Anyone near hate wireless over wires?

[RH | 4,980]

First, I'll admit there are exceptions.  I like having a cell phone that can charge a battery and run for a week (my dumb phone can!) and having a laptop that I can take to another room is nice but other than that, I rarely want to have a device that's not wired, when when it's an option.

Batteries are nice, but only when necessary.  If I want to play a game on a device, 90% of the time I'm near an outlet and I liked it plugged in so I don't have to worry about a battery dying or some dumb setting auto-dimming my screen.  I also hate BT headphones.  No.  Give me a wired-in connection any and every time.  I know some people may prefer the freedom of movement but I don't need the convenience.

I think this goes back to my childhood.  I played a LOT of games on my Game Boy and Game Gear.  In a less advantaged family, I knew that if I didn't have a wall outlet option, I'd run out of batteries quickly and it could be another month or two before they were restocked.  This meant for both of these devices I always bought the back-up batteries that could double as wall-warts for continual power.  This lead into the later years of wireless headphones and I've just not appreciated the audio quality nor the continual need to replace/recharge batteries.  

Anyone else weird like me?  I just prefer the consistency.  That's key for me whether it's for power, preventing connection loss or maintaining fidelity, I want my wires and I can deal with them hanging everywhere for the added benefit.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,592]

Not really.  Where I'm forced to deal with a lot of wires (my rolling cubby with six classic consoles) I came up with a design so that I never have to deal with or see them ever.

Beyond that, it's all wireless controllers, laptops, blu tooth, etc.

[Tulpa | 3,537]

Depends on the situation.

Computer I use for Zoom meetings? Wired. (Colleagues who use wireless have constant issues.)

TV for streaming? Wired. I used wireless until it conked out, and wired has a much faster response, though I also use my phone to control it, so that part's wireless.

Classic consoles? Wired. I dunno, nostalgia?

Everything else? Wireless.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I'm with you for the most part, although I admit that I will generally only play my handheld consoles "wired" when the batteries are low/dead, as dealing with the cord being in the way annoys the daylights out of me.  I like having the option to go wireless if I need to with some things (laptop for traveling, ear buds for mowing the lawn with hearing protection on, etc.), but I've had enough "convenient" wireless devices die off on me unexpectedly and at just the wrong moment to not really trust them enough to embrace them the way I do things that are plugged in.  Heck, at times, I'd even prefer something akin to an old landline phone when calling someone, as at least the cords on those were very soft and very flexible and designed not to constantly break, unlike virtually every phone charging cable in existence; plus, handsets on home phones were usually made to be ergonomic so you could easily and comfortably wedge it between your head and shoulder, whereas modern cell phones will nearly always go flying if you try that.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

I go wireless whenever possible. Wires just add clutter that I hate dealing with, and the quality of technology on wireless and Bluetooth has come so far that wires are obsolete. Outside of retro gaming, I just don't see the point.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

16 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

I go wireless whenever possible. Wires just add clutter that I hate dealing with, and the quality of technology on wireless and Bluetooth has come so far that wires are obsolete. Outside of retro gaming, I just don't see the point.

Plug a USB 2.0 keyboard/mouse receiver in next to a USB 3.0 device and when your input devices start randomly stuttering and cutting out, tell me again about how far wireless has come.    It has come a long way, but it's far from perfect, with most of it realistically falling into the "good enough" category versus any sort of high quality/high fidelity performance.

[RH | 4,980]

2 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

It has come a long way, but it's far from perfect, with most of it realistically falling into the "good enough" category versus any sort of high quality/high fidelity performance.

Maybe this is what technology has always done, but I think this is why I also gravitate to older things.  As time goes one, we always seem to substitute quality for some level of convenience.  Between the two options, 90% of the time I'm going to go with quality.  I hated original LCD/Plasma TVs back when the HD switch was taking place.  Excluding for retro gaming, I think modern panels are far superior than OG CRTs (well, there's always lag but ignoring that and when strictly talking about video, I'll agree to this) but man, those early years were rough and we used a CRT for a long time before finally getting an LCD.

But that's progress.  Wireless is as you say--a step up in convenience but not in quality. It's getting better, but it's not for me.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

8 minutes ago, RH said:

Excluding for retro gaming, I think modern panels are far superior than OG CRTs (well, there's always lag but ignoring that and when strictly talking about video, I'll agree to this) but man, those early years were rough and we used a CRT for a long time before finally getting an LCD.

I agree with everything you said, save this, and this is with a caveat.  With a super high end CRT (most likely a large, low hour, perfectly dialed in PVM), I'd say CRTs may pull ahead.  However, with the right combo of TV and low-/no-latency upscaler, it's possible to have the vast majority of older games that came out in the era of CRTs look just as good, if not better, on a modern display.  The only real issue that hasn't been universally conquered in this arena to date is light gun games, and even there, some folks have done work to get them working for certain games or certain systems.

