Xbox 360 dashboard to be updated tomorrow

Fall System Update adds 1080p support and expanded video playback, streamlines Arcade menu; Microsoft confirms XBL Gold subscribers to get content early.

One of the advantages to having a "connected console" (i.e. one that is hooked up to the Internet), is that companies can conveniently make regular updates to the consoles' system software. Microsoft first tinkered with this with the original Xbox and its online service, Xbox Live.

With a bit of experience and a second console under its belt, the company has taken its idea of a connected console even further with the Xbox 360. Tomorrow morning, the console's dashboard gets its second large update, following the Spring System Update that added camera functionality and tweaks to the menu system. The free update will be available to all Xbox Live members.

The biggest addition to the Fall System Update is crystal clear--for owners of high-definition displays. Xbox 360s will now support the vaunted 1080p resolution that is so valued by videophiles--just in time for November's launch of the Xbox 360 external HD-DVD drive. Both games and videos will have the ability to be played back in the sharp resolution, and a Microsoft rep confirmed that existing Xbox 360 games can be upscaled to 1080p.

But that's not all for video updates that will be ready by tomorrow. Gamers will be able to stream Windows Media Video (WMV) files from connected PCs, as well as play video files from data media discs (CDs or DVDs), USB 2.0 flash drives, and Xbox 360 memory units.

Now that Xbox Live Arcade is a bona fide success, Microsoft is making it easier for gamers to get their pseudo coin-op fix. An option to automatically download trial versions of new Xbox Live Arcade titles has been added, with the company hoping that a tease of the game is enough to convince gamers they should purchase the full version.

The wait to jump into arcade games has also been decreased, with owned Xbox Live Arcade games appearing in the dashboard "almost instantly." In addition, a "Tell a Friend" feature has been added to spread the word about arcade games, and an "expanded Achievements View" solely for XBLA games has been added to the Arcade blade.

Other enhancements include support for XNA developed games, 50Hz HDTV modes, and upcoming Xbox 360 peripherals. A full list of changes is available at the official Xbox.com site.

Microsoft has also confirmed info Xbox Live's Major Nelson mentioned on his blog. Xbox Live Gold members will have early access to some free content (up to a week in advance). Paid content will be available at the same time for both Gold and Silver members.

267 Comments

  • GameMasterCraig

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 3:13 pm PT

    Useful Info

  • LordLonewolf777

    Posted Nov 27, 2007 5:19 am PT

    Ur Wrong. Its dual layer dvd's that games use.

  • Ryan-06

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 11:41 pm PT

    games already use HD dvd... or am i wrong? does anyone know? because i didn't buy one yet, i really want to though . PS3 just costs too much IMO.

  • ascendentjustic

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 4:10 pm PT

    with the update and the addition of the hd dvd drive, does that mean that 360 games can be written in hd dvd format and be able to hold more gigs of storage space like the blu ray discs, and therefor hold more graphical information, and etc?

  • john1912

    Posted Nov 14, 2006 3:27 pm PT

    Is there really even a noticeable difference between 1080i, and 1080p? Far as I could gather, they have the same amount of pixils, interlaced just swaps every other line at 1/30 of a sec so is almost no different then 1080p right? From some of the convuluted articles that I read it sounds like going in to buy a tv, one looks a TAD bit crisper, and might have some brighter colors, but would be something you have to sit side by side, and stare at for 5 mins to even pick out half the differences. Im no expert on the subject so plz correct me if I have the wrong impression.

  • KFrog

    Posted Nov 14, 2006 2:49 pm PT

    Nice Job Microsoft! I got my 1080p TV, now I need to pay for it so I can then get a Xbox 360. I can just imagine what some of these new games are going to look like on my TV, even the up-scaled ones.

