Spring Update soon...

[PeteJ]

http://www.gamespot.com/downloads/6168766
Coming May 7th
-Add Windows Live Messanger contacts to Friends list
-Marketplace gets dedicated blade
-Up to 600 messanger contacts to Live account
-Basic text chat functionality
-Audio and voice chat coming
-Chat with up to six friends while playing games or watching movies
-New sorting features for friends (due to larger list)
-Marketplace blade skinned independant of your own theme to reflect events and new stuff
-Achievement notifications now tell you the name and number of points of the achievement
-Low power feature for downloads; que them up and the system goes into "low power" mode (no fans). System turns off when downloads are done
-Can watch partially downloaded video files

http://xs414.xs.to/xs414/07146/snapshot20070406202712.jpg

Being able to download overnight is pretty sweet, kinda like Connect24 on the Wii. Also the achievement thing is long overdue.

Can't say I quite follow what all the chat things are about, I think they now mean 700 contacts on the friends list but not sure if it is limited to the Windows Live version. Also chat via MSN is welcome.

I stole all this information from Neogaf, and I didn't even ask. Hahahaa.

[chopemon]

here's a video of it in action (http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/rumor-360-spring-07-update-clip-250480.php)

[hoolak]

So is the rumour regarding the option to run the disc drive at half speed in order to reduce hoover-like noise not true? :(

[ChrisField]

I'm not a tree hugger or anything but this one appeals to me :

"-Low power feature for downloads; que them up and the system goes into "low power" mode (no fans). System turns off when downloads are done"

[Matt KB]

What's the point of the windows contacts one when you can't even change the stupid .net passport. I haven't used that account for ages, last thing I would want would be to import all the contacts into it.

[MJ]

So is the rumour regarding the option to run the disc drive at half speed in order to reduce hoover-like noise not true?
I heard it was a fix that had been given to devs and that it makes the console determine how fast it needs to spin the 360 game discs rather than just spinning at full speed all the time. I hope it's true and that it's in this update.

Hopefully we'll finally have the HD DVD add-on audio fix in this update too.

I'm sure Microsoft will publish the full features list soon.

[Shakey_Jake33]

I'm pretty sure there's going to be a separate HD-DVD update.
This will include the DTS/WMV Pro encoding too.

[Paulos G]

The group chat is something I've been hoping they'd do for a while. Be interesting to see the sorting feature for the friends list.

[Extra Terrestrial]

You can call me daft but I wish there was a feature where you can bring up and view the list of all the games (retail and arcade) and be notified if there is an update for it by indicating using a symbol of some sort next to the game and state what the update actually does.

Another niggle is the achievements page. As your gamer-score grows and the number of games you own increases, it takes up to 3-4 minutes (on my profile at least) to show up and reveal all the achievements you have. Can it be done quicker?

A percentage ratio would be nice too!

:lol:

The MSN stuff doesn't appeal to me when you already have voice, message and video chat already.

[Spatial101]

Same here on the group chat - I'm guessing that was the thing that Major Nelson hinted at by saying it was something he'd wanted for a long time.

I've been hoping they'd allow you to be more specific in which notifications you can turn off. For example when I'm playing Guitar Hero I don't want to be distracted by `XXXX is online`, so I turn them off. Thing is that also turns of the Achievement Notifications.

With the Messenger integration I hope they'll allow you to be a bit more specific, such as splitting it into Online Notifiers and System / Game Notifiers.

Bet they won't though (that'll be the Autumn update) :p

[Concept]

Sounds good. Useless without a keyboard though. Maybe MS will see the light and deliver a new peripheral, as an ordinary USB hub won't solve the problem of using one keyboard over the 360 and PC (most USB hubs seem to be designed for multiple connections to one device).

Edit: Most probably MS will release their own keyboard device for the 360, but that's just going to be a hassle for most people's setups I'd imagine due to size/convenience. I know I wouldn't want 2 keyboards closely together.

[wush]

I doubt most 360s are near enough to the owner's PC to share a keyboard.

[Jebus]

I can't help but notice the one thing I want isn't mentioned.

SAVING photos/videos you're sent by a friend.

Seriously...the rest looks pretty cool but when my mate sends me a photo I want to save it! Also, I want to be able to send video messages, and save those as well!

Did you guys mention group chat? It would nice if that were enabled also, rather than having to create a private game and invite your friends in, it'd be easy at dash level to just invite everyone into a chat!

[Yoshimax]

Yeah it has group chat - Very nice to see :)

The lower speed drive was something which they were releasing to devs for coding into software it's not something that'll appear on the menu as a user option !!!

[Concept]

I doubt most 360s are near enough to the owner's PC to share a keyboard.

I just think it's lame if MS release a keyboard peripheral specially for the 360 without use on anything else.

