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XBL dashboard update information (background downloading, boot to dashboard)

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I just got off the phone with some Microsoft peeps. They walked me through what features the Live update will include and said it will hit around next Friday. Among other things, the update includes major music and DVD playback tweaks, adding the ability to conduct downloads in the background and boot to the console's dashboard.

"This is our first major system update since we launched," said Aaron Greenberg, group marketing manager for Xbox Live. "We've been collecting user feedback since we launched and we put together a very long multi-page list of new features included in this update.

Greenberg added that Msoft is continuing to develop exclusive content and plans to issue two major updates a year from now on.
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So says kotaku.com
 
joaomgcd said:
Doesn't this defy the purpose of the feature itself? :/ I mean, if you want to boot to the dashboard now and again you have to go to the dashboard and configure it?... Kinda strange they would do it that way, instead of the obvious "push this button to boot to the dashboard" way.
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I personally prefer it this way - Go to the dashboard every time, and then press the "play" button if you want to play the disc, but They should include as many options as possible, so it'd be nice to see that in addition to this change.
 
major nelson will speak on the upgrade this sunday on his regular podcast...

Xbox 360 Spring Update

You’ve heard the rumors for a few weeks, but the truth can now be told: There is a major Xbox 360 dashboard update coming in “about a week.” I have been playing around with it for a couple of days now, and it’s very nice. Background downloading, boot to the dash option, and Marketplace improvements are just a few of the new features and enhancements that are in this update. I can’t say exactly when it will be released (they’re still working on the exact release date/time) but I will discuss the dash update (with an interview) on my weekly blogcast (podcast) this Sunday. I will post more details about the release the moment I have a firm date/time. Until then, you can see a few screen shots and read more details over at Joystiq or Kotaku.
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I just got off the phone with M$, and although they didn't say "next friday" as Kotaku claims, the statement was the more nebulous "next week."

Sounds like a hot update, if nothing else.
 
Kudos to them,

These are the exact issues I had with the service now they look like there going to be fixed (or possibly tank the console)

Boot to dash, ahhhh.

Oh and for christmas I would like to be able to transfer music from a portable music player kthnx.
 
The video died part way through on me four times, I had to keep reloading. I gave up and now I'm trying to download, but it's been thinking about starting it for a couple of minutes now, no luck. I like what I could see, though.
 
krypt0nian said:
So did anyone else hear that now custom soundtracks mute in-game when cut scenes come up? The Halo trailer got loud for a min there and drowned out Luke.
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How exactly could this work though? How would the system know what a particular game considered a "cut scene" or not, since programming can vary? Unless there's some standard we don't know about that developers have had to adhere to?
 
Kaijima said:
How exactly could this work though? How would the system know what a particular game considered a "cut scene" or not, since programming can vary? Unless there's some standard we don't know about that developers have had to adhere to?
Click to expand...

MS stole some Pikmin. =O
 
Kaijima said:
How exactly could this work though? How would the system know what a particular game considered a "cut scene" or not, since programming can vary? Unless there's some standard we don't know about that developers have had to adhere to?
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Well I know it already does this for CG videos, and I imagine all it requires is a flag in the audio file saying its for cutscene use or something. No idea if this is retroactive and games have already been designed for this or if it is only for future games.

Think I'll download that video now, it wasnt working for me earlier. 200MB to watch someone else play in a dashboard, I've done worse I guess :P
 
Mrbob said:
BTW who the fuck is watching Golden Girls special DVD?!!?!? :lol
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http://egmshane.1up.com/ :D

edit:
Q: How exactly could this work though? How would the system know what a particular game considered a "cut scene" or not, since programming can vary? Unless there's some standard we don't know about that developers have had to adhere to?

Basically, yeah. The MS reps had a name for it but basically certain audio or video sections can be set to override the custom soundtrack (say for a cutscene) and then go back to it when it's over. Pretty sweet, eh?

edit 2: sporsk--(if you're serious) it's supposed to come out next week, it's in final testing stages at MS now. It should auto-do it when you connect to XBL once its been released.
 
I'm working on a writeup/watching the suns/mavs game right now...I'll copy/paste here after I'm done.

Anyway, to do a quick answer to a couple of questions:

Release date of the update - next week, automatic download, should take only two minutes to download/install. It'll install directly to flash memory within the 360, not to HDD or memcard.

DVD playback - not sure what you're looking for there, but they're adding DVD bookmarking so you can pick up where you left off.
 