    Keep 'em coming.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 1:35 pm PT

    even though I don't have a xbox 360 yet, this seems good to me

  • cspiffo

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:04 pm PT

    The more people who support what MS is doing with HD the less relevant the HDCP standard will be. Does anyone out there really want HDCP in their lives. Come on, if we all got together and supported MS's approach the future of 1080p via component out will be very bright. There are already manufacturers who have bucked the trend and went outside of HDCP's specifications. Just look online for these displays. I found one with native 1080p that supported component out in a matter of minutes and it costs $800-$1000 less than any 1080p display at best buy. Support the less restrictive method and kiss HDCP goodbye!!!!!! P.S. Sony's 1080p claim to fame is not exactly accurate, sure It can handle 1080p but most of the games are being produced in 720p because they can't stabilize the framerates at 1080p and it would be too taxing on the system to create a game in 1080p and then downscale it to play on a 720p display (which are the majority of the displays out for consumers right now. There will be ONE game available that is 1080p and that will be Gran Turismo HD...(been there on the PS2). My intention is not to bash Sony but I don't like it when companies over promise and under produce. All of you 4 1080p display owners will be enjoying the exact same games that everyone else will, 720p games only yours will be upscaled to 1080p. Nice but not necessary. 1080p is just looking too far into the future Even bluray and HD-DVD does not use the maximum bandwidth of 1080p because movies are produced on film at framerates of 24fps not 60fps so HiDef movies will be 1080p 24fps, woopdidoo. 1080i and 720p 60fps are fine with me! :-)

  • kharing

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 11:15 am PT

    Too bad almost none of you guys know anything. All you know is that you placed down $400+ on an Xbox 360, and you don't want it to become obsolete, so you become fanboys. Perhaps you should learn something before you're like "Yeah MS! Sony Sucks! PS3 Sucks!" The PS3 has a HDMI port. 1080p does not run through Component, just so you guys know. So the only way would be the optional VGA cable, but still, almost all TVs that support 1080p DO NOT support it through VGA cables, and most defiantly NOT component. So figure stuff out before you start blurting sh*t out like an idiot. And just so you know, I have a 360. My Gamertag is CataclysmicVoid. So I am not a MS or Sony fanboy - I look a the truth.

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 10:58 am PT

    Xbox 360 supports 1080p. One of PS3's advantages has just vanished.

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 10:33 am PT

    Sweet!

  • killermoon1

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 9:43 am PT

    just tried out 1080p and let me tell its ok i rather keep it on 720p cause my eyes started to get the itch it felt like when i was introduced to hd

  • cspiffo

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 9:04 am PT

    sussexj, that sucks. I hope they fix that. I haven't dl'd the updated yet, so I haven't tried it out, but why not add folder view? That seems so basic.

  • sussexj

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 8:56 am PT

    Well i downloaded the update. could care less about 1080p as my plasma is 720p. I was really stoked about playing video from a portable device. I hooked up my usb HDD to the 360 and tried the feature out...and its HORRIBLE!!! Granted i can play the videos, but the way its organized sucks! No folders or nothing, just 1 long list of videos. And I have over 400 vids on the disk! Why couldnt it put them in folders like it does with pictures??? Maybe its just me but what a clunky way to watch vids on the 360.

  • cspiffo

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 8:55 am PT

    SnuffDaddyNZ, Dude I've been using Divx since the original ripped off version from MS. I am aware of the history. I was merely making a comment that because MS chooses to use only WMV MPEG4 video, we cannot use any other formats at this time (which sucks because I hate transcoding). I know WMV (or actually asf) was ripped off by Divx. Divx's new MPEG 4 engine is now totally different than the engine that they ripped off from MS.On another aside, I don't think many of you know what native resolution means. Native resolution is the resolution that a display runs at (ie your LCD/Plasma TV) Video cards do not have native resolutions. Do you use a computer with only one resolution? It works the same way for the XB360 and PS3. The XB360 is capable of displaying 1920x1080 pixels, the same as PS3. There is no upscaling going on. I was reading some interesting stuff from the XBOX360 developers blogs. At this time MS has chosen not to make games in 1080p though they have the option to do so in the future. The 1080p update is really for videos right now. It won't affect many people for quite a few years. For those that have 1080p displays. Are you sure they are true 1080p. You have to check the native resolution of the TV. Most 1080 displays right now can handle 1080i but can display a 1080p signal by interlacing the image so that 1080p signal then becomes 1080i. It's just like most 720p displays. My 720p display can handle 1080i but the tv deinterlaces the picture and scales it to 720p so now what I am actually seeing is not 1080i but 720p.

  • VFA-102

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 8:41 am PT

    For everyone complaining about the price of all these add ons that make the 360 more expensive than the PS3, obviously you are made of money. For those of us on a budget. The add ons allow us to by components when money is available rather than buying the whole package when we can't afford it. If it weren't for the spacing of the add on's, I wouldn't have half of the stuff I do now for the 360.

