Logitech G930 Headset

[Tom_ZeCat]

I bought a Logitech G930 gaming headset to use with Skype and for general use. I don't plan to play games, but like the idea of using a high-quality-noise-canceling headset. The main reason for use is for my Skype calls with people in foreign countries. I'm learning French. Sometimes there's noise in the household where I live, and this headset should help me to tune it out.

It appears to work in Skype, though I haven't made an actual call with it yet. I will tomorrow. However, if I go to play a Youtube video, the sound comes out over my regular laptop speakers and not through my headset. There's a control on the side of the headset for adjusting volume. When I adjust it, I see it adjusting in a progress bar on the screen, but I don't hear any change in the headset when playing a Youtube vid. When I use the Skype Sound Test Service, I hear the lady and my own recorded message, but the volume adjuster doesn't change the volume. I see the progress bar on the screen, indicating that the volume should be changing, but it doesn't. If I click on the volume icon in the system tray and then adjust the Skype volume output, then the volume actually changes. I still don't know whether this will work during a Skype call. I'll find out tomorrow.

I suspect this headset will work fine for Skype, but it would be really nice for it to work for Youtube videos as well. There are a lot of videos there that will greatly assist me in learning French. I've gone into System Settings ==> Multimedia ==> Audio and Video Settings and have moved the G930 driver to the top in several categories. Under Audio Playback, I've put the G930 driver to the preferred top in these subcategories:

1. Notifications
2. Music
3. Video
4. Communication
5. Games
6. Accessibility

Under Audio Recording, I've put the G930 to the top under these subcategories:

1. Communication
2. Recording
3. Control

Under the final category, Video Recording, it doesn't list any drives in any of the categories.

Anyone know what gives? It would be really nice to be able to use my nice new headset for watching Youtube videos. I bought this particular model because it's the same one used by Nixie Pixel (an Ubuntu user and Linux commentator on Youtube). I figured if it works for her under Ubuntu it will work for me in Kubuntu.

[claydoh]

Hmm I had to move my device above my built-in audio in the Audio Playback main category in order for youtube vids to play in my headset - both for Chrome (html5) and for Firefox (flash). I don't like that as I primarily use my Logitech wireless/bluetooth headset for Skype only. I leave the usb dongle plugged in so I don't lose it , and I can keep system notifications, etc, playing from the laptop speakers.

You can use kmix to move the playback to a different device by right-clicking on the playback stream, in my case "Chromium Playback" and use the "move" option. (I am also sure that installing all the gtk-based pulseaudio tools might have better controls for fine tuning this, but personally find all of them a bit of a mess for me.)

We in Kubuntu land have the added layer of Phonon in addition to pulseaudio, and the integration of KDE with Pulse just isn't quite as good as it is on those other desktops. I haven't found any useful info yet on why we have this happening, why it isn't seeing youtube content as a "video"

[Tom_ZeCat]

Success! I had no luck with Kmix, but I was able to choose "G930 Analog Stereo" in Pulseaudio, which I had previously installed. And the sound quality is actually amazingly good with this headset. Now I'm going to go back into Skype and test to see if it still works. If not, I've documented what I did and can set it back.

And, Nixie Pixel, if you're reading this, thanks for the recommendation. This is a quality headset.

Edit: An update -- everything works except the volume control on the headset. When you use it, you see the progress bar indicating the volume should be going either up or down, but it doesn't actually happen. You have to adjust the volume via the volume control from the system tray.

2nd Edit: Youtube works, but now VLC PLayer and SMPlayer don't have audio. Looks like I'll need to keep playing with the settings in Pulseaudio. Using a high-end headset like this one is more complicated than my old one that plugged into my two sound ports. It would be really nice to get the volume control working. Logitech has specific software for this headset, but only for Windows (boo, hiss, Logitech). They don't even offer Mac software for it.

[claydoh]

I think the controls not working as expected may be a bug or shortcoming. I have had 3 different usb connected headphones, both Logitech and Plantronics, in the past year or 2. I think all have had this issue, though my memory is whispering to me that maybe the Plantronics were fine in this area. I can't find any info on this yet.

Anyway, just an fyi, here is how you can move sound output to different devices using Kmix, which I just discovered was actually possible now.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I think the controls not working as expected may be a bug or shortcoming. I have had 3 different usb connected headphones, both Logitech and Plantronics, in the past year or 2. I think all have had this issue, though my memory is whispering to me that maybe the Plantronics were fine in this area. I can't find any info on this yet.

Anyway, just an fyi, here is how you can move sound output to different devices using Kmix, which I just discovered was actually possible now.

Just what the doctor ordered! I used what I saw in that video to get SM Player working, and KMix is way easier than PulseAudio. Thanks. I was able to get VLC Player working through the headphones too.

Thanks a bunch!