I don't begrudge folks their personal preference of a CRT over an LCD, but I definitely don't appreciate all the "elitsts" who can't or won't accept how good an unmodified image from an NES or SNES can look on a modern LCD using the proper gear (RetroTink 2x products, RAD2X cables, Framemeister, etc.) and do nothing but argue with anybody who does.

I've got a sub-$300 off-the-shelf TV I bought at Walmart which doesn't have a game mode.  And yet playing all of my childhood favorites via real consoles plugged in via HDMI through the appropriate upscaler (RetroTink 2x mini or Pro for anything using composite, s-video, or component, RAD2X cable for anything Nintendo using a multi-out), everything looks and feels as good as it ever did on a CRT.  And I have CRTs in the house to verify against.  In this case, I personally vote for the "convenience" of having a much larger, much more easily stored/displayed TV, even if it comes with the "inconvenience" of having to have additional, specialized gear to get the same effect.

My CRTs will perish one day, but for the foreseeable future, I can always buy another HDMI compatible LCD and hook everything up to that.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

1 hour ago, darkchylde28 said:

Plug a USB 2.0 keyboard/mouse receiver in next to a USB 3.0 device and when your input devices start randomly stuttering and cutting out, tell me again about how far wireless has come.    It has come a long way, but it's far from perfect, with most of it realistically falling into the "good enough" category versus any sort of high quality/high fidelity performance.

I suppose if I had need for multiple keyboards and mice and had the tech savvy to be able to tell the difference I may agree. But I do not own a desktop or computer workstation. Overall I am very happy sticking to wireless when possible. I have a nice set of BT headphones for housework and a nice BT speaker for the kitchen that sounds wonderful for listening to music while doing dishes/chores, etc.

I will admit though that the pro studio monitors I had were far better sound quality than any Bluetooth speaker I have ever listened to. For just lounging and listening to music there was nothing better. But they needed their own dedicated space as there was quite a bit of wires coming in and out of it.

[Tulpa | 3,537]

56 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

The only real issue that hasn't been universally conquered in this arena to date is light gun games, and even there, some folks have done work to get them working for certain games or certain systems.

I used the NES LCDMod ROM files for lightgun NES games. Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley worked really well, and Wild Gunman was pretty good. Barker Bill was buggy, but playable. They all ran off of my Everdrive, but you could also put it on EEPROMs.

It's a shame they haven't done anything in awhile. They were trying to get Freedom Force to work, which I was excited about, but I think they couldn't get enough space on the ROM to work it.

I also used the Tomee Zap Gun knockoff rather than an original Zapper.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Tulpa

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

I used the NES LCDMod ROM files for lightgun NES games. Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley worked really well, and Wild Gunman was pretty good. Barker Bill was buggy, but playable. They all ran off of my Everdrive, but you could also put it on EEPROMs.

It's a shame they haven't done anything in awhile. They were trying to get Freedom Force to work, which I was excited about, but I think they couldn't get enough space on the ROM to work it.

I also used the Tomee Zap Gun knockoff rather than an original Zapper.

I started doing so when the patches were first released (finding the right ROM version for some of those was rough), and continue to do so today.  There are other solutions available as well, like using a Raspberry Pi and/or Arduino linked up with a Wiimote, etc., but those are far less elegant and mostly only developed to the proof-of-concept phase, sadly.

The LCDMod folks have released a revision or two of each of the games they got working since the first ones came out, so you might want to go take a look if it's been a while and see if the versions you've been running are current or not.  The Tomee does work better than an original Zapper overall, but in a lower light, non-reflective environment, both will do the job pretty well.

The Sinden Light Gun was funded via Kickstarter and is actually a fully LCD compatible light gun which works with a ton of computer emulators as well as the PS1 and PS2.  Supposedly, the company behind it are still working on figuring out solutions to bring compatibility of the tech to other original consoles.  I've also heard of mods/tweaks that can be done to the original 3DO light gun to get it to recognize targets on an LCD.

Technology to get the job done is out there in various ways, but for the moment, it's really only being created and further developed by hobbyists, making progress slow at best.  Here's hoping that more inclusive solutions come to light sooner rather than later.

[TDIRunner | 2,779]

It kind of depends.  Assuming the battery is reliable enough, I usually prefer wireless.  It's just really nice to pickup a wireless PS4 or Switch controller and start playing.  Same goes with anything portable.  

On the flip side, wireless can be a pain in the ass in the battery is always dead.  The 8Bit-Do controllers have a really nice feel, but if they sit more than a few weeks, they are dead and need to be recharged.  For the consoles I don't play on a regular basis, it's difficult to keep wireless controllers charged and ready to go.  I have wired controllers for all of my systems ready to go with controller extensions for ALL systems since my consoles sit pretty far from my couch and recliner.  All of this, of course, assumes that lag isn't a problem.  If any lag is present, a wired controller will win out every time.  

