Xbox 360 Fall Update Official Details Revealed, Adds DivX Support

[Κώστας Φ.]

Coming to you December 4 will be an updated Xbox 360 Dashboard that will play your downloaded videos


The Xbox 360 Fall Update will arrive fashionably late on December 4, bringing with it a slew of enhancements to Microsoft’s console interface. Official details were released today, confirming previous reports speculating on what would be new.

The new Dashboard update will bring with it an “Inside Xbox” news feed from Xbox.com, where gamers can read about game releases, events, and Xbox LIVE Marketplace offers. This feature mirrors the Information Board recently introduced to the PlayStation 3 in the v2.0 firmware.

Microsoft boasts that its Xbox Live is "the largest social network in the living room." Expanding on that notion, the Fall Update will add the ability for users to view the Friends Lists of other Xbox Live members, which the company believes will boost the social networking experience on the service. While not mentioned by Microsoft in its press materials, it’s believed that the viewing of external friends lists will be limited by age.

Another new feature building on the social network aspect is an enhanced online profile, where members can share a few more details about themselves in an expanded bio that can be visible to "Friends Only" or the entire Xbox Live community.

Navigation throughout Xbox 360’s various features will also be upgraded with the addition of new "Game Store" and "Video Store" buttons, which will presumably take users to downloadable content on Xbox Live Marketplace. Those interested in purchasing video material will also find enhanced visuals and descriptions in the video library to help in making buying or renting decisions.

Perhaps the biggest video-related addition in the Fall Update is MPEG-4 Part 2 video codec support, most popularly implemented in DivX and Xvid videos. Videos packaged in an AVI container encoded in either simple profile or advanced simple profile should play in their full glory on the Xbox 360. The inclusion of MPEG-4 Part 2 video support was a feature hinted at by DivX Inc. CEO Kevin Hell earlier this month, though its implementation will arrive sooner than most expected. DivX support will soon be added to the PlayStation 3.

Already announced by Microsoft, the Xbox 360 Family Timer will enable parents to set the amount of time the console can be used by members of the household on a daily or weekly basis. Parents will be able to limit the playtime of their children without actively interacting with them.

As detailed in an earlier story, Microsoft will be launching alongside the new Fall Update the Xbox Originals game download service allowing consumers to purchase previous generation games Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Halo, Fable, Fuzion Frenzy and Psychonauts for 1,200 Microsoft Points each. Microsoft promises that its classics catalogue will grow over time.

Just as how best-selling games eventually move to Microsoft’s "Platinum Hits" budget game line, Xbox Live Arcade will also be gaining its own "Hits" selection. The first games to become Arcade Hits will be Bankshot Billiards 2 and Lumines LIVE, for 800 Microsoft Points each, and Marble Blast Ultra, Small Arms and Zuma Deluxe, for 400 Microsoft Points each. The games already reflect the updated pricing on Xbox Live Arcade today.

The Fall Dashboard Update will be available for all connected Xbox 360 consoles free of charge beginning at 2:00 a.m. PST on December 4.

dailytech.com

 

[pseiras]

Αυτα ειναι σουπερ νεα!!!!! :bravo::bravo::bravo:
Εκει που δεν ειχαμε καθολου , τωρα δεν θα ξερουμε σε ποια κονσολα να τα δουμε :cool_11:

 

[Plink]

Όντως, εξαιρετικό νέο...
αν βγει και xbmc το παλιό μου xbox θα απειληθεί άσχημα...

 

[pseiras]

Fall Update bugged: don't change forum login email, Windows Live ID

We picked up word about a problem that's going to come with Microsoft's Xbox Live Fall Dashboard Update. It's not particularly debilitating, but if you'd like to keep your forum settings, then you better read the message below.

The message is as follows:
Hey everyone - we’ve discovered an issue with the Xbox LIVE Dash Update that happens tomorrow morning.
If you change the Live ID associated with your gamertag (as the Dash update allows you to do), you will lose all of your forum posts, CUL and icons. All your posts will appear as ‘anonymous’.
We’re hard at work on a fix, but despite the team working on it all weekend, we don’t have a fix ready to go out with the update. If you are particularly attached to your Community User Level or forum icons please DON’T change your Live ID until we deploy a fix. It should only be a few days, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We will let you know as soon as it is safe to change your Live ID and keep all your forum goodness.

As you can see, the bug won't keep you from playing, but it will revert your forum posts, community user level and icons to a blank slate. If you frequent the forums, you'd do well to keep from changing your Live ID for the next few days until a fix is implemented for the update.

 

[Bardian]

Καλησπέρα σε όλους ....
Το έκανε κανείς το update?
Παίζει όντως divx - xvid κλπ ? Αξιοπρεπώς?
Με ελληνικούς υπότιτλους? Μικρούς - μεγάλους?

 

[Plink]

Αν και ακόμα δεν ασχολήθηκα να το περάσω στο δικό μου μηχάνημα.
Απόσο διάβασα σε διάφορα φόρα, παίζει κανονικά divx μέχρι 5 χωρίς πρόβλημα.
Τα πιο καινούργια ίσως κάνουν κάποια κολλήματα, αλλά αναμένεται νέα αναβάθμιση για αυτά τα προβλήματα.
Υπότιτλους εξωτερικούς δεν παίζει 100%.
Νομίζω ότι δύσκολα θα παίξει και τους ενσωματωμένους, αλλά δεν ξέρω με σιγουριά ακόμα.

