[360] Fall Dashboard Update -- October 31, 2006!

Well, Microsoft promised a Spring and a Fall dashboard update. It's fall, and so tomorrow, we have a dashboard update! Hooray! I'm going to paste the entire list of features here, and I'm going to bold the ones that really seem important/useful/cool.

Complete Dashboard Update Feature List


New Features

HD 1080p video mode support over VGA and component cables.
Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player support.
Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11, Zune software, or Windows Media Connect.
Play video from storage devices such as USB flash drives, Xbox 360 Memory Units, etc.
Play video from CD or DVD data discs.
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset support, including battery level indicator in the Xbox Guide.
Video support for 50 Hz HDTV modes (DVD and HD DVD only).
Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel support.
Set up automatic downloads of newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games.
Support for upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express (separate download and subscription required.)
Stream music, pictures and video from a Zune device.

Xbox Live Arcade

Lightning-fast enumeration and listing of all Xbox Live® Arcade games on the console.
Find games quickly with two new sort options: Recently Played and By Category.
Have all new Xbox Live Arcade games at the ready with auto downloads. Auto downloads optionally adds newly released trial versions of games to active downloads when you enter Xbox Live Arcade.
View full achievement info in Xbox Live Arcade, including icons, achievement point details, and descriptions. (Apparently, this is so that when you view achievements in the arcade area, it doesn't pop up the Dashboard blade and instead shows it in the Dashboard itself. Glad to see Microsoft pushing integrating it instead of taking the lazy way out.)
Friends leaderboard: Compare yourself with friends and view leaderboard details right from the Xbox dashboard. (Again, this is so you can compare everyone without loading every game.
Tell a friend: Send a message to a friend about your newest favorite Xbox Live Arcade game.

DVD Player

Optionally disable notifications from Xbox Live while watching DVD movies. (FINALLY!)
Improved support for audio streams on incorrectly authored DVDs.
Better handling of unreadable discs.
Updated count-down timer.
HD DVD player support.
Added zoom support for non-anamorphic content.
Added support to Family Settings to block Unrated Content

Video Player

Improved support for extended all black scenes in WMV content.
Added support for Windows Media Video 9 Advanced profile video.
Screen saver now becomes active when videos are paused.
Now shares UI and player controls with DVD player.
Improved video playback while downloading from Xbox Live.
Added skip controls (forward approx. 30 seconds, back approx. 7 seconds).
Improved messaging around unplayable video content.
Added time elapsed and time remaining displays.
Improved playback of high bit-rate HD content on fragmented hard drives.
Improved visual quality of video playback.
Added selectable display modes: default and letterbox zoom.

Localization

New locale setting for China
Improved German translations in console settings.
Improved German translations in memory area.
Improved Japanese translations in Family Settings.
Added localized text for all supported languages in pictures area
Improved Spanish translations in camera effects.
Improved locale-specific decimal denominators.
Added localization support for title menu and main menu in the DVD player.
Added localization support for “Attempting to Read Media” system message.

Memory Area

Added support for Xbox 360 HD DVD Player content..
Added new page for viewing content size by category.