The easiest solution is a wireless adaptor, but not using one myself, where do you put it? Is the current 360 wireless adaptor compatible with anything other than networking? Do MS release yet another adaptor following this release date? Or do they release a keyboard you can use wirelessly with both the PC and 360 at the same time?

The more you integrate IM text functions (which judging by the news on this update seems to be the path the 360 is treading down) into the overall community in Live, the more these problems are going to have to be managed. On-screen keyboards won't get anyone very far in text-based IM, and thinking back to the DC, I don't think console-specific keyboards will work out either.

[Concept]

SAVING photos/videos you're sent by a friend.

You mean like in MSN?

MS probably don't want to upset their 360 Marketplace media partners. I hope that isn't the case though, as it would seem they're running in the opposite direction to Sony with regards to accessibility (Home P2P).

[ChrisField]

What's the point of the windows contacts one when you can't even change the stupid .net passport. I haven't used that account for ages, last thing I would want would be to import all the contacts into it.

You can change it on passport.com - I changed mine last week...

[ChrisField]

Can you use the media centre keyboard with the 360? Anyone tried? Or does it just work when you're in the media centre bit?

This thing: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=94853&_LOC=UK

[wush]

Concept - I might be misunderstanding, but you can already use any USB keyboard for text input with the 360. You could use a standard USB KVM switch to swap it between the 360 and a PC.

[Concept]

That's cool. I'll have see about picking one up. Are there wireless USB switchers that work in the same way available? MS should release one if not.

Ideally if PC and 360 Live functions are going to integrate together MS would be missing an opportunity if they didn't roll out their own cross-compatible devices (they've already done so with the wired 360 pad, haven't they?).

[Jebus]

You mean like in MSN?

MS probably don't want to upset their 360 Marketplace media partners. I hope that isn't the case though, as it would seem they're running in the opposite direction to Sony with regards to accessibility (Home P2P).

Not really like MSN, more like any standard file sending...If you sent me a photo, I could store it on my HDD, it's pointless being able to send picture messages on live because unless you want to keep that message in your messages area, you can't save the file.

Likewise, if I sent you a video message, (they'd have to enable that first, which they should!) it's pointless if you can't save it to HDD.

[Concept]

I thought that was all possible in MSN? Which was kind of my point... if they're MSNing (or Live Messagering) XBL, then surely if person A shares with person B a copyright-protected video file it places MS in a not too dissimilar position from enabling more extensive codec usage via PC streaming/External HD use.

That brings me on to another point I'd like to clarify. I think a console-only keyboard peripheral wouldn't be smart... but a compact wireless XP/Vista/XBL compatible keyboard you can easily pick up off your computer desk and bring to your 360, whether it's in the same room or elsewhere, would be a good idea.

You can easily say you can do that with an ordinary USB keyboard, but my answer to that would be psychologically to the average user unplugging one around the back of your PC, feeding the wire free from the desk and plugging it into your 360's USB port (which may be occupied and prevent music player/external HD/wired controller/webcam use in the process) will end up putting a lot of people off.

[Jebus]

I thought that was all possible in MSN? Which was kind of my point... if they're MSNing (or Live Messagering) XBL, then surely if person A shares with person B a copyright-protected video file it places MS in a not too dissimilar position from enabling more extensive codec usage via PC streaming/External HD use.

Basically all I'm saying is that if I log on right now, take a photo of my newborn baby and send it to you, you might want to save it, but you can't, and that needs recifying so the vision camera is actually a peripheral with a point, instead of it just sitting on my TV doing shit all.

Likewise, as it stands you can ONLY video chat in the specific video chat dashboard area, but why can't you chuck a video message to someone quickly in the same way you can send a quick voice message, and if you can, I wanna be able to save them for proof! (IE, someone sends me a video invite "You're going down in gears son" then I can take a photo of the scores after I rape them, and send it to them, oh and I can keep both the vid AND the photo for future piss takage).

That scenario won't actually happen as I'm not like that, but you get my point I hope.

[Concept]

My guess, and this could be a strategic re-think with regards to Home, is that MS may delay integrating that technology (which is pretty standard over IM these days, well recorded voice messaging is) to work on their own 360/PC user video channel, private/friends list/public depending on option preference further down the line. One way to get around sharing copyright-protected videos, would be as you say, limit videos shared to webcam-connected use/game replays use (it wouldn't surprise me if MS offer a service for developers to allow users to upload gameplay recorded replays to - though I don't know how that would practically work beyond an individual basis).

[EvilBoris]

In regards to a wireless keyboard, I just unplug the wirekess dongle outta the front of my PC and put it in the front of my 360.

[MJ]

I've been hoping they'd allow you to be more specific in which notifications you can turn off. For example when I'm playing Guitar Hero I don't want to be distracted by `XXXX is online`, so I turn them off. Thing is that also turns of the Achievement Notifications.
Ditto. I've wanted this since day one so you can customize which notifications you can and can't see, and an option to choose different positions for them would be nice.

