XBOX Series S/X remote play tested - Thoughts and questions

[superczar]

As a followup on this , thought I might as well share my feedback on XB series remote play performance.

As mentioned earlier, I tend to use remote play extensively within the house , esp late at night to play from the bedroom rather than sitting in front of the living room TV.

Unfortunately the story is not particularly positive.

 

1) Android Tab - 3/10 tested on S7+.  Low resolution-probably 800x600 at low bit rates with bad macroblocking. Only positive is that controller latency is really nice and low

 

2) ipad OS - 3/10 tested on ipad pro M1. Same as above. Low resolution with low bit rates . No HDR either. Controller latency continues to be low

 

3) Windows laptop-  7/10 - tested on a i5 10th gen Ultrabook. This yielded a far more usable result. Resolution and bit rate were definitely in usable territory but certainly not as good as PS5. Controller latency was really nice again.

 

4) Mac OS - MS has not released a client   

 

 

I am not a long term XB user but from what I can gather, Up until XB one, LAN remote play used to be routed locally (as it should be) 

With Series S/X, they seem to have made some changes where either the entire remote play traffic is being routed over the Internet or at a very minimum 

 

For the testing, consoles were on wired gigabit, clients were on 866/866 mbps wifi. Internet speed was 800+ mbps up/down

Internet test on console  flagged latency in amber (60ms +)  as the test would have happened with xbox cloud servers presumably in Singapore

However, it appears that the end client app uses the numbers above to determine the bit rate / resolution for game streaming and drops the resolution to avoid frame drops or excessive lag.

Unfortunately it does not seem to account for the fact that the client is on a LAN with  near 0 latency.

 

As a side effect of this fiasco, I also ended up buying a series X as I initially assumed the poor quality of streaming is because of Series S and now will have to go through the hassle of selling the S (and taking a loss  )

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by superczar

[TRMNTR]

2 hours ago, superczar said:

With Series S/X, they seem to have made some changes where either the entire remote play traffic is being routed over the Internet or at a very minimum

 

I've read multiple people mention this now. You're probably right about it. Last time I tried Remote Play, I faced some issues with the controller inputs (which I didn't face with XB1) so I haven't bothered since. I'll confirm your results in case I try again.

[quixote_1989]

3 hours ago, superczar said:

As a side effect of this fiasco, I also ended up buying a series X as I initially assumed the poor quality of streaming is because of Series S and now will have to go through the hassle of selling the S (and taking a loss  )

 

The fact that this fiasco made you buy a Series X is a blessing in disguise. Get rid of the S asap.

[superczar]

37 minutes ago, quixote_1989 said:

 

The fact that this fiasco made you buy a Series X is a blessing in disguise. Get rid of the S asap.

LOL

Not too sure about that though.
Had it been my primary console, the X would have been made sense.

But the S is a remarkably good VFM device - really low resolutions aside, I don't see a huge improvement going beyond 1080p   (specifically games, videos are a different story)
To my surprise, the S and X seem to be hitting similar frame rates (I can't play @30  but anything 60 or more is fine)

 

Given the size, cost and capabilities, the S is quite remarkable for what its worth

[playstationdude]

19 hours ago, superczar said:

really low resolutions aside, I don't see a huge improvement going beyond 1080p  

Not true at all. Games benefit a lot from higher resolutions if you have the right display. There is a noticeable difference when playing games such as Horizon FW, FF7 remake etc in performance vs resolution mode on a good 4k tv (oled, qled etc)

[superczar]

24 minutes ago, playstationdude said:

Not true at all. Games benefit a lot from higher resolutions if you have the right display. There is a noticeable difference when playing games such as Horizon FW, FF7 remake etc in performance vs resolution mode on a good 4k tv (oled, qled etc)

For what it's worth, I currently use QLED, OLED and mini-LED displays in addition to a couple of traditional LCDs.

Also, you are misinterpreting what I am trying to say. I said "huge improvement" and not "improvement"

 

For videos . 800x600 looks bad, 1280x720 looks just about acceptable, 1920x1080 looks decent, 1440p looks good and 2160p is better - standard rule of diminishing returns

However, beyond 1440p (or arguably even 1080p), you get greater visual improvements with HDR than say adding further resolution

 

In other words, if i had to choose between watching a movie in 1440p HDR over 2160p SDR, I would prefer the former by a wide margin - although 2160p HDR would naturally be an even more preferred choice.

 

For games, the situation is further flattened. Most games today seem be have a far higher level of sharpening applied during the rendering than what you would see in any normal Video. It is unfortunate and annoying - but it is what it is - and not something you and I can change.

What that means for the end user is that this further reduces the perceived difference between 1080, 1440 and 2160p  .

Do note that I am not saying there is no difference , just that it is limited difference that is noticeable if you pixel peep but not so much while you are actually engrossed in a game. 

Edited April 5, 2022 by superczar

[playstationdude]

16 minutes ago, superczar said:

For what it's worth, I currently use QLED, OLED and mini-LED displays in addition to a couple of traditional LCDs.

Also, you are misinterpreting what I am trying to say. I said "huge improvement" and not "improvement"

 

For videos . 800x600 looks bad, 1280x720 looks just about acceptable, 1920x1080 looks decent, 1440p looks good and 2160p is better - standard rule of diminishing returns

However, beyond 1440p (or arguably even 1080p), you get greater visual improvements with HDR than say adding further resolution

 

In other words, if i had to choose between watching a movie in 1440p HDR over 2160p SDR, I would prefer the former by a wide margin - although 2160p HDR would naturally be an even more preferred choice.

 

For games, the situation is further flattened. Most games today seem be have a far higher level of sharpening applied during the rendering than what you would see in any normal Video. It is unfortunate and annoying - but it is what it is - and not something you and I can change.

What that means for the end user is that this further reduces the perceived difference between 1080, 1440 and 2160p  .

Do note that I am not saying there is no difference , just that it is limited difference that is noticeable if you pixel peep but not so much while you are actually engrossed in a game. 

Thats just a subjective opinion though.

 

Higher resolution (pixel count) lets animators add a greater level of detail to characters and environment, its not just about being sharper. This is visibly clearer in games such as Rift apart, Horizon fw, ff7 remake, returnal, etc. 

[superczar]

15 minutes ago, playstationdude said:

Thats just a subjective opinion though.

 

Higher resolution (pixel count) lets animators add a greater level of detail to characters and environment, its not just about being sharper. This is visibly clearer in games such as Rift apart, Horizon fw, ff7 remake, returnal, etc. 

I never said it's 100% objective - I was just sharing my subjective opinion

[hsk_colossus]

21 hours ago, superczar said:

 

 

Given the size, cost and capabilities, the S is quite remarkable for what its worth

blasphemy!

 

[superczar]

25 minutes ago, hsk_colossus said:

blasphemy!

 

I do like the X.. thats what I am keeping as well - just a bit disappointed by the remote play issue ..

Here's a shot of the beauty, the beast and the monster together .. Thought I may as well take one for posterity's sake before one of them goes away ..
and if you notice closely, there is a little gem from a different era tucked away under the trio as well 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/wnR6mkM.jpg[/img]

 

Edit: Just realized image tags dont work on this board.. or am i missing something?

Edited April 5, 2022 by superczar