Many members of the workforce are returning to the office after over 18 months of working from home. But folks might not be quite ready to give up on some of the luxuries they treated themselves to while they were cooped up in a private workspace. Perhaps you picked up a fancy mechanical keyboard, but don't want to take it to the office, since the clacking might annoy your coworkers.
Perhaps with that in mind, Razer has a couple of new products in its Productivity lineup that might give you that enjoyable tactile typing and clicking sensation without infuriating those around you. The Pro Type Ultra wireless keyboard and new Pro Click Mini mouse have "silent mechanical switches," which Razer says will offer a quieter experience wherever you're working from.
Razer
The keyboard also has dampening foam to mitigate the sound, and Razer claims the keys will be good for up to 80 million presses. The fingerprint-resistant keycaps have a "soft-touch coating for a luxurious, cushioned feel," according to the company. A wrist rest is included too.
Razer says you'll get up to 214 hours of use over Bluetooth and up to 207 hours of use via the low-latency Razer HyperSpeed Wireless connection before you need to recharge the keyboard. You can use it in wired mode over USB-C too. In addition, you'll be able to connect up to four devices and switch between them without having to re-pair them with a Pro Type Ultra.
If you're buying a new keyboard, you might want a matching mouse. As luck would have it, the Pro Click Mouse shares the Pro Type Ultra's white, dull-by-Razer-standards design. You can also pair the mouse (which isn't entirely silent based on an audio demo on Razer's website) with up to four devices.
There are a few scroll-wheel modes you can switch between depending on your current task. The free-spin mode is designed for zooming through long documents and webpages, tilt-click is geared toward horizontal scrolling and tactile mode is centered around more precise scrolling.
Razer
The mouse is rated for up to 15 million clicks. Razer claims you'll get up to 725 hours of battery life over Bluetooth and up to 465 hours via Razer HyperSpeed Wireless if you're using two AA batteries. There's an option to use only one battery if you'd prefer to reduce the weight. If you decide to pick up both the keyboard and mouse, you can pair them to the same USB dongle to free up a port on your computer.
The new peripherals follow the Pro Type keyboard and Pro Click mouse Razer released in August 2020. Those devices had more muted designs than Razer's gaming-focused products to help them blend in a bit more.
The $80 Pro Click Mini is available now from Razer's website and other retailers. The Pro Type Ultra keyboard costs $160, and will be available by the end of the year. Razer also introduced an enormous Pro Glide XXL mousepad with "thick, high-density rubber foam," which will run you $30.
At Engadget, we’ve long been fans of Samsung’s T7 portable SSDs for their fast performance and compact design. They tend to be more expensive than some competing options, but if you’re patient, you can usually find them on sale. To that point, Amazon has discounted the black 1TB Touch model from $190 to $150, matching the previous all-time low price for the SSD. You can also get the silver colorway for less than MSRP, but it’s only discounted by $20. Additionally, the 2TB variant is $70 off, making it $300 currently. If you want to save an extra $10, the non-Touch model, which doesn’t include a built-in fingerprint sensor, is $140 at the moment.
Whether you go for the standard or Touch model, the T7 has a lot going for it. Both variants feature an aluminum outer casing that will protect the solid-state drive from drops. They also include ePCM technology and a Dynamic Thermal Guard feature to assist with heat management. When it comes to performance, the T7 can read files at up to 1,050 MB/s and write them at up to 1,000 MB/s. And while it only features a single USB-C port, the T7 comes with both USB-C and USB-A cables inside the box, allowing you to use it with almost any modern device, including some video game consoles. For those reasons, we think the T7 is a solid option for storing your photos and other important files.
More and more early Black Friday deals are popping up, and if you're looking to snag an entry-level set of active noise cancellation (ANC) headphones, you can't go too far wrong with Sony's WH-CH710N. The headphones are on sale for $78 on Amazon, which is $102 less than the standard price.
The discount matches the lowest price we've seen for the headphones, which occurred during Amazon Prime Day, though the headphones have dipped to $88 on several occasions. Given the solid sound quality and ANC, the WH-CH710N was already a decent option at the regular price, so it's even more worthy of consideration at $78.