Shawnwhann said:
I think he may be wondering about whether this update can help fix the fact that DVDs look like ass on an HDTV.
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I wouldn't be amazed if the update didn't have other improvements like this type of thing.
 
arne said:
I wouldn't be amazed if the update didn't have other improvements like this type of thing.
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the reason DVD's look so bad is directly tied to the gamma problem (which was pointed out above, in the pics). for some reason, the 360 has a lot of gamma problems with vga output and also with DVD playback. i confirmed this by getting into my TV's service menu and changing the gamma in there (lower) to compensate and voila, it looked great. to bad it messed up everything else.

hard to understand how they missed this whole gamma issue really. but i'd be happy if they just correct it with an update.

also, one feature i'd love to see arne is the ability to auto restart a download that fails. this happened to me over and over and over and over again during e3, so i had to keep checking back and restarting the download again (it did resume at least, so that was cool). but an auto restart download would be ace.
 
shpankey said:
the reason DVD's look so bad is directly tied to the gamma problem (which was pointed out above, in the pics). for some reason, the 360 has a lot of gamma problems with vga output and also with DVD playback. i confirmed this by getting into my TV's service menu and changing the gamma in there (lower) to compensate and voila, it looked great. to bad it messed up everything else.

hard to understand how they missed this whole gamma issue really. but i'd be happy if they just correct it with an update.

also, one feature i'd love to see arne is the ability to auto restart a download that fails. this happened to me over and over and over and over again during e3, so i had to keep checking back and restarting the download again (it did resume at least, so that was cool). but an auto restart download would be ace.
Click to expand...

Is it just the gamma issue? I thought DVD playback looked bad because of blocky pixels. :(

Then again, anything other than 720p/1080i material looks horrible on my Wega Plasma. Horrible horrible internal scaler.
 
shpankey said:
the reason DVD's look so bad is directly tied to the gamma problem (which was pointed out above, in the pics). for some reason, the 360 has a lot of gamma problems with vga output and also with DVD playback. i confirmed this by getting into my TV's service menu and changing the gamma in there (lower) to compensate and voila, it looked great. to bad it messed up everything else.

hard to understand how they missed this whole gamma issue really. but i'd be happy if they just correct it with an update.
Click to expand...
Yes someone who decided look more into the situation.

I think I have a reason as to why there are GAMMA issues.

I've read on a few boards that people who have displays that accept VGA over Video levels have no gamma problem at all, but not many traditional monitors and displays accept VGA over Video levels, but rather on PC levels instead, which causes a really bright picture in the end.

They need to compensate for those of us that can't output VGA over Video(sp?).
 
neptunes said:
Yes someone who decided look more into the situation.

I think I have a reason as to why there are GAMMA issues.

I've read on a few boards that people who have displays that accept VGA over Video levels have no gamma problem at all, but not many traditional monitors and displays accept VGA over Video levels, but rather on PC levels instead, which causes a really bright picture in the end.

They need to compensate for those of us that can't output VGA over Video(sp?).
Click to expand...
what is VGA over Video?
 
My problem with DVD playback is aspect ratio. I have a widescreen HDTV. For some reason I allways have to screw with my TV's aspect button to watch a movie. If everything I watched was widescreen it wouldnt be an issue, but some of the stuff I watch is 4:3 and the Xbox 360 stretches it to fit the screen.

I dont know why, because my Xbox didnt ever do this. I know I should get a new DVD player, but I honestly don't care if picture quality could be a little better, I dont want clutter. So less stuff in my setup is better.
 
neptunes said:
I've read on a few boards that people who have displays that accept VGA over Video levels have no gamma problem at all, but not many traditional monitors and displays accept VGA over Video levels, but rather on PC levels instead, which causes a really bright picture in the end.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this is my case, but I've got a Samsung 940MW and it works great with VGA. My problem is the opposite: connecting my 360 using the component cable, I get a very shitty image with oversaturated colors.
 
StoOgE said:
My problem with DVD playback is aspect ratio. I have a widescreen HDTV. For some reason I allways have to screw with my TV's aspect button to watch a movie. If everything I watched was widescreen it wouldnt be an issue, but some of the stuff I watch is 4:3 and the Xbox 360 stretches it to fit the screen.

I dont know why, because my Xbox didnt ever do this. I know I should get a new DVD player, but I honestly don't care if picture quality could be a little better, I dont want clutter. So less stuff in my setup is better.
Click to expand...

HAHA! I wasn't the only one that was more than a little bothered by that. But, did you see the video walkthrough above? It seems to have been fixed!!!!! That Golden Girls DVD played at the proper aspect ratio!

Thanks arne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
3rdman said:
HAHA! I wasn't the only one that was more than a little bothered by that. But, did you see the video walkthrough above? It seems to have been fixed!!!!! That Golden Girls DVD played at the proper aspect ratio!

Thanks arne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

that would be GREAT news. I know with mine its allways annoying because some movies that are widescreen have 4:3 menus, so the menus look streched when I go to them. Then, I'll put in Family Guy and it'll be streched so I have to find my TV remote which I almost never use (my universal remote doesnt change aspect ratios).. then a few days later I'll go to watch a movie and my aspect ratio is still 4:3 and my movie will look squished and I have to find the remote again.