  • JimmyChalice

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 8:35 am PT

    WELL !!!, i wonder who said XBL is ripping us off for paying an annual subscription, UMMMMM.....

    I guess this free update proves them WRONG !!!!

    JAAJAJAJAAJA.

  • slife_basic

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 7:17 am PT

    MY TV CAN ONLY DISPLAY 1080P THROUGH HDMI

    YOU SUCK MS

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:56 am PT

    These seem like pretty cool updates.

  • Spartan_Blue

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:38 am PT

    This is good news, especially if you own a newer model HDTV. Way to go MS.

  • sasuke55

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:26 am PT

    People are never satisfied with anything. Hey we got Superman. What just superman. I want Xmen too!. Hey we got upscaled 1080p I want the top of the line kind eventhough I can't afford a tv with all that crap. We got a dashboard update. I want more Back compatability! Stop complaining. First off they haven't forgot about BC updates they are just working on some other things at the moment and will update later. See an inteview on IGN! Second How many of you realisticly can afford a 1080p tv about less than 1% of the people on this board. Just about 1% can afford an HD-TV at all. I'm now saving for a 32 Inch thats 720p and its 897 at Wal-Mart. Anyway I'm personally happy about the update and can't wait for more.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:25 am PT

    Looks like you really wont need that mega hard drive space like the ps3 has, because nearly everyone has a pc, and you can stream the content from there.
    And you are are someone like me.. thats like 800gb of content to stream! Wonderful

    I think the 360 is going in a fantastic direction, its offering great graphics, connectivity with the pc, a great online service and is getting some incredibly exciting looking games aswell.

    The more updates the better! its a shame sony doesn't so things like this for the psp, all they seem to do is crank down on the homebrew as their main concern

    Well done M$, this is pretty great news!

  • Autolycus

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:17 am PT

    Sweet 1080p for my TV that ONLY supports 1080i!!! hurray!!! oh wait...1080i appears the same as 1080p to my eye(hint, im human). the only difference I will see is images will "seem" smoother and i'll have less eye strain if i watch a 16 hour long movie. Phew....good thing :sarcasm:



    im sorry what does sony have to offer that MS doesnt?

  • theKSMM

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:12 am PT

    While everybody is raving about 1080p (whose benefit is arguable), I think the real treasures in this update are the new media streaming options and the ability to use third-party storage (e.g. USB flash drives and external hard drives). Now we can use the same libraries of music that we have built up on our PCs with our XBOXes.

    On the downside, WMV9+ is a capable format, maybe on par with XviD, but there's no video for it. So just as with the PSP's MPEG-4 video, you gotta encode your own videos in WMV. And Windows Media Encoder is soooo slooooow....

  • screamingdean

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 6:00 am PT

    The 1080p is good, but a bit pointless. I know of only one TV manufacturer that allows 1080p via component/vga. Of course a PC Monitor could be used, but what's the point if it's only 19"?
    And is this native resolution or upscaling only?
    Apart from that it's a useful update.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 5:57 am PT

    almost sounds like a pc with all these updates.........


    (look under the "hood"..... oh it IS a pc that can only play games!!!!)

  • yugimasa9999

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 5:16 am PT

    emmamon...PS3 is not too expensive...XBOX360 is because of live subscriptions, HD-DVD add-on etc....at least updates would do well with x360...updates?

  • thekey

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 5:12 am PT

    Things like this tell me why the PS3's online is going to suck.

    They can't follow.

  • slayaz

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 5:03 am PT

    xbox live is what makes life worth living!

  • thefjk

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 4:55 am PT

    Cooooool!

  • emmamon

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 4:51 am PT

    the ps3 is too expensive and the xbox 360 is very fine for its price.36 will winthe compitition

  • zallapo

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 2:43 am PT

    No More 'Jerky' HD video content saved to X360 harddrives. Sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!! Best Update Ever!!!!

    I'm loving Live and my 360.

  • metdevthegamer

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 2:28 am PT

    Cool.