There are tradeoffs, of course, for a pair of ANC headphones in this price range. The WH-CH710N set has "decent range and good clarity, but they lack deep, punchy bass that would help create a fuller sound," as Engadget senior news editor Billy Steele noted. Still, you'll get up to 35 hours of use before you need to recharge the headphones and sensors can monitor surrounding noise to select the optimal ANC settings. There's also an ambient-sound passthrough option for when you need to hear what's going on in your environment.
The WH-CH710N can't quite measure up to Sony’s WH-1000XM4, which we reckon are the best wireless headphones you can buy right now. That said, this set is hard to beat at the lower end of the scale — even more so when the cans are available for such a hefty discount.
Meta may be grabbing most of the metaverse headlines for now, but it's far from the only company exploring how we can experience virtual events across a variety of devices. Microsoft gave us a glimpse of its vision earlier this year with Mesh, a platform for virtual meetings that can take place across HoloLens 2, mixed reality headsets, computers and smartphones. It'll be a while before we're stepping into meetings as holographic projections, though, so Microsoft is announcing something a bit more grounded: Mesh for Teams.
The pitch, as you'd expect, combines the virtual environments and personas that Mesh delivers with Teams' established workplace collaboration. Instead of hopping on a Teams meeting with your webcam, for example, you could pop up as a customized avatar that talks and animates along with your voice. Eventually, Microsoft plans to animate your avatar by following your face and movements with your webcam, something that should get even better as you step up to devices with more microphones, cameras and sensors like the HoloLens 2.
Microsoft
It's all about delivering that elusive sense of "presence," the feeling that you're right beside your colleagues virtually. And while it may seem silly at first, Mesh for Teams could be a huge step forward for people who don't always feel comfortable on webcams. After all, there are plenty of times, like when you're working early in pajamas, or covered in your kids' lunch mess, where you may be working but not exactly camera ready.
In addition to avatars, Mesh for Teams will also include pre-built immersive spaces to hang out virtually. That could let groups create a customized meeting space, much like an actual office. There's also the potential for those spaces to replicate hanging out in an office kitchen or water cooler. That seems a bit more fanciful, but it makes sense to experiment with virtual spaces. Having a virtual coffee chat with your avatar could end up being less stressful than flipping on your camera. Microsoft says companies will eventually be able to design spaces themselves, allowing them to reflect their actual offices.
Microsoft
Mesh for Teams will start rolling out in 2022. Microsoft isn't giving up on its more expansive Mesh vision though: companies can still use that platform to create complex 3D environments, which workers can access through a variety of devices.
Alex Kipman, the Microsoft technical fellow who spearheaded the Kinect and HoloLens, originally pitched Mesh as a way for first-line workers to remotely collaborate on complex 3D models. Mesh for Teams boils that idea down for the typical knowledge worker, the sort of person who spends most of their day at a desk hopping between meetings, emails and office apps. It may not seem as exciting as Meta's pitch for a metaverse filled with multiplayer games and virtual events, but for many people, it's a far more useful way of thinking of a more connected internet.
Microsoft Loop, a new Office collaboration app announced today, takes the company's Fluid Framework vision one step further. You might remember that technology from Microsoft's recent developer events: It's a way to collaborate on specific chunks of content, say a table or chart, synchronized across multiple Office apps. A table you create in Outlook, for example, would instantly update if someone plugs it into a Word document and adds new information. Up until now, we've only seen that implemented in Office online as a sort of test. Microsoft Loop is a far bigger bet on the future of document collaboration.
Multiple people collaborating on a Fluid Framework poll.
Microsoft
Like Fluid Framework, one of the core parts of the new app are Loop Components, which Microsoft calls "atomic units of productivity." They can include anything from as a list to a complex Dynamics 365 project, all of which will stay in sync when they're deployed in Office apps. You can organize your Components in Loop Pages, a new type of document that can also include files and links. Think of them like unstructured Word documents (or perhaps more like how people typically use Google Docs).
Finally, there are Loop Workspaces, a way to view components and pages related to specific projects. According to Microsoft, "Workspaces make it easy for you to catch up on what everyone is working on, react to others’ ideas, or track progress toward shared goals."
If you're getting serious Google Wave vibes from all of this, you're not alone. But Microsoft Loop sounds a bit more focused than that failed attempt at team collaboration. For one, the core idea of Fluid Framework makes sense. Now that we're all working across multiple documents online, it makes sense to have a way to synchronize elements within those files. Wave felt like a solution in search of a problem, whereas Microsoft Loop, despite its seeming complexity, addresses a growing problem many office workers face today.
