Connecting Bluetooth headphones to the XBox One

The XBox One can­not con­nect to a Blue­tooth head­set from the fac­to­ry. A cir­cum­s­tance that many users find some­what stran­ge. Howe­ver, it is still pos­si­ble to enjoy the sound via head­pho­nes via round­about rou­tes.

Makeshift

The con­trol­ler of the XBox One has a 3.5″ jack socket on its under­si­de. This is a head­pho­ne jack. The XBox auto­ma­ti­cal­ly detects when a head­set is con­nec­ted here, so that fur­ther set­tings can be made in the audio menu of the XBox set­tings.
To do this, use the Xbox key to switch to the menu, navi­ga­te to the gear­wheel (sys­tem) and the­re the menu item Audio should be loca­ted bet­ween the opti­ons and XBox help.

If the XBox does not detect a device, no addi­tio­nal menu will appear. This pre­vents the volu­me of the con­nec­ted head­pho­nes from being adjus­ted.

War­ning pit­fall: The menu only appears when the XBox key on the Xbox con­trol­ler is used to access the menu to which the head­set is con­nec­ted.

This is of cour­se just as unsa­tis­fac­to­ry as the fact of using a cable. Basi­cal­ly, this is not a real opti­on.

Adapter

The­re are various adap­ters on the mar­ket. Often quite expen­si­ve. The high­light – the adap­ter belongs to an audio out­put. With a USB Blue­tooth adap­ter, a Blue­tooth head­set can­not be con­nec­ted to an XBox any more than via the audio input of a spea­k­er sys­tem.

The­re are also adap­ters that can be con­nec­ted via the cinch inputs (the white-red sockets). You can argue about whe­ther they real­ly trans­mit the sound bet­ter or more los­sless­ly than the 3.5″ jack solu­ti­on.

It must also be ensu­red that the Blue­tooth adap­ter is not a pure recei­ver modu­le, but is inten­ded to send music as well. A good indi­ca­ti­on of this is the jack plug. The­re are also adap­ters with a USB con­nec­tion and many, many mul­ti­func­tion­al solu­ti­ons.

For some, it may make sen­se to buy an adap­ter that can con­trol more than one head­pho­ne. We will limit our­sel­ves to the solu­ti­on with one head­pho­ne.

War­ning pit­fall: The adap­ter must sup­port aptX LL to avo­id trans­mis­si­on delays. Wit­hout this tech­no­lo­gy it can hap­pen that the sound is trans­mit­ted a few mil­li­se­conds after the pic­tu­re, so that the sound does not arri­ve lip-syn­chro­no­us­ly in the head­pho­nes, which is very annoy­ing for movies and games.

Installation

First con­nect the head­pho­nes to the adap­ter. The adap­ter does not need to be con­nec­ted to the TV. On the con­tra­ry, it is easier if both devices are pla­ced direct­ly next to each other. In con­trast to the smart­phone, no con­fir­ma­ti­on key can be pres­sed during pai­ring, but the two devices must find each other and pair auto­ma­ti­cal­ly.

The first step is to start the cou­pling pro­cess on the adap­ter (for ours you have to hold down the BT but­ton until the cou­pling is com­ple­te). The head­pho­nes are then set to search mode. Our model is quite tal­ka­ti­ve and tells you when the con­nec­tion has taken place.

Often you have to switch both devices off and on again after the pai­ring to get a smooth con­nec­tion (no idea why).

Now you can con­nect a Blue­tooth head­set to the XBox (or TV).

Com­mer­cial