Other System Improvements

Updated support for new Daylight Savings changes coming in 2007.
Improved support for games to better handle host migration in multi-player matches.
Improved Xbox Live Vision camera support for changing room lighting while zooming.
Background downloaded videos appear in video area
Improved Xbox Live Vision camera support while using VGA.
Playing photo slideshows from PC now maintains picture folder hierarchy.
Improved user experience when playing and deleting videos from the Games or Media areas.
Improved handling of invalid characters during Xbox Live signup.
Better handling of watermarks in gamer cards.
Improved text for Windows Media Connect..
Improved UI performance in Media Center Extender
Improved connection support for Buffalo WZR-G108 wireless router when using Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter.
Redownload of deleted Arcade Games no longer re-enumerates all games on the Arcade page.
Improved visual display of text in themes.
Improved support for CD playback after signing up for Xbox Live and losing network connectivity.
Improved support for long names of items memory area.
Improved handling of gamer pictures downloaded from Xbox Live. (Hopefully this will mean that the selection interface doesn't load pictures 4 at a time anymore.)
Improved background download notifications when downloading many small items from Xbox Live.
Improved support for custom backgrounds after returning to the Xbox Dashboard from the Account Management area.
Improved network reliability between Windows Media Center Extender on Windows Vista and Xbox 360 consoles using Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter.
Improved voice chat quality in Xbox Dashboard and in-game chats. (So, uh... wasn't the wireless headset supposed to provide this?)
Improved messaging when failing to connect to Windows Media Center Extender.
Improved USB keyboard support when using a USB hub.
Improved consistency of user experience when deleting various types of content.
Improved handling of low storage space for background downloads.
Improved handling of Picture streaming from attached Digital Cameras over MTP protocol
Improved error messaging for optional iPod support download when storage devices are full.
Improved handling of multi-key repeating for USB keyboards.
Expanded Family Settings to include support for blocking unrated DVDs and videos.
Added ability to clear space from storage devices in download areas.
Added support for low-speed and full-speed USB keyboards.
Improved CapsLock behavior for USB keyboards. (Good, because on mine it doesn't fucking work. All 3 of the indicator lights are always on and capslock never works.)
Improved look and feel in Xbox Live Marketplace and Xbox Live Arcade areas. (Marketplace didn't need it, but Arcade sure as hell did.)
Added redeem code option to Xbox Live signup.
Removed system message at the start of new downloads. Messages will be displayed for completed items. (Good.O
Added support for CCV credit card validation field in Xbox Live Marketplace purchase areas. (I'm surprised they didn't already have this.)
Updated “More Information” instructions in the Xbox Dashboard for connecting an Xbox 360 console to a Windows PC to stream digital media content.
Added auto-scroll to long text descriptions in Xbox Dashboard UI.
Improved support for DVD insertion while playing a video file.

Overall, some updates that we knew were coming, along with a bunch of updates that were DESPERATELY needed. I really think the faster loading time in the Arcade is the best feature, but I'm biased. I have 33 arcade games, and the damn UI fucking locks up for a few seconds at a time and takes as long as 45 seconds to a minute to load all the games. That may not sound like a lot, but it's frustrating waiting for all of the games to come up just because the one you want to play is the one that the arcade decides to load last.

Hooray for dashboard updates!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You chose to bold the wrong things.

1080p is extremely important and a HUGE plus for those with TVs that can support it. You think 1080i or 720p looks good? 1080p is like a giant kick in the teeth. I am glad the 360 has it and it has made me decide to get a 1080p set instead of a 1080i set when I splurge on one in the next year or so.

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Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11, Zune software, or Windows Media Connect.

Putting this in the :noonecares: catagory for a few reasons. WMV video is almost compeltely useless and very few things worth streaming to one's TV is available only in this format.

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Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel support.

This should be bolded. Racing wheels are fun as hell and this could be rad for the likes of Forza 2.

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Set up automatic downloads of newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games.

Dunno why this is bolded. Great, download crap like Totemball AUTOMATICALLY. If anything, it wastes the time it takes to delete this stuff. But I guess if you like to buy everything right away it's a different story.

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Support for upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express (separate download and subscription required.)

This hsould be bolded because it's quite major. This has the chance to be supremely AWESOME. We'll have to wait and see though.

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Stream music, pictures and video from a Zune device.

Hard to tell if this should be bolded or not. Depends on how much one gives a shit about the Zune.

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Lightning-fast enumeration and listing of all Xbox Live® Arcade games on the console.

I don't like waiting for the list and I"ve only got 18. For people like you here who have 30+, it's gotta be brutal. Good to see this.

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Find games quickly with two new sort options: Recently Played and By Category.

Should also be bolded for those with a ton of games. I dunno how it'll look though. hopefully it won't take 5 or six menus and submenus to find the game you're looking for.

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Added zoom support for non-anamorphic content.

This should be bolded if you're a fan of zooming in on people's noses or something in the middle of a movie. The zoom feature is qutie fun to play with and any improvements to it are a plus.

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Added skip controls (forward approx. 30 seconds, back approx. 7 seconds).

Absolutely useless increments. 7 seconds backwards? What the hell? A shame you can't set these increments manually.

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Updated support for new Daylight Savings changes coming in 2007.

This should be bolded because we all like having the correct time display on our units.

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Improved visual display of text in themes.