Ugg.

Please be fixed :D
 
This will be an excellent update, in the sense it'll the things that the X360 should've been doing in the first place. But at least it's here now, we can all expunge the memories of downloading of old marketplace.

That said, there is something else that would be nice...

screenshots of themes. I don't know... but something about paying $1.50 for something I can't see, can't see if I like, just kinda rubs me the wrong way.
 
Zaptruder said:
That said, there is something else that would be nice...

screenshots of themes. I don't know... but something about paying $1.50 for something I can't see, can't see if I like, just kinda rubs me the wrong way.
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They are tiny...let us DL them, apply and see if we want to buy them once they are on.
 
krypt0nian said:
They are tiny...let us DL them, apply and see if we want to buy them once they are on.
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this isnt a bad idea. Let it apply the theme and put like a 60 second timer on it or something. I dont know if its feasable, but I have yet to buy a theme because I dont want to get stuck with something ugly.
 
StoOgE said:
My problem with DVD playback is aspect ratio. I have a widescreen HDTV. For some reason I allways have to screw with my TV's aspect button to watch a movie. If everything I watched was widescreen it wouldnt be an issue, but some of the stuff I watch is 4:3 and the Xbox 360 stretches it to fit the screen.

I dont know why, because my Xbox didnt ever do this. I know I should get a new DVD player, but I honestly don't care if picture quality could be a little better, I dont want clutter. So less stuff in my setup is better.
Click to expand...

I thought you were the king of Crazy Lies, so I went to my 360 and tested it. Bam! My 4:3 HD Sony Wega is vertically squashing widescreen movies through the 360, but not through the DVD player. And because the TV is 4:3- I don't have zoom features to fix it.

Weird. I never noticed before.

(360 is set to 1080i Widescreen, as is Samsung upconverting DVD player and both are going through HDMI receiver...)
 
Major Nelson has an interview with one of the guys in charge of the update in this week's show. Great information in there so far. A couple of nuggets:

*Microsoft expected to have 3 million downloads by the end of E3; they ended up with 24 million.
*Nearly 10x the content they expected; 1,000 pieces by E3. Thus the need to re-organize Marketplace.
*Uno is now the fastest selling Live Arcade game, and has a 46% demo:full game conversion rate (nearly half of the people who downloaded the demo bought the game).

I'm still listening, but I thought I'd give the heads up. It's interesting.

http://www.majornelson.com
 
GhaleonEB said:
Major Nelson has an interview with one of the guys in charge of the update in this week's show. Great information in there so far. A couple of nuggets:

*Microsoft expected to have 3 million downloads by the end of E3; they ended up with 24 million.
*Nearly 10x the content they expected; 1,000 pieces by E3. Thus the need to re-organize Marketplace.
*Uno is now the fastest selling Live Arcade game, and has a 46% demo:full game conversion rate (nearly half of the people who downloaded the demo bought the game).

I'm still listening, but I thought I'd give the heads up. It's interesting.

http://www.majornelson.com
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Geeze. Never underestimate the power of Uno. But, it is a greater XBLA title than I ever would have thought possible for a card game.

Downloads of Texas Hold 'Em could be scary.
 
When is texas holdem coming out? It seems like relatively simple games like this and Street fighter 2 shouldn't take that long to come out.
 
arne said:
Yes, what specifically do you mean about improving DVD playback?
Click to expand...

I've come across DVD's that drop frames on the 360. That's the only real problem I've had. It's only certain discs though, and they work fine in other players.
 
YellowAce said:
Is it just the gamma issue? I thought DVD playback looked bad because of blocky pixels. :(

Then again, anything other than 720p/1080i material looks horrible on my Wega Plasma. Horrible horrible internal scaler.
Click to expand...

Ace, it might be because it is also a HUGE TV and you are basically watching it from about 6 feet away which in relative to screen size terms is still like having your face right attached to the screen... ;).

That said, Blu-Ray and 1080p video o the rescue :D.
 
Uno is now the fastest selling Live Arcade game, and has a 46% demo:full game conversion rate (nearly half of the people who downloaded the demo bought the game).
Click to expand...

Wow - that is insane! Hopefully, we'll start seeing more Live Arcade games soon. Microsoft is sitting on a gold mine here in Live Arcade, and they and their 3rd party publishers really need to come out with more games fast! :)
 
They have also fixed the custom soundtracks now! No longer will they go away once you start another game session.. Woo! That's one of the biggest things for me in this update.
 
All this sounds awesome, let's have it already! The boot to dashboard and active downloads are things I've been wishing for since day 1, along with many others, I'm sure.

But they haven't yet addressed my #1 complaint: tearing. Come on, Microsoft, let's have that V-Sync update!
 
They also mention some new games coming to XBLA on MajorNelson's podcast, a pinball game with camera support , a game called TotemBall, and some gesture based games that will use the camera.
 
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