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Xbox One March Update Impressions Thread [Now Available]

We can probably expect updates every patch Tuesday. March is an outlier due to Titanfall. It sounds like they plan on doing 2 big updates a year as well, in addition to the monthly ones.

This is what it seems like to me as well. Having a new update every month is a great cadence for MS to follow, especially with the pace at which they've been improving the X1 and the features they've been adding.

I appreciate them getting all of this out fast at the start but monthly updates seems excessive to me.

I could not disagree more with you. Monthly updates is a great rhythm to follow for updates.
 

mcrommert

Banned
We are seeing Microsoft treat Xbox as one of its main product lines...it is based on the NT kernel like windows 8 and windows phone 8 and will be updating soon to the most current 8.1 code base. For xbox users this means only good things.
 

Alx

Member
I appreciate them getting all of this out fast at the start but monthly updates seems excessive to me.

We shouldn't expect major changes like in the coming update every month anyway. But there are always many things to fix here and there, and it's a good thing to make the corrections available as soon as possible.
If we compare it to the monthly updates of windows 8, most of the time the user won't notice any difference, but bugs get fixed, performance/stability/security improves, etc. Connected software is now a constantly evolving thing, it's not static any more.
 

mcrommert

Banned
I'm confused. I thought Linear PCM was the untouched uncompressed audio sent to your receiver. Is Bitstream better?

PCM is just uncompressed audio...so lets say it started life as a dolby digital stream this is decompressing it and turning it into uncompressed stream...if it was dolby truehd it is turning back the lossless compresssion and sending it whole

Bitstreaming is just sending the dolby digital stream or dolby truehd or dts stream with no modifications. Usually you use this if you have a receiver that can do all that magic and you trust it over your xbox or computer or bluray player :)
 

mcrommert

Banned
We shouldn't expect major changes like in the coming update every month anyway. But there are always many things to fix here and there, and it's a good thing to make the corrections available as soon as possible.
If we compare it to the monthly updates of windows 8, most of the time the user won't notice any difference, but bugs get fixed, performance/stability/security improves, etc. Connected software is now a constantly evolving thing, it's not static any more.

Exactly going forward we will see updates to speed up apps and so forth and fix stability issues...those big changes in functionality will come with the bi-annual, annual updates
 

Ape

Banned
I appreciate them getting all of this out fast at the start but monthly updates seems excessive to me.

arrested-developmen-lucile-door-close.gif
 

jbug617

Banned
Sorry for the false alarm. The notifications for friends is coming in the next patch. Twitch notifications coming in March
 

psychotron

Member
PCM is just uncompressed audio...so lets say it started life as a dolby digital stream this is decompressing it and turning it into uncompressed stream...if it was dolby truehd it is turning back the lossless compresssion and sending it whole

Bitstreaming is just sending the dolby digital stream or dolby truehd or dts stream with no modifications. Usually you use this if you have a receiver that can do all that magic and you trust it over your xbox or computer or bluray player :)

I have a Pioneer Receiver that handles all the True HD formats. Would you recommend sticking with bitstream and letting the receiver interpret it, or stick with LPCM? I'm looking for the truest sound possible.
 

sangreal

Member
I have a Pioneer Receiver that handles all the True HD formats. Would you recommend sticking with bitstream and letting the receiver interpret it, or stick with LPCM? I'm looking for the truest sound possible.

just use 7.1 uncompressed assuming your receiver supports it. the xbone will decompress the dolby/dts and send it to the receiver unmolested. Proper bitstream support means it would pass on the compressed stream to the receiver where it will be decompressed, resulting in the same sound.

On xbone though, bitstream means it is decompressed and then recompressed into (lossy) dts or dolby before being sent to the receiver

They really should have kept the original naming -- 5.1 compressed
 

mcrommert

Banned
I have a Pioneer Receiver that handles all the True HD formats. Would you recommend sticking with bitstream and letting the receiver interpret it, or stick with LPCM? I'm looking for the truest sound possible.

Okay great question (can you tell i love this stuff) So I would say bitstream for multiple reasons...for example if you have something that outputs in stereo like a netflix program your stereo can add a pseudo surround sound treatment to it...usually this sounds great and will push stuff like vocals to center track instead of across left and right...if you outputted in say 5.1 lpcm it will just output 5.1 with nothing in the 3.1 channels...so your receiver won't know to do the pseudo surround (which is usually known as dolby Pro Logic)

Also your stereo is slightly, infinitesimally better at decoding surround sound formats

And lastly if you hookup your stereo over optical you can actually output bitstream over optical...while you can't do lpcm 5.1 over optical (i am guessing you are using hdmi)
 

mcrommert

Banned
I have a Pioneer Receiver that handles all the True HD formats. Would you recommend sticking with bitstream and letting the receiver interpret it, or stick with LPCM? I'm looking for the truest sound possible.

just use 7.1 uncompressed assuming your receiver supports it. the xbone will decompress the dolby/dts and send it to the receiver unmolested. Proper bitstream support means it would pass on the compressed stream to the receiver where it will be decompressed, resulting in the same sound.

