Suggestion for upcomming hardware versions: HDMI audio

Yes, I followed my own advice and did that :roll:

I still didn't like the cables hanging down and causing a nuisance. Another thing, is if there was a jack in the headset, you would need to constantly unplug the headset from the HMD and plug it into the computer when the headset is not in use. We are not there as to say we can replace monitors with headsets.. yet.

Overall, there would be some value, however, not enough to warrant the changing of the entire product assembly line, the design of the interior of the rift, the electronics involved, the SDK (unless it is just a simple pass-through), and the personnel time to get all of this put together, especially when the alternative is to just let the consumers decide what type of audio solutions they want. There is quite a bit more cost to additions / changes than what you think.

"saviornt" wrote:

Overall, there would be some value, however, not enough to warrant the changing of the entire product assembly line, the design of the interior of the rift, the electronics involved, the SDK (unless it is just a simple pass-through), and the personnel time to get all of this put together, especially when the alternative is to just let the consumers decide what type of audio solutions they want. There is quite a bit more cost to additions / changes than what you think.

All of those changes are things that they are going to be changing for the consumer version anyways.
And this doesn't remove the ability of the customer to decide the audio solution they want. It just moves an audio port to a far more convenient location and gives them more options. Nothing would say they must plug their headphones in there.

Perhaps you should request it for a future hardware release (not CV1).. as the CV1 is pretty much all dialed in from what I infer from various interviews / posts, which, if Gypsy or Cyber reads this, maybe we can get a sticky thread with "feature/sdk requests". Updates on the requests would be appreciated (Implemented / "On the board" / WTF?).

Anyways, who knows. There is an audio port on the DK2 (from what I've heard) that is just an open hole atm. Perhaps they looked at it, created the mold, and decided not to for certain reasons. I personally do not feel that the headset would warrant an audio port on it.

We will have to just agree to disagree, as neither of our arguments about the feature will convince the other.

"saviornt" wrote:
Perhaps you should request it for a future hardware release (not CV1).. as the CV1 is pretty much all dialed in…

So? If there's not some last minute change to the design hours before the submission of the PCB order you've done something wrong… ;)

Seriously, addition of a single IC is not a huge problem at all. I'm not joking, I've spent the past week making vital changes to a design that's going into production next week.

Based on the DK2, I have a very hard time believing the CV1 is close to ready.

If you have HDMI, carrying audio is just a no brainer.

The more interesting question is what does the ideal headphone for VR look like?
Integrated into the strap?
Buds with a super short cable?
Rigid band around the back of the head?

All I know is my current configuration using a set of PS3 wireless headphone is less than ideal.
I'm putting them on blind, and I cant just drop them onto my neck to temporarily take them off as they clamp in the Rift cable that's running down from the back of my head.

"alexfry" wrote:
Based on the DK2, I have a very hard time believing the CV1 is close to ready.

I'm not sure how fast their production lines run, however, currently they need to make 1 headset every 3 seconds (with no downtime) if they want to have a good distribution quantity (given they will release in 1 year's time).. just a tad over 10 million units, which seems about right considering a world-wide release, with wiggle room for defective units / warranty replacements.

They don't need 10 million units ready for launch day, they will be doing very well if they ship 1 million units within 12 months after release.

If they were planning on having 10 million units on hand day one (Which is iPhone level numbers) then they would need to be working at a radically different scale.

Actually the more units are going into production, the easier it becomes to add parts to the BOM. The most expensive step in producing electronics is programming the pick and place machines. Each individual part on the BOM requires to be setup *manually*. But once it's set up you can have it picked-and-placed onto an arbitrary number of units. So there's a ratio between the total cost of material for all the units produced, and the initial investment required to setup the production line which you try to maximize.

Case in point: When we produced the first 3 prototype units of our product, it was more cost effecive that the founders of the company spent a full day at the electronics assembler, manually pick-and-placing the components of which only one single piece is present in each device rather than having to pay the bill for the pick-and-place robot setup.

So from a economical point of view, it actually the opposite of saviornt's naive assumption: It's much easier to justify the addition of components to a product that's going to be produced in large quantities, because the real costs involved doing that are independent of the number of units produced.

Also, as soon as you go into the millions of units produced, the cost of such a part drop dramatically. The 1kunit price is the most expensive at which the part is sold. At 1Munit you pay only a fraction of it.

I am not naive enough to not know there are "bulk" discounts when you purchase items in the millions. However, you stll have the cost of implementation, and that cost is added to the cost of the Rift. It may be in the matter of pennies, however, when you want to make something "as cheap as possible" you don't start putting in extra stuff that is not specifically needed for operation.

HDMI audio is not necessary for an HMD.

"saviornt" wrote:
I am not naive enough to not know there are "bulk" discounts when you purchase items in the millions. However, you stll have the cost of implementation, and that cost is added to the cost of the Rift. It may be in the matter of pennies, however, when you want to make something "as cheap as possible" you don't start putting in extra stuff that is not specifically needed for operation.

HDMI audio is not necessary for an HMD.

There is a balance between "Cut out absolutely every price ever" and "implement cheap but useful features for a higher quality product". They have a USB port on the headset, was that strictly necessary? No. But it is useful. An audio port seems useful for more people. Not everyone will have an additional peripheal to plug into the headset, but most people have headphones they could use. esp when you consider that headphones are better for VR than speakers, since your audio sources can track with your head, and hence making it as easy as possible for people to use headphones will make it a better experience.