  • Lanowar

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 2:25 am PT

    This is good news I can't wait to see the new features in action

  • NinjaShadows

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 1:20 am PT

    god i love xbox live its so worth it

  • klactose

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 12:16 am PT

    I'll have to agree with much of mall62's premise. We haven't even scratched the surface of how good gaming is going to become in this "next-gen" world of gaming. Not one title on any of the systems or from any of the developers have even remotely tapped into the potential of of these machines.
    The sad part is that, depending on how lazy developers get, and how much money they are capable of making before they have to delve into actually taking full advantage of multiple cores, etc... we may not see that surface scratched for a few years.
    Right now, what we are getting is last generation version 4.5 or something like that. The X360 and PS3 are capable of sooo much more.

  • ime

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 12:12 am PT

    wait so what? the xbox can now play games at 1080p if u have the hdtv to play it on? or does "upscale mean something else?" sorry i'm not up to par on the tech lingo...

  • KingJustinII

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:59 pm PT

    i would have liked a little more, but i suppose that the XNA support could be interesting.

  • premanna

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:26 pm PT

    nice

  • WESLY_SNYPES

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:20 pm PT

    Pablo620
    MS, " but but 1080p is impossible but but"
    Sony "...and those are the launch titles that will be in 1080p at 60 FPS"
    MS, "Hey come download 1080p for your 360, and attach this $250 HD DVD drive" or $200, whatever it is that it costs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    More like: Hey, seeing as how 1080p does not make a difference in your gaming experience from other high resolutions, we'll add it anyway to the people who can utilize it. And we'll also give you the ability to use other hard drives via the usb port even if you do not want to buy our $200 HD-DVD drive which is not required to play games.

  • SnuffDaddyNZ

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:11 pm PT

    Oh My GOD!

    Streaming video without a Media Center PC!?!?!

    That is so awesome, and you just KNOW we have Sony to thank for that, because that was a no brainer feature for Microsoft to have included in the original design.

    The one thing I hope they FIX from the spring update is the god awful PERMANENT LETTERBOXING that was added to the ZOOM function.

    Before the spring update is was possible for users of regular televisions (ie 4:3 displays) to ZOOM DVD to fit the FULL SCREEN of a regular set. AFTER the update a permanent letterboxing was added to the display which SUCKS.

    cspiffo: You obviously don't know the history of Divx, which was originally ripped from WMV's MPEG-4. I use H.264 for all my video.

  • peacenutman

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 9:25 pm PT

    Nice.....this halloween is great
    Just wish the fanboys here stfu.

  • cybergooch

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 8:22 pm PT

    SpearX,

    Shall I shame you yet AGAIN?

  • mall69

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 8:17 pm PT

    little off the subject for the article, but just to respond to a few of the posts below concerining generations. There's no way that GRAW or Oblivion can be considered anything other than first generation games. Take a good look at Condemned..... and that was a launch title.
    Of course, like the one dude said... this is all subjective, but the whole notion of 'generational' games has become overused and a little misuderstood, due to it 'buzzword' status among developers and publishers trying to hype their products. For as long as the 360's going to be around, I'd have to consider GoW being the benchmark for first generation titles. It's been in production for years, promised than delayed. The true second generation titles will be from developers that learned the first time around, either by their own games or those of other studios. GRAW 2, Halo 3 etc. I'd like to think, even with the release of GoW, that the full potential of the 360 is still far off and when you start counting generations in 'months' simply because the game you're watching looks better than what you saw a few months before, you're shortchanging the system.

  • Ghardon

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 8:12 pm PT

    This would be great if my 360 weren't being shipped to the repair center right now... for the second time...

  • Pablo620

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 8:00 pm PT

    MS, " but but 1080p is impossible but but"
    Sony "...and those are the launch titles that will be in 1080p at 60 FPS"
    MS, "Hey come download 1080p for your 360, and attach this $250 HD DVD drive" or $200, whatever it is that it costs.

  • Kravyn81

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:56 pm PT

    I'll think I'll go sit in the pumpkin patch and wait for the Great Pumpkin to show up.

  • _LEGIONS_

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:49 pm PT

    this is great news!

  • wenbin09

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:48 pm PT

    great news to an aleady great feature!!

  • tomorrowsdeead

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 7:45 pm PT

    if you have MCE2005 get Transcode 360, its converts files on the fly to temp WMV files so you can watch anything on your 360. Its what I use, and im sure the team will make something compatible with the new update.

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