Microsoft says it'll share more about Loop in the upcoming months. Until then, though, you can expect to see Loop components coming to Teams, Outlook, OneNote and other Microsoft 365 apps later this month.
Microsoft is boosting Office with some (arguably overdue) media creation tools. As part of a sweeping set of updates, the company is adding Clipchamp video editing to the Office suite. The recently acquired web-based tool helps you make "professional-looking" clips regardless of your skills. You can produce videos for your other Office projects, of course, but Microsoft also sees Clipchamp as a straightforward editing tool for personal footage.
It will also be much easier to add that professional sheen to your PowerPoint presentations. Microsoft is adding a "recording studio" to PowerPoint that lets you capture audio for those moments when you can't (or just don't want to) present live. You can annotate slides, customize the background and pick the view that will best help you record. When you're done, you can preview the presentation and re-record as much as necessary. Be patient for this feature, though, as Microsoft only expects it to become "generally available" in early 2022.
Other updates are subtler, but could be just as helpful in the right circumstances. Microsoft is trotting out Context IQ, a set of AI "experiences" for Microsoft 365 that will initially make situationally-aware recommendations in Editor. It will suggest relevant contacts when you want to tag people, for instance, or recommend meeting times when everyone is available.
Developers will also have a better reason to try Excel. Microsoft is introducing a JavaScript framework in the spreadsheet app that lets you create custom data types and functions using the web-based language. JavaScript will be available later in November in preview form. Many (if not most) Excel users won't have much need for this, but it could be valuable if your job revolves around data.
Zoom users on the free Basic plan may start seeing ads starting today. At the outset, ads will only appear on the browser page after a call ends, and you'll only see them following meetings hosted by other Basic users. The test is limited to certain countries too.
The company has updated its privacy policy to reflect the change. Zoom says it won't use content (in other words, video, audio, messages and files) from meetings, webinars or messaging "for any marketing, promotions, or third-party advertising purposes." The company's advertising partners might use cookies to track your activity on Zoom's website. You can block them from doing so via Zoom's cookie management tool.
Zoom expects the ad program "will enable us to support investment and continue providing free Basic users with access to our robust platform," chief marketing officer Janine Pelosi wrote in a blog post.
Basic users can take part in as many meetings as they like, but there are time limits of 30 minutes on one-on-one calls and 40 minutes on group meetings. They don't have any cloud storage for meeting recordings or access to features like transcripts, either, though the company just rolled out a live transcription/closed captioning option on the free tier.
Zoom became an essential tool for millions amid a widespread shift to remote working as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last year, and many opted for the free plan, given its solid capabilities. It shouldn't be too surprising that Zoom is moving into advertising, but it seems that, at least for now, the ads will be fairly unobtrusive while respecting users' privacy preferences.
So you've got all the gifts you need for the kids, your family and the friends who really matter. But it's been a tough year, surely you deserve some joy as well. Maybe it's time to upgrade that HDTV to a 4K OLED, or to finally move on from using sad TV speakers. It's time to treat yourself, in true Parks and Rec fashion. Here are some of the best home theater gadgets we'd recommend when budget isn't an issue.