[ChrisField]

I dont understand all the fascination with turning a GAMES console into a PC with keyboards, msn messenger, sending photos etc... I just wanna play GAMES on my 360! Am I odd or something? :(

[billy_dimashq]

it's convenient, i guess.

imagine not being able to cuss someone easily via keyboard when they quit like a baby during street fighter?

also let's not forget that you don't have to use it like a pc, but i can see how some of these new additions would just get even more annoying the less you use it like a pc.

i know it's a bit OT but, about that drive slowing down thingy, i've noticed it with gears of war but in virtua tennis 3 the drive was at full speed throughout - i'm assuming it's something to be coded on a game-to-game basis rather than just a flag or something in the sdk to enable speed up/slow down of the drive based on what's being accessed?

[kendra]

By chatting up to 6 people - I assume this is voice ?

Really useful, got really annoyed at playing with my friends at Saints Row and had those moments where we're waiting for things to happen and doing nothing instead of the better private chat between 2 people.

[Haribokart]

I really like the extra features they are adding- being able to keep in touch with people from my MSN while I'm on my Xbox will be very handy. I'd also like them to add some form of Internet Explorer, the Wii & PS3 have this so why not the 360 (which is meant to be the premier Online console after all).

To anybody whinging about these features being added- you don't have to use them & they are free. They make the machine much better for many people!

[Concept]

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6168676.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;2

The keyboard answer. Looks superb in solving the size/having-to-use-a-keyboard-on-a-console mindset. Not too sure how it'll work practically to fast-type with though. Also posted in Headlines due to news worthiness.

[Spatial101]

That's pretty nifty and I'd definitely buy that to make things a bit easier.

But what's the small circular port on the bottom of the board? It's the wrong shape for a headset connection.

[Concept]

That's a good point. Perhaps for an adaptor to plug the headset into?

[hoolak]

The new achievement pop up in action. Mmm what a lovely sky :)

http://www.otakunodenki.co.uk/temp/forza.jpg

[Spatial101]

Here's a list of the other stuff from the official press release on Xbox.com:-

* The name of game in tray is now displayed in the dashboard.

* When the tray icon is highlighted, a list of achievements, game icon and gamerscore for that game is displayed.

* Video trick modes are enabled for content that is being progressively downloaded from Video Marketplace.

* Playback progress bar indicates download completion.

* Improved skip forward, skip back functionality during video playback.

* Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).

* Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.

* Support for streaming WM-DRM protected content from a PC

* Folder view for video content on connected devices

* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

* Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.

* Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.

* Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.

* Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 “chapters” allowing you to quickly skip around video content.

* The information bar that is turned on via the On Screen Display (OSD) now shows you exactly where you are in the playback of the video file. In addition it will also show for Video Marketplace content how much of the file has been downloaded and where the “chapters” exist in the file.

* Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.

* When the user is in the dashboard and an Xbox 360 game is in the console then the name of the game is displayed in the tray icon of the dashboard. If the user highlights the tray icon then achievements and gamer score are displayed for that game based on the signed in user. Xbox1 games show the name and image of the game.

* Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays. The user can delete all bookmarks but this will reset all bookmark information for every video that the user has played. The bookmark database is exposed in the system/memory/system items

* When a user selects an item for download from Marketplace then the system will determine if there is sufficient disk space for the item and, if not, will ask the user to delete content on the HDD. The system provides a sorted by size list of videos, game trailers, demos and arcade content to aid the user in the deletion process. The same list of items are also available from within memory so that users can quickly see which items are consuming the most disk space.

* The console will block the user who attempts to download content onto a storage device that will never have the capacity to store the item without deducting any points associated with the content item.

* The screensaver is disabled when playing photos from any source

[ChrisField]

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6168676.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;2

The keyboard answer. Looks superb in solving the size/having-to-use-a-keyboard-on-a-console mindset. Not too sure how it'll work practically to fast-type with though. Also posted in Headlines due to news worthiness.

think that link got pulled at MS' request?

link to major nelsons photos of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/majornelson/451565850/

[Spatial101]

Seems so, but MS have officially announced it on Xbox.com now.

[Shakey_Jake33]

* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
Brilliant! Do they have to be in .mp4 containers I wonder?

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
a.k.a DivX/XviD guys. Hope it supports .avi container then.

* Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
Hope this applies to music too. Right now, the 360 Mp3 playback is un-usable for me because I can only browse by id3 tag setting, or playlist, with no way to simply browse by folder.

[peeveen]

a.k.a DivX/XviD guys. Hope it supports .avi container then.
Seriously? I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of this, if it's right.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Well it's a bit vague. Mpeg4 Part 2 is ASP, which is basically DivX/XviD (oversimplified explanation, but for the purposes of this situation it's correct).