Αν δεν βαρεθώ αργότερα θα το περάσω και θα ενημερώσω με λεπτομέρειες.

 

[pseiras]

Αντε να δουμε και αν υποστηριζει ελληνικους υποτιτλους.
Οποιος το εχει βαλει ας κανει καποιο τεστ και να μας πει.



The Xbox 360 supports DivX and XviD as of today, which may make some of you with big file collections (like us) as giddy as a kid in store with puppies made of candy. We threw our entire collection of movies, TV shows and random clips at it and found that the 360 can play back pretty much anything. Here are some notes.

You can play files off of a CD/DVD. This feature wasn't listed on the Xbox Team's website as one of the supported locations for playing back content, but this is fantastic for homes that have wireless networks (or no network at all). In fact, reading off a disc is probably the best way to ensure your movie won't cut out in the middle due to network congestion (unlikely) or someone turning off the computer accidentally (fairly likely).

It supports almost all files. It played back all TV shows we threw at it, including My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Battlestar Galactica, and The Venture Bros.. Most of these, and most TV downloaded TV shows, are encoded in XviD format. As for DivX, that's supported back to version 5.0, but it's unlikely that you're going to find any DivX 3 or DivX 4 online, unless you're talking about old files you've saved for a couple years.

AC3 Audio is supported. Nice! AC3 support was added in the Spring Update, but it's nice to see it working with DivX/XviD. Too bad it's not 5.1 though. 5.1 is supported!

It supports Windows Home Server as well. Along with USB drives and WMP11 streaming, you can also stream DivX/XviD from Windows Home Server too. It makes sense to store all your videos on here, since videos are big and WHS has a lot of room. QED.

Video Stretching is kind of weird. The Xbox will try and auto-fit your video to the screen when it starts playing, but it gets confused easily with different video dimensions. You'll want to manually change the playback mode to either letterbox or stretched, depending on what kind of content (widescreen, fullscreen, PAL) you're playing back.
You can skip through a video with the bumpers. RB and LB let you skip forward and back through the movie, but might not be granular enough to get to the place you want to be. You'll have to use the trigger buttons to FF or RW.

It's fast. If your network connection is fast enough (my network is Gigabit Ethernet enabled, which isn't a huge deal since the 360 is only 10/100), the video should play back without a hitch. It's quite nice to be able to play back stuff on your 360, in HD, without having to transcode it into WMV first.
It doesn't work in Windows Media Center Extender. You're going to have to kick out of WMC and back to the dashboard in order to play your videos. Annoying for people who like to switch between live TV and downloaded content.

It's not entirely perfect. It's 90% of the way there, but 5.1 AC3 support, improved handling of different video dimensions, better playback controls and Windows Media Center Extender support will make this the perfect DivX/Xvid implementation.

 

[BANTAS]

μολις εκανα το update και δοκιμασα να παιξω divx. τα παιζει με αρκετα καλη ποιοτητα αλλα δυστυχως χωρις υποτιτλους.

 

[Plink]

να ενημερώσω και εγώ ότι έκανα το update, δοκίμασα διάφορους τύπους αρχείων από dvd και από εξωτερικό δίσκο.
Παίζει χωρίς προβλήματα και με σχετικά καλή ποιότητα (αν και τα είδα στην τβ όχι στο προβόλι) όλα τα avi που δοκίμασα (xvid και divx).
Υπότιτλους δεν παίζει εξωτερικούς με τίποτα, αλλά παίζει ελληνικούς ή αγγλικούς υπότιτλους όταν υπάρχουν ενσωματωμένοι στα αρχεία avi.

επίσης δοκίμασα mkv αρχεία παλιότερης κοπής (όχι HD), αλλά όπως ήταν αναμενόμενο ούτε που τα έβλεπε το χβοχ.
Δοκίμασα και riparismeno dvd σε σκληρό δίσκο, αλλά δεν έβλεπε τα αρχεία.

Σε γενικές γραμμές, είναι ιδιαίτερα ικανοποιητικό το update, αλλά το original xbox συνεχίζει να κάνει καλύτερα αυτή τη δουλειά, καθώς υποστηρίζει τα πάντα από αρχεία βίντεο...

Αργότερα θα κάνω και σύγκριση στο προβολέα να δω πόσο καλύτερα φαίνεται το divx όταν παίζει από συσκευή 720ρ (χβοχ360) και όταν παίζει από μηχάνημα με 525ρ (νομίζω εκεί μου έχει κλειδώσει το παλιό χβοχ με component καλώδιο)


και μια ερώτηση που μούρθε τώρα...αν ξέρει κανείς αν μπορώ εύκολα να δω μέσω του xbox τα περιεχόμενα του υπολογιστή? Είχα δεί κάποια λύση με το TVdiversity ή κάπως έτσι...υπάρχει άλλος τρόπος πιο απλός?

 

[pseiras]

To νου σας c:

Fall Dashboard Update Kills My 8th Xbox 360… Yes, 8th

http://loot-ninja.com/2007/12/05/fall-dashboard-update-kills-my-8th-xbox-360-yes-8th/

 

[BANTAS]

To νου σας c:

Σιγα μην εχουμε το νου μας στο ποτε θα μας μεινει στο τοπο το 360...Ειναι σιγουρο οτι θα γινει, οσο και να προσευχομαστε. Αποδεχτειτε το και ζηστε τη καθε μερα σαν να ειναι η τελευταια...