Apple TV 4K
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
While the latest Apple TV model isn’t a massive leap over its predecessor, there are a few updates that make it worthy of a holiday splurge. The redesigned Siri remote is a big improvement over the previous version, both app and streaming performance is quicker than ever and there’s support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. As always, there’s deep integration with iOS, and HomeKit compatibility is a nice bonus. And when you tire of music and movies, the Apple TV also works as a gaming console with access to Apple Arcade and support for Bluetooth gamepads. — Billy Steele, Senior News Editor
A projector is a great gift for any of the cinephiles or gamers in your life, and for around $800, the BenQ HT2050A is the best budget 1080p projector available. Its DLP tech delivers where it counts with the best contrast (ANSI 1,574:1) and color accuracy in its class, and is reasonably bright as well, with 2,200 lumens in "vivid" mode. On top of that, it comes with a 1.3x zoom and vertical lens shift option for maximum installation flexibility. It’s also a nice option for gaming, thanks to the relatively low 16 millisecond input lag. The drawbacks include slightly excessive fan noise, rainbow effect and red-tinted 3D. — Steve Dent, Associate Editor
If you're looking for the best possible TV to buy, there’s no question: Pick an OLED model. Personally I'd stick with LG's C1, the latest generation of the company's astounding OLED screens. Unlike LCD TVs, which rely on backlights, pixels on OLED TVs can turn themselves on and off individually. That allows them to capture inky blacks and deliver better contrast than most LCD panels. The C1 isn't much different from last year's CX line, but it's LG's most evolved OLED yet. It has a 120Hz refresh rate for speedy gaming, as well as support for G-SYNC and Freesync to avoid annoying frame stuttering. Its wide viewing angles also mean everyone can get a perfect picture, no matter where they're sitting. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor
Monoprice Monolith THX Atmos home theater speakers
Monoprice
Sometimes, a soundbar just doesn't cut it. No matter how many drivers you can cram in, or how good the virtual surround sound is, nothing beats the immersion of a full home theater speaker setup. Monoprice's Monolith series is one of the best options around: It sports a powerful center channel, your choice of towers or bookshelf speakers with upward-firing Dolby Atmos drivers, and subwoofers powerful enough to rattle your walls. There are tons of surround sound systems to choose from, but the beauty of the Monolith line is that it has all of the latest speaker tech and it’s reasonably priced, at least compared to other Hi-Fi systems. It used to be that you had to mix and match speakers to create an affordable surround setup. You can start small with a few towers and a subwoofer—and once you've got a complete system, you may never need to go to the cinema again. — D.H.
With high brightness and ease of setup, ultra short throw projectors are all the rage right now — making one the ultimate gift for any movie lover. The CinemaX P2 is the best among those for the price thanks to a good combination of features. It delivers 3,000 lumens of brightness, while offering good contrast and accurate colors, with 80 percent DCI-P3 coverage. The 40-watt NuForce Dolby Digital 2.0 soundbar is one of the best on any ultra-short-throw projector and it’s relatively stylish in white. On the downside, while it does offer apps, they’re not as good as you’ll find on, say, Google’s Chromecast — though that’s an easy fix as it has three HDMI 2.0 ports. — S.D.
If you're not a fan of the Apple TV, the Roku Ultra is the only other set-top box worth considering. It's fast enough to stream 4K video with Dolby Vision, and it supports just about every streaming app you'd want. It also has a solid remote with voice-search capabilities, and you can still access all of Apple's streaming video via the Apple TV app. And while Roku's interface isn't pretty, it's fast and gets the job done. — D.H.
Sonos finally introduced an upgrade to its aging Playbar last summer when it debuted the Arc. In addition to an updated design, the soundbar also supports Dolby Atmos which makes it an excellent choice for the living room. True to Sonos’ lineage, the Arc is also well-suited for music and you have the ability to add a subwoofer or satellite speakers as you see fit. It will also function as part of a new or existing Sonos multi-room setup and any time you add on to the main living room configuration, the Arc automatically adjusts to compensate for the extra gear. — B.S.
Sony’s Atmos-enabled soundbars are among the best and its most recent top-end model is no different. The A7000 replaced the HT-ST5000 as the flagship in the company’s lineup, only this time, the soundbar doesn’t come with a wireless subwoofer in the box. Instead, Sony is offering you the ability to add to your home theater setup as needed. The company offers two subwoofer options, as well a pair of rear speakers. The A7000 on its own though, is a 7.1.2-channel unit equipped with HDMI 2.1 with eARC, plus both 8K and 4K/120 Hz passthrough. This means Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision are both in play as well as ample support for gaming. Plus, wireless connectivity includes Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect when you just need some tunes. — B.S.
If OLED is too rich for your blood, consider TCL's MiniLED-powered 6-series line. It features far more backlight zones than typical LCDs, which can lead to black and contrast levels that are approaching what you'd see from OLED. The lower cost is the big selling point here though, giving you enough leftover cash to invest in your sound system. It's a solid entry both for movie watching and gaming. The 6-series also includes some of the cheapest 8K TVs on the market, though we'd recommend holding out on 8K until more content is actually available. (Something that may take a long while.) — D.H.