It doesn't specify more than that though, such as whether it'll support AVI containers.... but has anyone ever seen ASP-based codecs used in anything but AVI/OGM/MKV?

[toythatkills]

I hope this is more reliable installing than the last one. I couldn't use my Xbox for a week because they messed it up

[Jebus]

* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

That would be...SUPERB! HD movies and TV for the ULTIMATE win.

[MJ]

Here's a list of the other stuff from the official press release on Xbox.com
What's the link, I can't find it?

[Spatial101]

Here you go, bottom of the page:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm?WText.camp=TS1-InstantMessaging&WText.campSrc=Home

[MJ]

Thanks! I was looking at the UK site.

[Concept]

From the keyboard Headline thread.

Extended video of the features present in the spring dashboard update.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/10599

[NaveT]

* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

That would be...SUPERB! HD movies and TV for the ULTIMATE win.

MPEG-4 is DIVX / XVID is it not? Does the Simple Profile mean it will only play low bitrate / resolution? Therefore almost there, but not quiet yet....

[Jebus]

Well it says "up to 8mbps" which is a pretty reasonable bitrate though...

[Kotatsu Neko]

It's not clear yet how good the H.264 support will be. I have a nasty feeling MS will limit it to video in an M4V container (as used by video podcasts), and not the far more common open source MKV container. (as used in all HD TV show and anime downloads) It should be possible to switch containers fairly easily, it will just take someone to find a tool that will do it... or write one.

As for XVID, it's a derivative of MPEG 4 (as is H.264), but someone already worked out that the profile MS are supporting is different to XVID. So no XVID playback unfortunately. Oh and XVID also uses an AVI container, which MS don't support at all on the Xbox.

[Fat_Bob]

The video playback sounds very interesting. I currently use MCE and Transcode360 but it has a lot of issues with .mkv files. Any improved HD playback would be ace. This beats being able to msg people for me.

[billy_dimashq]

says up to 2 channel for the h.264 stuff - i'm pretty sure the x264 thingies i'd have are in 5.1, so wondering if it'd downmix it to stereo or simply not play the sound at all.

i didn't think they'd allow divx/xvid playback, but if it's straightforward to convert the container from m4v to mkv (i'm assuming it can be done without touching the actual video/audio themselves?)

[MJ]

Better pictures of the new keyboard accessory:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamerscore/sets/72157600058725367/

Sorry if already posted.

[NekoFever]

I don't know if anyone else has heard this but on the latest GameSpot podcast they talk about a few features that aren't on the list there that Microsoft has told them about.

There are apparently going to be further tweaks to the VGA picture, additional picture settings in the dash (black levels, etc), and something that I'm sure will please a lot of people: if you have a Live Arcade demo and delete it, it'll get removed from your list of played games. No more unsightly zeroes on profiles :D

[ChrisField]

if you have a Live Arcade demo and delete it, it'll get removed from your list of played games. No more unsightly zeroes on profiles :D

Sounds good to me! I wonder if they can work that for the Final Fantasy beta and 360 magazine disks too?

[Kotatsu Neko]

Just been confirmed by Amir that the spring update will include H.264 support in MP4 containers only, not MKV.

Disappointing but not at all surprising. So now we need to find a way to switch containers easily. Anyone have any ideas?

[billy_dimashq]

we need to find a way to switch containers easily. Anyone have any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ESBZRSOTM

just like that

[Sane]

says up to 2 channel for the h.264 stuff - i'm pretty sure the x264 thingies i'd have are in 5.1, so wondering if it'd downmix it to stereo or simply not play the sound at all.

i didn't think they'd allow divx/xvid playback, but if it's straightforward to convert the container from m4v to mkv (i'm assuming it can be done without touching the actual video/audio themselves?)

I'm no expert by any means but I think x.264 is a completely different codec compared to h.264 so chances are it will not support it at all.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I've been looking into converting MKV to MP4 and have found a way to do it. (and using free software) Trouble is it's a multi-step process as there doesn't seem to be a single program yet that will do it.

You will need MKV Extract GUI and Yanb to start with. Using MKV Extract you can load in the MKV file and save out the video and audio streams as separate files. It's then an easy process to import them into Yamb, which will then re-mux them into MP4 files. Theoretically the 360 should play these... but obviously I can't test that yet. I also noticed that some fansubbed 720p anime already comes in MP4 files, which should 'just work' on the 360.

The catch, is that for this to work the audio must be in 2 channel AAC format. If it's in AC3 5.1, then there is a problem. The solution here is to get the Nero AAC Encoder and BePipe. Dump the AC3 audio out using MKV Extract, then Nero will re-encode it as 2 channel LC AAC, but unfortunately in an MP4 container. This will then have to be de-muxed in MKV Extract again to separate the AAC audio. Finally Yamb will re-mux it back together.