Another way to look at it is that I hate wires that are clearly visible all of the time.  For example, I don't care about the wires running between my video game systems or the wires running from my monitor to my PC because I do a good job hiding that stuff.  But I hate wires on things like my keyboard or mouse.  I like being able to move that stuff around as needed and not seeing the wire while I'm working.  The wire on a mouse is especially annoying for me because it can get caught on things while you are trying to move it around.  I haven't used a wired mouse or keyboard in probably 15 years.  

I can't imagine I will used a wired phone again for the rest of my life.  That one should be pretty obvious.  

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

As an electrician and someone who ran structured cabling throughout my entire house, I prefer wired if possible.
 

Wife=wireless

 

 

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

Wired for gaming and smart TVs. Wireless for everything else. 

[nrslam | 477]

Wireless wherever I can. I'm pretty sure all the wireless signals bouncing around my house are good for my health

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

I prefer wires. Unfortunately they god rid of the headphone jack on iphones so I cant  used wired headphones with the phone, but still use my classic ipod regularly with them. 

I REALLY rather have wired power tools too. The amount of times Ive been halfway through a project when the last battery dies and have to wait an hour for then to charge is maddening. So I moved to all wired tools. Similarly I stick with gas powered lawn equipment, A LOT of battery powered crap has been showing up like weedwhackers, leaf blowers, and push mowers. Nope sticking with gas there too

Edited March 4, 2023 by LeatherRebel5150

[Link | 2,737]

I definitely prefer wired headphones. Better sound and way cheaper. 

 

1 hour ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Unfortunately they god rid of the headphone jack on iphones so I cant  used wired headphones with the phone,

[RH | 4,980]

1 hour ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I prefer wires. Unfortunately they god rid of the headphone jack on iphones so I cant  used wired headphones with the phone, but still use my classic ipod regularly with them. 

I REALLY rather have wired power tools too. The amount of times Ive been halfway through a project when the last battery dies and have to wait an hour for then to charge is maddening. So I moved to all wired tools. Similarly I stick with gas powered lawn equipment, A LOT of battery powered crap has been showing up like weedwhackers, leaf blowers, and push mowers. Nope sticking with gas there too

I forgot about the power tools! Those cheap electric, battery powered ones are terrible. Fortunately I don’t use the ones I have much but now when equipment dies (most of it was gifted to me) I replace it with wired equipment too. I also like to buy older hardware because I think they make a lot of this commercial grade stuff to be less powerful. Forget that, give me full power!

18 minutes ago, Link said:

I definitely prefer wired headphones. Better sound and way cheaper. 

 

Apple moved to USB-C years ago so those dongles only work on older models.  There might be something like that for USB-C but if there isn’t, then you’re out of luck.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

2 hours ago, RH said:

Apple moved to USB-C years ago so those dongles only work on older models.  There might be something like that for USB-C but if there isn’t, then you’re out of luck.

No they didn't.  Supposedly the iphone 15 will use it, but that's still all rumors and speculation.  I believe there was a lawsuit in Europe to force Apple to make the switch, but I can't recall if that concluded yet or if it did, if Apple lost.  Regardless, if you have, or have had a USB-C iPhone already, it's very likely custom modified or a knockoff.

[RH | 4,980]

I didn’t know that.  I think I’m thinking about the MacBook Pro line which was  always a frustration for me.  Their MagSafe connections were brilliant and was the only type of connection I didn’t mind being unique since it actually saved my laptop multiple times, but yeah, I was still happy to get a USB-C connection.

[fox | 1,681]

The biggest leap in the 7th generation wasn’t the move to HD but cutting the cord.

What a pain controllers were with cords to trip on all over the place.  You had to take extra time to unplug and roll up and store those monsters if you didn’t want a mess of cords getting all tangled.  If you had a couple different consoles or controllers you used on the reg it was a nightmare.

[Link | 2,737]

So, tangentially, this is an interesting question for me right now, because I can't get any wireless controller to work with my Switch. Not the pro controller, not the joycons when I disconnect them. When I "change grip order" in the Settings menu and press the sync button or L + R, lights keep flashing but they never connect. I can't find anything online about a similar problem. 

[mbd39 | 2,030]

I think that wireless optical mice and keyboards are stupid. Why bother with batteries when a cord works just as well? I also prefer wired controllers.

[AirVillain | 491]

Are you talking mostly about headphones here? 

I mean... Using the wired connection for a Gameboy out of necessity is a good idea but probably not necessary anymore. 

Other than the wired connections for the main systems we use (NES, SNES, etc.), as long as there's no lag, then wireless is fine. 

The wireless on the Wii and WiiU were fine for me. I'm sure Switch is the same.

Edited March 8, 2023 by AirVillain

[RH | 4,980]

1 minute ago, AirVillain said:

Are you talking mostly about headphones here? 

Anything, really, when there's an option for wired vs. wireless.  Obviously there are some clear exceptions. I'm not old enough to have ever had to have a corded remote for my TV.  But just about everything else, I'm going to prefer a wired connection (mice, keyboard, head phones, controllers, etc.)