Where your butt sits is just as important to your home theater as your screen and sound setup. You'll want seats that you can lounge in for hours without hurting your back, and they need to be sturdy enough to survive real-world usage with pets and kids. Valencia's Verona seats are a solid option if you want to replicate the experience of high-end theaters with reclining seats. They're made out of genuine leather, and they offer separate reclining options for your back and head. And sure, they're pricey, but a decent couch will set you back just as much as three Veronas. And, let's face it, they'll be far more comfortable for movie watching and gaming than your typical West Elm option. — D.H.
If you've got a smaller space, or you can't justify stringing wires around your living room for a complete home theater system, Vizio's M-series 5.1 soundbar kit offers plenty of value. It supports Dolby Atmos, for enveloping surround sound, and it comes with wireless rear channels and a subwoofer. Best of all, it's far cheaper than competing systems (though if you want, you can also step up to other Vizio Atmos options, like the rotating Elevate). Consider the M-series a solid entry into the world of surround sound (and one you won't feel too bad about replacing when you want bigger speakers). — D.H.
What if I told you that a graphics card could be the quickest way to improve your livestream or podcast audio? It sounds counterintuitive, but think about it: A GPU often has an extreme amount of processing power sitting idle, so why not use that redundant hardware for other things?
Fortunately, NVIDIA is way ahead of us, and has already harnessed the potential of its own GPUs to do things beyond, well, graphics. For example, you might remember RTX Voice, which as the name implies, is a tool for upping your microphone game. Then, it quietly released Broadcast — a more comprehensive tool aimed squarely at streamers and content creators. Both offer great audio enhancement features, but we’ll focus on Broadcast here as that has effectively (though not entirely) replaced RTX Voice.
Right up the top, I should set some expectations. While Broadcast offers some helpful tools for all streamers, the real benefit is for those with more entry-level gear. For example, if you have something like a Blue Yeti and an older webcam you’re going to get more out of this tool than someone with a Shure SM7B and a Sony A7.
Broadcast specifically “uses Tensor Cores on NVIDIA RTX GPUs to accelerate AI calculations so you can game, livestream and run AI networks at the same time.” It’s compatible with any RTX GPU — “GeForce RTX 2060, Quadro RTX 3000, or higher” — according to a company spokesperson.
If you don’t already own a compatible GPU, now isn’t exactly the best time to be looking for one, thanks to the ongoing chip shortage, but things do seem to be slowly easing up. If you do have a supported card then you can simply download the Broadcast app and get cracking. The better news is, if you have a Logitech headset or Blue mic, as of today, Broadcast is natively supported so you won’t even need to dive into the app.
Supported models at launch are Logitech's G733, Pro X and Pro X Wireless headsets, and Blue's Yeti X, Yeti Classic and Yeti Nano microphones. While that’s only a fraction of the companies’ offerings, it still represents a lot of headsets and microphones that today have new, untapped potential.
NVIDIA / James Trew
The Logitech partnership, to date, only works with some products and only with some of the features on offer in NVIDIA Broadcast. Those looking for the full audio-visual featureset will still need to download the standalone app. Once you’re in Broadcast you’ll see three main tabs: Microphone, Speaker and Camera. We’ll focus mainly on the microphone section, but the other two are just as useful and it all combines into one hub for tweaking your stream, be it video, audio or both.
Under the Microphone tab you’ll find a drop down on the left to select your input source and a space below for adding effects. The area on the right is given over to a tool for testing these effects before you commit to them.
Right now, there are only two effects to choose from. But both are useful and there’s no novelty chaffe (get your robot voices elsewhere!). Broadcast is focused on shaping up your stream, not bending it into something else. And importantly, all in realtime, unlike something like iZotope RX which is incredibly good at repairing sound, but aimed at post production.
Audio tools
The first effect is Room echo removal. For anyone who has a space with less than favorable acoustics, this is going to help you dial down that dreaded “cave” sound you have probably been battling with. Reverb reduction is actually quite a science, given that you’re trying to remove elements of a sound that are… well, very very similar to the source. So you can’t just hack out the errant frequencies and be done with it, you need to leave the original signal intact.