Worse still is if you have a file with soft subs. Because the 360 has no subtitle support there doesn't seem to be a way to do this without transcoding the video completely. I did come across a useful app called Aegisub though, which will convert between the various subtitle formats. Some transcoders will burn subtitles into the video, such as WinAVI.

Hopefully transcode360 will be updated to work with H.264 and all these headaches will just go away, but for now, this is the best I've been able to come up with.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I'm no expert by any means but I think x.264 is a completely different codec compared to h.264 so chances are it will not support it at all.

Apparently they are actually one and the same.

[Shakey_Jake33]

I'm no expert by any means but I think x.264 is a completely different codec compared to h.264 so chances are it will not support it at all.
x.264 is an implementation of H.264. As Kotaku says, they're one and the same.

Nero do an implementation, Apple do one with Quicktime, CoreAVC are doing an encoder soon too. All implementations have to produce a compliant stream, so for the end user it doesn't really matter which is used.

[Sane]

Oh cool, I have quite a bit of x.264 encoded video's, would be great to no longer have to hook up the pc to my tv if I want too watch them. I wonder why MS isn't putting in support for .mkv containers though.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Been playing with this some more and have found some sound sync problems when muxing with Yamb. As an alternative MeGUI seems to work better, as it allows frame rates to be manually set. (which always seem to be 23.976)

If anyone is interested I can write a full guide on how to do all of this, but it's probably a bit too tedious for most.

[SteJay]

You can change it on passport.com - I changed mine last week...It doesn't work for me, well not in the way that I want. I use Hotmail for MSN and GMail for XBL because the MSN Hotmail account was used on a previous gamertag on the original Xbox, and I wasn't allowed to use it when I created my new 360 XBL account. If I log-into the Passport site with the Gmail account I can indeed change the address, but not to the Hotmail one, so I won't be able to access my MSN contacts without changing to a completely new MSN account. If I log-in with Hotmail then I cannot change the address at all. :(

I simply want to change my XBL sign-in to my current Hotmail account, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem possible. Am I really asking too much?

[Extra Terrestrial]

I simply want to change my XBL sign-in to my current Hotmail account, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem possible. Am I really asking too much?

That is one of the niggles I currently have with my (very daft old) MSN e-mail account that I haven't actually used before.

[John Parry]

It doesn't work for me, well not in the way that I want. I use Hotmail for MSN and GMail for XBL because the MSN Hotmail account was used on a previous gamertag on the original Xbox, and I wasn't allowed to use it when I created my new 360 XBL account. If I log-into the Passport site with the Gmail account I can indeed change the address, but not to the Hotmail one, so I won't be able to access my MSN contacts without changing to a completely new MSN account. If I log-in with Hotmail then I cannot change the address at all. :(

I simply want to change my XBL sign-in to my current Hotmail account, and unless I'm missing something, it doesn't seem possible. Am I really asking too much?
I have EXACTLY the same problem as you and it's really annoying.

Unfortunately, it's not possible! I even phoned Microsoft to have it done to be told by the adviser that it wasn't possible and that "There is no need, use your old one"!!! :curse:

Hopefully it will all be sorted out in updates though...hopefully.

[SteJay]

I have EXACTLY the same problem as you and it's really annoying.

Unfortunately, it's not possible! I even phoned Microsoft to have it done to be told by the adviser that it wasn't possible and that "There is no need, use your old one"!!! :curse:.I had the very same conversation last week. I'm not holding out much hope of it being fixed in the next update though. It appears to me that MS fail to see why this would be a problem to anyone.

[John Parry]

I know that with other services (not sure about this though) your email address is, technically, your account number and that will always stay the same!

It doesn't really cause me any problems but it's a LOT more convenient to have my Live account linked to a current email address. I'm not even sure what email address it's registered to and if there are any problems then it's a lot of messing around needlessly.

[Simmy]

To answer Yoshi's question from my Dupli thread

There's party chat as well is there not ? Up to 6 ?

No !

The 6 chat which is mentioned is 6 MSN chats not 6 friends in a party chat !




Goes back to sulking for being so out of the loop :mellow:

[smokedog]

Some great news, looks like the new spring update with have Xvid playback :)
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/09/162212&from=rss

[Exception OE]

Xvid? Yey! That lets me watch Lost on my 360. Transcode 360 seems to hate Vista X64

[Concept]

I wouldn't get too excited. The page on Xbox.com which Slashdot links to is the original specification update list, part of which being the video playback discussed/debunked several days ago.

Edit: The Slashdot article itself is from April 9th.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Some great news, looks like the new spring update with have Xvid playback :)
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/09/162212&from=rss

No it doesn't. It adds H.264 and MPEG4 video in MP4 enclosures support.

XVID and DIVX are alternate MPEG4 variants and are not supported.