I wish this meant we could alter the text colour so we don't have black on dark blue any more. I wonder what this entails, exactly.

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Improved voice chat quality in Xbox Dashboard and in-game chats.

What's this mean? More bandwidth is dedicated to the voice chat? Could that cut down on game performance if I'm VCing with someone and playing a game with someone else? Will it be variable?

I agree with most of your other decisions on what was and wasn't important, though.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I dont really use enough of the 360's marketplace and arcade features, but some of this stuff will be great to have. Its nice to be able to tweak options when the time calls for it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hey, look, everybody! Screenshots!

They're in Japanese, but they at least give an idea of what they're doing. I REALLY like that achievements screen they have there, that's EXACTLY what I want to see games start doing. The blade for achievements has got to GO.

The pictures for the various menus in arcade and marketplace are interesting, I'm sure a couple will be changed (like the asian chick ones) for the American market.

How ya doing, buddy?

It's too bad that they have forgotten about something that I would find fairly useful: the ability to disable auto-off on the wireless controller. Though, I am probably the only one on Earth who even cares about it. I mean let's say I'm wanting to engage in a voice chat with an internet nerd while I do something other than play xbox. Yes, I realize that there are such devices as telephones, and such readily available softwares as skype and the like, HOWEVER, just chillin on my couch with my xbox controller beside me, with the headset attached is so much more convenient than burning cell minutes trying to talk to someone in a foreign country.

Well, I don't actually know any details about the wireless headset that they are planning on releasing, so maybe it is completely independant of the controller and comes with its own charging station, and would completely solve my problem here.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Last I checked, russ, the wireless headset does have its own charging stuff and stuff like that. I haven't read anything about whether it'll shut off when the controller it's attached to shuts up.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

God DAMN. When they said lightning fast enumeration, they weren't fucking kidding. 33 games loads in a FLASH now.

FELIPE NO

Alright, some impressions.

Firstly, yeah, the arcade enumeration is great, that's a no brainer. It's still not nearly as instant as it should be. (It should do it once at console startup and never need to do it again unless the arcade list is altered.)

The reorganization of the Arcade is pretty good, browsing by catagory is nice.

I like that they removed the Videos Option from the second blade too, that was redundant. However, there's a large gap there now that could be filled up with something else. I was expecting XNA to go there, but the Demos menu option is apparently combined with XNA for now, so they aren't seperate. (That's a strange choice).

The organization for the Videos is a nice improvement, I like that. I don't have any videos on my 360 though so I wonder if it's possible to move somethings between catagories or if they are stuck in whatever one they get assigned to.

Now, the root menu of the arcade is ugly. Those large pictures that have replaced the small text only menu selections are ugly, clash with pretty much every theme that has a picture for a background, and are FAR too large for SD resolutions. They are HUGE and pointless.

The same goes for the Marketplace. Useless and ugly. And if you go one menu deeper in the marketplace, the text only menu options now have a lot of blank space between them, and are no longer a nice, tight, organized list that you can see on one screen, no sir. You have to SCROLL DOWN now, past all this unused screen space. Again, this is in SD and it might not be the case for HD, but it's a useless change, and actually makes getting around the marketplace harder. That fails.

Everything else though seems well enough.

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I think it's a case of them not considering SD as much as they should, because the options look fine and don't look too huge at all on my HDTV.

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In unrelated news that isn't threadworthy, the 360 Wireless Headset is creeping out into Best Buys and various other stores apparently a week ahead of the street date. I got my hands on mine, and I have yet to get Skills to inform me of the quality of the voice on it. It's comfortable as FUCK, though, and the best part is that the headset won't turn off automatically, and it won't turn off when a controller does. Which means you can finally voice chat with people and not have to keep checking the controller. The buttons are easy to reach and easy to figure out, with beeps so you know your button presses are doing something. It has four lights to designate which of the four controllers your headset is associated with.

Overall, really cool, but the jury's still out on voice quality. Hopefully Skills and I can verify it in a bit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Wow, the voice quality is TERRIBLE. Why am I not surprised? It sounds on par with or worse than most bluetooth cell phone headsets. And it had a lot of feedback and basically was the biggest piece of shit EVER.

Glad I didn't buy it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.