NVIDIA kept things nice and simple. Other pro tools (like iZotope’s RX) give you an bevvy of settings and controls. Broadcast? Just two: on/off and “strength” (amount of reverb to be removed). To test this, I used a condenser microphone as those are most prone to picking up reverb. In the recording below, I start with no effect applied before dialling in about 50 percent and then finally with strength set to maximum.
As you can hear, the effect is, well, effective. The acoustics in the room I recorded the samples in aren’t terrible, but they’re definitely not optimal. But the difference between the raw recording and then with the reverb removed is stark. The effect is most obvious in the first recording with the condenser mic. The raw signal is… fine, but things are much improved with the echo removal tool set to around half way. The recording feels much more present and there’s no distracting room echo. More, isn’t always better though. Once I dial the effect up to 100 percent, reverb might be eliminated, but at the expense of the original signal. In short, play around with the settings to find the best balance for your tastes and recording space.
You’ll notice in the second recording that there’s not really all that much reverb to remove. This is thanks to the dynamic microphone which does a pretty good job of that itself. You can hear a difference once I start adding the effect, but it might not be worth the risk of degrading your source audio for such a minor benefit.
Perhaps more impressive than the echo removal is the second effect on offer: Noise reduction. While reverb tends to be a constant, outside noises are unpredictable. Things might be quiet when you sit down to record, only for a loud motorbike or barking dog to invade your stream moments later. Not with noise removal applied though.
This effect is impressively adept at removing anything but your voice from your stream. Be that a jackhammer, a crying baby next door or even a song played loudly on a speaker right by your microphone. Honestly, listen to the below.
Notice how you can’t hear the song when the effect is applied? That’s coming from a speaker barely a foot behind the microphone. When I recorded it, it’s fully audible to my ears, but almost entirely inaudible on the recording. I say almost as those with sharp ears might notice the odd fragment popping through, but you really have to listen closely. I actually asked NVIDIA about this and was given this response:
“The AI networks are trained to recognize some patterns, and as such there will be gray areas where the AI can have doubts. [...] As such we wanted to give our users flexibility to run the effects in a comfortable range, or dial things up in case they needed help in extreme situations. For example, for audio effects we recommend running them at 75-90 percent, depending on how much background noise or room echo there is.”
As mentioned, Broadcast largely replaced RTX Voice, but NVIDIA decided to patch it with support for NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs meaning you can still get the noise reduction tools even if your GPU doesn’t support Broadcast. Though, the company says, experiences will vary on older cards.
As with the reverb removal, the strength setting will ultimately impact the quality of the output so trial and error is needed to find the sweet spot. You might also want to consider time of day. If, for example, you live near a noisy road, you could dial in a second pair of settings for when you have to record around rush hour.
The noise removal filter is impressive, but it’s not without limitations. For one, the “strength” slider doesn’t seem to fade out sounds like music, instead it falls off only once you apply the maximum amount. At least in my testing. I doubt you’re intentionally streaming with music only you want to hear, so that’s a minor thing to be aware of, but if you do need to keep the strength at maximum, be aware of that degradation in signal which will get worse the more noise Broadcast is eliminating.
As a companion to the vocal effects, the middle tab in Broadcast is “Speakers.” We can sum this section in one shot: It’s the same as Microphone, just for incoming audio. That’s to say, you can go ahead and remove room echo or background noise from people you are speaking with. If you’ve ever been on a Zoom call during these pandemic times and someone’s baby starts crying or has a really loud road nearby, then you can selfishly spare your ears here.
Camera tools
Conceptually, the effects for your camera work in a similar way to the ones for your microphone. NVIDIA’s AI cores are “looking” out for noise or, depending, your entire background. Yup, with Broadcast you can achieve a green screen effect without the actual screen. You might be thinking “well, Zoom/Meet/TikTok does that” and you’d be right, but those don't do it nearly as well. Below is an example of what background removal/replacement looks like in Broadcast
James Trew / Engadget
You can definitely see where the effect isn’t perfect around my hair, but in general it works really well. I did notice that it struggled with the headrest on my chair, with the image flickering around that area as I moved around, but again, it’s leagues above what you might hope for from a free chat app.
In total, there are five effects for cameras. Three for your background: Blur, removal and replace (images or videos work!). Then there is Auto Frame, which crops in and then keeps your face in the center. Last, but not least, is Video noise removal — this is apt for recording in low light and your camera starts to go all grainy. You can see some examples in the picture below. Two were taken using a GoPro and the other pair are from an old DSLR repurposed as a webcam.
