goes through that transmitter to your headset.

 

[doolittle]

Get whatever wireless headset that is compatible with both Xbox and PC (will probably use USB C dongle)
Then get a USB C switch box similar to this one if you don't want to constantly keep hot-plugging the dongle physically.

 

[Paperdoc]

^ Using a USB switch to route two audio sources to one wireless headset would work ONLY if BOTH of those sources is equipped to send audio in some common format out of a USB port. NO computer does this. When you do use a USB-connected headset (cabled or via a USB dongle), the headset system includes a software driver for that system that converts the audio info into digital form for transmission via a standard USB data transfer protocol, and the headset then must convert that info back into analog signals for the earphone speakers. The headset conversion and the in-computer conversion done by the driver must match. To use this system you must set Windows to output audio using that system rather than a mobo audio chip or a video card audio chip - not hard to do. So far that could be used with a USB switch to get audio from your computer to a headset, wireless or not, connected via USB. But what about the Xbox? I don't think it has a built-in way to convert its analog audio into digital packets for transmission out of a USB port. Does it even have a USB port? Even if it did, how do you know its coding system would match what the driver in the computer does? You could not install a software driver in the Xbox system. That match would be necessary if the headset is to succeed in converting that digital data stream back into analog sound.

My second suggestion above requires that BOTH sources have standard Bluetooth systems built in to send audio to wireless headsets. I don't think OP's Xbox unit has that.

What OP is using now is HDMI cables from each source to the monitor. Those cables each carry ANALOG audio signals from those sources in standard electrical signal formats so the Monitor has no difficulty dealing with them. Whichever signal set (video plus audio) source is currently selected for display, that audio source also is fed to the Monitor's speakers AND to its stereo audio output socket (IF it has such). My first suggestion above requires that the two sources be merged (swwitched) inside the Monitor, and then that the Monitor itself have a built-in Bluetooth system to communicate with a headset. That also may NOT be available. Hence my third suggestion - a headset that comes with its own wireless trnasmitter that accepts from the Monitor a standard ANALOG audio output and can transmit that to the wireless headset.

 

[boju]

Using a compatible headset with Xbox and then PC is the first hurdle. I suggested as such. OP wants to select between the two, not play simultaneously.

Headset as such will work. Another option is an AVR.

 

[boju]

I don't think OP's Xbox unit has that.

Sure does.

https://www.xbox.com/en-AU/accessories/headsets/xbox-wireless-headset#techspecs