[peeveen]

H.264/MP4 ... that's iPod video format, right?

I wonder if it'll be able to play video straight from the iPod ... that would be not too bad.

[Kotatsu Neko]

H.264/MP4 ... that's iPod video format, right?

I wonder if it'll be able to play video straight from the iPod ... that would be not too bad.

That is correct.

[bignige]

Xtreme firmware 5.3 - Modders Beat Microsoft To The Punch

Xbox 360 firmware modders, Commodore4Eva, have found a solution to combat Microsoft's upcoming spring update. Apparently, rumours had spread to the modders that MS received a report on how to detect backup games, and then ban the 360 modded users from Live. Because MS are working on the code for the dash update, Commodore4Eva thought it was best to release the firmware this weekend. Read on for the full lowdown.
quote:
I spoke with Commodore4Eva who is coding the updates for the Xtreme firmwares and he did a quick Q&A with me

Gameswank: With a current working firmware, why is there a need for a new version of the Xtreme Fw?

Commodore4Eva: It was let known to me that MS received a report on how to detect backup games sometime ago and were working on it for the dash update, so I thought it timely to release this firmware this weekend

Gameswank: You say that you had some inside info that the spring update would have the ability to detect and possibly ban 360 modded users from there console and or XBOX Live?

Commodore4Eva: The method won’t detect modded drives but can detect a backup disk and make it not boot, banning someone for a copied disk would be harsh and damaging to MS themselves both in revenue and popularity

Gameswank: So you say version 5.3 will fix that? How can you verify that your patch will keep users from being banned if the update from Microsoft is not out yet?

Commodore4Eva: That doesn’t matter, the theory behind the detection is valid, so overcoming it is good for the future, makes it harder for MS to detect. The current Xtreme firmware already has many FEATURES that prevent


News source: gameswank.com

[Kotatsu Neko]

I don't have a problem with MS stopping piracy and banning people. That's fine.

I would like region free gaming though, but I find the focus of modders on piracy disturbing.

[Yoshimax]

I just want the integrity of xbox live to remain intact this time round.

Once that is gone they'll have a hard time persuading me to pay £40 for a compromised service.

[EvilBoris]

I think it'll be ok this time. the original xbox was cracked within 3 months, we haven't even got code being executed on the 360 18 months after the launch.

[billy_dimashq]

I would like region free gaming though, but I find the focus of modders on piracy disturbing.

i think they're just hacking away at whatever they can, as opposed to actually going out to get pirated stuff working on the 360. fact is they're always more interested in homebrew, and any extra functions that arise from these exploits are just collateral damage and, of course, you can't start getting homebrew on a machine until you can run things unofficially.

i've yet to mod my 360 as all it does is play copies, and i'm not interested enough in the 360's line up to warrant modding it and getting the inevitable 3 red lights, all for the sake of a few games that i can borrow from work for a few weeks at a time. 360's my first console that i haven't modded from the off (or inteded to shortly after getting it) for these reasons.

the problem is at the moment *all* they can really do is get it to play copies of 360 games and nothing else. when the priority is on homebrew it's more interesting.

it's a shame that, as the companies think up more and more exotic ways to stop the pirates, we actually end up in situations where playing copies is easier to achieve than playing original import games. just look at the ps2 - how long was it before the origa chip arrived? before that it was the neo thingy that only allowed copies, that was it.

it's also ironic that it's rife on a machine that is quite region-free

[billy_dimashq]

oh btw was live on the xbox compromised that much? i heard stuff about halo 2 maps and things, but from what i'd known about, the worst was when people used the action replay on pgr2 and crashed the enzos all over the place

[Ciaran]

This is up sometime today, right? Anyone know the time?

[mackemansj1]

Says week of 7th.

[Spatial101]

I thought it was today but a lot of people are saying its "the week of the 7th May", so could be any time this week.

edit: or what he said ^

[Jebus]

"WRT to the Dash update...we don't have final date this week, but I am hoping to get more solid information tomorrow."

Major has said that in a reply to one of his blogs...

[Spatial101]

Unsurprisingly I just want this update over and down with now, not for the features, but to confirm if I'm getting the royal shaft by MS over the accounts lockdown.

At least if they hurry up I'll know where I stand and if I need a new one or not.

[mackemansj1]

From what i read if you have an account that isnt from the region you are in it will just default to your region it wont kill the account or anything.

[Spatial101]

I haven't seen that anywhere (although that would be nice).

All I'm reading is that if it doesn't match your location then you won't be able to access the Marketplace for anything (naturally that includes the video market place but also seems to cover DLC for games).

edit: unless you mean that if you're not in that region it only allows you to download stuff that has also been released in the region your in. I've read that, but MS are giving so little clear info at the moment its hard to know what'll happen.