If you have good lighting, you probably won’t need the noise removal tool. But if your camera struggles with anything other than an abundance of photons, this filter can help. Again, as with the audio tools, be aware that more is not always better. I found with the effect applied at 100 percent you get the tell-tale “smoothing” that will tell your viewers that you’re papering over the cracks.
James Trew / Engadget
The background tools, on the other hand, are a little more forgiving. The blur tool does a good job at obscuring the items behind you, but there’s a very unnatural contrast between you, in focus, and literally anything else in shot. This is similar to how iPhone “portrait” mode photos often appear. The background is blurred, but the subject looks unnatural as there’s almost no transition between foreground and background.
This is, of course, a benefit when you want to remove the background completely. With this filter, NVIDIA does a surprisingly good job of isolating you and deleting everything else. If you want to stream via OBS (or similar) with a game or video on screen while you play in the corner, this is the effect you want and no green screen required.
James Trew / Engadget
As seen above, NVIDIA does a much better job of removing the background than, say, Zoom or Google Meet does. There’s almost no bleed around hair or hands meaning your background rarely pokes through and spoils the green-screen illusion. Background replacement is essentially an extension of this effect with the option of choosing your own image or video to replace whatever happens to be behind you.
The last of the video effects is Auto-Frame which, as the name suggests, keeps you locked into the center of your shot. To do this, the video crops in a little bit and it uses the extra space to gently shift the video from left to right or vice versa as you move around. The movement isn’t jarring, it looks pretty smooth, and is a good way to make sure you don’t accidentally drift off to the side if you are a fidgeter (like me) and don’t keep still.
You can also combine these effects if you want. Auto-Frame can be stacked with either noise removal or one of the background effects for example, or you could use remove background with noise removal applied. Right now you can only stack two though, but that’s probably a good thing as all three at the same time might be a bit much.
The camera suite of effects is currently in beta, and NVIDIA has been adding new features and improving performance at a rapid pace. Version 1.2 in May integrated Broadcast into popular streaming apps like OBS, while the latest 1.3 version released in September added support for many virtual camera apps and made combining video effects much more viable by reducing their VRAM usage by 40 percent.
While performance and memory usage is never going to be an issue for those using Broadcast for their chats, one-PC streamers who are using the app while gaming will be grateful for the additional frames. Perhaps, one day, we can dare to dream about many other features such as multi-mic support (with different effects) live transcribing for closed captions and even smart detection of licensed music so your streams don’t flag a DMCA violation.
If you stream or do videoconferencing and own certain GeForce RTX GPUs, NVIDIA's Broadcast app can be a magical helper. It uses a streamlined, AI-powered toolset to remove background noise, add virtual effects, auto-frame shots and more. Now, Logitech has announced that it's incorporating some of those features directly into certain headsets and Blue microphones via a new beta, with no need to run any NVIDIA apps.
Thanks to a partnership between Logitech and NVIDIA, some of the Broadcast tools will be available through the G Hub drivers for the following products: Logitech G733 Gaming Headset, Logitech PRO X Gaming Headset, Logitech PRO X Wireless Gaming Headset, Blue Yeti X Microphone, Blue Yeti Classic Microphone and Blue Yeti Nano Microphone.
Here's the full list of compatible Logitech G and @BlueMicrophones devices:
G733 Gaming Headset PRO X Gaming Headset PRO X Wireless Gaming Headset Yeti X Microphone Yeti Classic Microphone Yeti Nano Microphone
The drivers will make it possible for users to eliminate unwanted background noises and/or echo in a single click and clean up their mic signal. "You can even test your mic signal to find the perfect settings for your set up," Logitech wrote. NVIDIA previously showed that it was possible to completely remove the sound of a hair dryer running in the background from your mic, so it's not just some minor noise reduction. It can also remove noise on the listener's end, like someone's clattering keyboard.
The feature is now available to everyone via an open beta with the latest version of Logitech G Hub. You can also, of course, run NVIDIA Broadcast as a separate app that works with all of Logitech's audio products (or any other audio products, for that matter). The feature is supported on GeForce RTX 2060 and up GPUs, along with Quadro RTX 3000 and Titan RTX or higher.