On xbone though, bitstream means it is decompressed and then recompressed into (lossy) dts or dolby before being sent to the receiver

They really should have kept the original naming -- 5.1 compressed

Okay i'm wrong...Listen to sangreal (did you read the da vinci code too many times?). I thought this was true bitstream and not recompress bitstream...you want uncompressed 7.1 as then you will get all the quality of true hd or dts master from blurays (also aren't some of these games having lossless audio?)
 

The Flash

Banned
Pretty good list, but here's a couple things you missed which some haven't caught yet...will update if I find more:

General Changes:
  • "Resume Games Quickly" is no longer in Beta, the Beta label in settings has been removed

Friends App:
  • An icon in the upper corner of someone's name within your followers list will show you if you are following them back yet or not. If the icon appears then you are following them back


https://twitter.com/notwen/status/439456583328608256

Whitten: great article! We won't have friends online notifications in March. Want to get it just right. Next update

Whitten: yup -- twitch broadcasting toasts from your fav's yes -- but not friends online. that will be next month..

asian-guy-thumbs-up_zpsceaad951.gif


OP updated. Keep up the good work guys. Appreciate the info.
 

LookBehindYou

Neo Member
OK, this whole bitstream is throwing me off. Is it not possible to light up my receiver's dolby true HD light or DTSHD light? Right now I have it set to 7.1 uncompressed. Isn't the point of bitstream to let the receiver do the work. I just want the best way to get full uncompressed 7.1 audio. Is bistream the way to go or keep it at the 7.1 uncompressed?

I don't have the update, so I apologize if the options are changed and I'm talking out of my ass...
 

mcrommert

Banned
OK, this whole bitstream is throwing me off. Is it not possible to light up my receiver's dolby true HD light or DTSHD light? Right now I have it set to 7.1 uncompressed. Isn't the point of bitstream to let the receiver do the work. I just want the best way to get full uncompressed 7.1 audio. Is bistream the way to go or keep it at the 7.1 uncompressed?

I don't have the update, so I apologize if the options are changed and I'm talking out of my ass...

Look at what sangreal and i wrote higher in the page
 
Twitch notices sounds really nice, at the most I would expect "friend is online" pop ups but to also include separate twitch ones is great.
 

B3N1

Member
I've just downloaded the beta for the first time. It's pretty nice. I did the KI weekly challenge, when I realized, that after completing and holding the Guide, it took me to Achievements immediately instead of Notifications. Dunno whether anyone mentioned this, but it's cool of them to do that. Also i get the feeling that it's a lot faster than before.

Now we need the same for the matchmaking Notifications.
 

Miles X

Member
Occasionally when I press the guide button it gives me a black screen, the only way to resolve it is to manually shut down. Has this been fixed in the March update?
 

VE3TRO

Formerly Gizmowned
So Twitch doesn't broadcast in this beta? Do we know if the beta will update to allow it before public release.
 

psychotron

Member
just use 7.1 uncompressed assuming your receiver supports it. the xbone will decompress the dolby/dts and send it to the receiver unmolested. Proper bitstream support means it would pass on the compressed stream to the receiver where it will be decompressed, resulting in the same sound.

On xbone though, bitstream means it is decompressed and then recompressed into (lossy) dts or dolby before being sent to the receiver

They really should have kept the original naming -- 5.1 compressed

Okay great question (can you tell i love this stuff) So I would say bitstream for multiple reasons...for example if you have something that outputs in stereo like a netflix program your stereo can add a pseudo surround sound treatment to it...usually this sounds great and will push stuff like vocals to center track instead of across left and right...if you outputted in say 5.1 lpcm it will just output 5.1 with nothing in the 3.1 channels...so your receiver won't know to do the pseudo surround (which is usually known as dolby Pro Logic)

Also your stereo is slightly, infinitesimally better at decoding surround sound formats

And lastly if you hookup your stereo over optical you can actually output bitstream over optical...while you can't do lpcm 5.1 over optical (i am guessing you are using hdmi)

My receiver is actually set up not to add the fake surround processing. I have it set to "Direct" which plays the original unmolested audio the way it is being fed to the receiver. I don't do optical, I have everything through HDMI.
 