[Yoshimax]

No way they'll stop you getting game updates - You'd be shutout of online play and if you've paid £40 that's not gonna sit well.

[Enemybreather]

Does anyone know what time today as they said may 7th and thats today and still no update???

[Myth]

Week of May 7th, could be anytime this week.

[Enemybreather]

Ah right i c...its just i work for gamestation and our microsoft rep confirmed it would go live on may 7th...ah well guess itll happen sooner rather than later...cheers

[John Parry]

Even if it is today, try to remember they have different time zones. Pacific standard Time is 8 hours behind the UK so it's still early morning there.:)

[ezee ryder]

Ah right i c...its just i work for gamestation and our microsoft rep confirmed it would go live on may 7th...ah well guess itll happen sooner rather than later...cheers

He liiiiiiiiiiiiiiies! :lol:

[Yoshimax]

Ah right i c...its just i work for gamestation and our microsoft rep confirmed it would go live on may 7th...ah well guess itll happen sooner rather than later...cheers

Company rep in "knows less than he lets on" shocker :thumb:

[Enemybreather]

LOL gonna make u pay for that insult ezee next time I see u at work lol!(toilet could really do wiv a clean)Have a good night fella celebrating your championship win....

[Destrukticor]

I'll provide an update on the dash when I can. The team is wrapping up on it and they're going to let me know soon. We're getting close.

taken from MN

tonight possibly or tomorrow?

let the guessing begin

[El Leone]

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/786/786002p1.html

Edit: This is last years spring update. IGN prove to be useless as usual.

[Jebus]

It'd be nice if just once they could release something on my day off...ie tomorrow.

[EvilBoris]

That list of the 125 upgrades is from a previous dash update.

[El Leone]

Yeah, someone pointed it out to me. I think that pretty much means that entire article is useless. They get the date wrong and the actual update wrong as well.

[EvilBoris]

The actual intro paragraph listed some relevant ones.

[ChrisField]

Loads of "news" sites have posted last years up date as of it were this years. Muppets.

edit: i meant the news sites btw...

Looks like theres a slight delay with it! :(

[Jebus]

"Not in the next 24 hours" apparently...

www.majornelson.com

[Dezm0nd]

I don't understand why people are getting stroppy over an update.

Is it worth moaning about when it gets delayed? I'm confused!

[Jebus]

Who's getting stroppy? :s

[Yoshimax]

Personally don't get why everybody gets a chubby over these updates either - the net outcome will be about 20 posts claiming that it has borked their 360's.

Seen it, got the T-Shirt :thumb:

I'll provide an update on the dash when I can. The team is wrapping up on it and they're going to let me know soon. We're getting close.

This was yesterday ? So these updates (in terms of preparation) go right down to the wire ? RIGHT down to the wire ? I find that very hard to believe - I'd have expected the update to be ready & tested & setup for deployment weeks ago.

If it's true, it's very amateur.

[NekoFever]

Who's getting stroppy? :s
The kids on pretty much every other forum. The usual "OMG tehy promised!!1" histrionics :zzz:

[mackemansj1]

Personally don't get why everybody gets a chubby over these updates either - the net outcome will be about 20 posts claiming that it has borked their 360's.

Seen it, got the T-Shirt :thumb:



This was yesterday ? So these updates (in terms of preparation) go right down to the wire ? RIGHT down to the wire ? I find that very hard to believe - I'd have expected the update to be ready & tested & setup for deployment weeks ago.

If it's true, it's very amateur.

At least this will be a mass roll out, unlike things like skyhd i had to wait weeks before it made its way to my box. Im sure its all set and done they are just waiting to finish up the roll out i cant imagen they are still working on the update itself this close to the deadline it will have been tested and tested before they just let it out in the wild.

[Charlie]

I'm a little disappointed the update has failed to materialise as I'm eager to see if the supposed new VGA display options improve picture quality.

[Simmy]

This was yesterday ? So these updates (in terms of preparation) go right down to the wire ? RIGHT down to the wire ? I find that very hard to believe - I'd have expected the update to be ready & tested & setup for deployment weeks ago.

If it's true, it's very amateur.

He went through the update on his machine and discussed all the changes on his podcast about three weeks ago with the guy that heads the update team, so you'd have to presume it's been ready a while. I guess the merging of live and messenger on a mass scale is quite a task though !

[1P_King]

The only thing that would get me excited about an update would be if I knew the option to delete my 'played games' was being added. Then I could finally say **** off to that OXM demo, god I hate that thing with a passion. :curse:

[DavidFallows]

I wish they'd ****off with all updates. My 360 is fine for my needs. ****off. The last thing I want is more downtime and an entire night in twiddling my thumbs.

It's going to coincide with the Halo 3 beta, I can see it now. They time these updates perfectly. The exact same thing happened with the PSU beta.