Thanks for the OP update! The only thing I have an issue with is Polygon's wording (or maybe MS's?) about this:

"Xbox moderators will be keeping an eye out for abuse of the Twitch app and have the ability to temporarily or permanently ban players. They can also remove their ability to broadcast over Twitch, without banning them"

Xbox Moderators imo is a very poor way to phrase it...it gives off the impression that these will be community members who are given Mod priviledges. AFAIK, the discipline will come from the Xbox Live Policy Enforcement Team (XBLPET), much like they police Upload clips currently. Calling them Mods isn't being clear that these are Microsoft employees, not some 16 year old Halo streamer that Microsoft gave moderation capabilities to.

Think this might need to be made clearer to people (?)
 

Sobriquet

Member
So Twitch doesn't broadcast in this beta? Do we know if the beta will update to allow it before public release.
The beta seemingly allows it, but the Twitch app needs to be updated. That would be pretty cool if it happened before the public release, but I don't think it will because I don't see how they would implement a separate app update only for beta testers.
 

see5harp

Member
Please with the setup they have right now where you can even force update? Obviously I want fixes but group them up. There was something awesome about those yearly updates on 360.
 

see5harp

Member
I've just downloaded the beta for the first time. It's pretty nice. I did the KI weekly challenge, when I realized, that after completing and holding the Guide, it took me to Achievements immediately instead of Notifications. Dunno whether anyone mentioned this, but it's cool of them to do that. Also i get the feeling that it's a lot faster than before.

Now we need the same for the matchmaking Notifications.

Yes this was something very nice. Also it's a lot more clear in the achievements how to go back and view others for the same game. It was hella confusing before.
 

flkraven

Member
Please with the setup they have right now where you can even force update? Obviously I want fixes but group them up. There was something awesome about those yearly updates on 360.

Sure. They should have waited until December to update party chat with a load of other things so it feels more special....
 
I'm loving the update. Can't wait to see what else they release down the line. :)

I think this is one of the more exciting aspects of the Xbox One also because due to the whole hypervisor and virtual machine setup they've created to separate the app and OS experience from interfering with the games side of things, they have a lot more freedom to really go all out with whatever improvements they want to make on the UI and OS side of things without fear of causing unintended consequences for the games.

Previously I think this is why updates, as common as they were on the 360, had to be delivered more sparingly over longer periods of time. But now it isn't totally unexpected if the updates come fairly fast and quite often.
 

see5harp

Member
So if they can fix something now, you'd rather wait.

Wat?

I appreciate the fixes and updates at the start because there are a lot of things they need to fix. Meaningful things like the party system changes and Twitch streaming were very much needed. But with the way they have the system set up with no way to force an update, I'd prefer that these updates happen less often than monthly, unless of course it's something meaningful. Obviously if it's more than just "system stability" I welcome the changes.
 
I appreciate the fixes and updates at the start because there are a lot of things they need to fix. Meaningful things like the party system changes and Twitch streaming were very much needed. But with the way they have the system set up with no way to force an update, I'd prefer that these updates happen less often than monthly, unless of course it's something meaningful. Obviously if it's more than just "system stability" I welcome the changes.

What's wrong with system stability updates?
 

mcrommert

Banned
What's wrong with system stability updates?

I think its time to stop talking to this guy he's obviously crazy....its like saying "I wish to go back to early 2000's microsoft before they did patch tuesday for major issues. I like my os's bug ridden and security prone"
 

Caayn

Member
Did anyone else not receive the update? I'm in the preview program and got the first update but the second update that people in this thread already got hasn't been downloaded yet.
 

mcrommert

Banned
Did anyone else not receive the update? I'm in the preview program and got the first update but the update that's supposed to be released today hasn't been downloaded yet.

How long after you registered the preview app did it take to get your first update...just waiting here
 

Caayn

Member
How long after you registered the preview app did it take to get your first update...just waiting here
I was in one of the first waves of people who got the preview access and got the actual update. But since then I've disabled the "instant-on" mode, so I'm thinking that that might be the cause.
 

SegaShack

Member
My receiver has Dolby and DTS support and lights up when either format is used. I have my XB1's audio go through over optical. However, this receiver has slots for 2 sets of speakers, one is for 5.1, one is for stereo. I use stereo speakers since I do not have the space for 5.1 speakers.

If I use Dolby or DTS on XB1, is it for 5.1 audio only? Would my receiver decode it into a 2.0 format? Should I use uncompressed Stereo instead?
 
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