[Jebus]

Video: Xbox 360 Spring Update part 1 & 2

Nope…this is not the spring update yet, but rather two videos that show you some of the features of the update that is coming this week.

Name: Xbox 360 Spring Update Video part 1
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live regions
Dash Details: Learn about Xbox 360's exciting new features from the people who made it happen.

Name: Xbox 360 Spring Update Video part 2
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live regions
Dash Details: Learn about Xbox 360's exciting new features from the people who made it happen.

Holy ****...what a bunch of idiots!! People are moaning like hell for the update so they put up videos of what the update looks like!! That's pretty hilarious right there.

I'm not desperate for the update, it'll be nice when it happens but it makes me laugh when shit like this is released on the marketplace. To get on the marketplace you need an internet connection, and that means you probably have the internet, the dash update has been covered everywhere, this kind of content is utterly, utterly pointless and a waste of a MS employees time to make.

The only thing that would get me excited about an update would be if I knew the option to delete my 'played games' was being added. Then I could finally say **** off to that OXM demo, god I hate that thing with a passion. :curse:

That is in this update isn't it? I'm sure I read it was in this update.

[Shakey_Jake33]

I wish they'd ****off with all updates. My 360 is fine for my needs. ****off. The last thing I want is more downtime and an entire night in twiddling my thumbs.

It's going to coincide with the Halo 3 beta, I can see it now. They time these updates perfectly. The exact same thing happened with the PSU beta.
I hear what your saying, but some of us do genuinely need some of the stuff in this update, the VGA fix in my case.

[Daragon]

What's this? More downtime ftw?

Seriously, why don't Microsoft just have a day of downtime like once a month or so in which to sort out updates/maintenance? Or does it take more than a good few hundred employees to screw in a lightbulb?

[NecronomiconUK]

RE: The update videos

If the content is ready to go up then put it up... People who are moaning like hell about a god damn update can take a hike.

They already said that it will be the first or second week in may, that hasn't changed,.

[stainboy]

It's going to coincide with the Halo 3 beta, I can see it now. They time these updates perfectly. The exact same thing happened with the PSU beta.

That PSU timing was annoying but I'd rather have updates than not, I'm looking forward to quite a lot of these features this time.

[DavidFallows]

Yeah, I well can't wait for these updates, I've got a stiffy on now just thinking about the ****er.

[DavidFallows]

I hear what your saying, but some of us do genuinely need some of the stuff in this update, the VGA fix in my case.

What's up with it? Mine's been spot-on since 02/12/05 and has pissed all over component during that entire period.

[andrewfee]

I wish they'd ****off with all updates. My 360 is fine for my needs. ****off. The last thing I want is more downtime and an entire night in twiddling my thumbs.

It's going to coincide with the Halo 3 beta, I can see it now. They time these updates perfectly. The exact same thing happened with the PSU beta.
What? The dashboard updates take all of 30 seconds. (unlike PS3 updates which take 20+ minutes)

Live goes down for scheduled maintenance maybe 4 times a year, which is completely unrelated to the dashboard updates.

What's up with it? Mine's been spot-on since 02/12/05 and has pissed all over component during that entire period.
Currently the VGA lead is outputting Video levels (16-235 RGB) rather than PC levels (0-255 RGB) which most monitors / displays are expecting.

You can kind-of correct for this with the brightness/contrast controls on the display, but things should look much better once you have the option to switch to whatever is best for your display. (or whichever you prefer - correcting for Video levels with brightness / contrast controls tends to up the gamma, giving a punchier image with more contrast)

[Yoshimax]

I may give me VGA cable a play after this update !!!

[Zero9X]

from the sounds of it im going to have to give a vga cable a try. is the picture quality seriously that much better from component?

pardon my ignorance, but i haven't acually tried vga on my new tv yet.

[stainboy]

Yeah, I well can't wait for these updates, I've got a stiffy on now just thinking about the ****er.

Oh shush, surely you've got something else you can do during the 5 minutes it's likely to take :zzz:

[Freddo]

to be honest it depends much more on how your tv deals with component/vga, some are crap at component but plugging vga bypasses a lot of processing and is thus much improved, some are very good at component and vga gives only a minor improvement, some (like mine) do weird things with vga that make it much better to use component.

basicly in conclusion your milage may vary, though its certainly worth checking out.

[billy_dimashq]

yeah i love the vga pic but i find it makes the greyness of the blacks more apparent than with component which is less sharp but a bit more vivid. also 720p on my previous telly was blurry, whereas 1080i was very sharp but you could see the deinterlacing fuzzyness on the edges and stuff. best for me was 1360x768 over vga, with the 360 handling the scaling, but if i was gonna watch something dark (batman begins hddvd, gears of war, etc) i'd switch to component.

hoping this colour thing is as good as it sounds, as i've had to choose between gaming in component and then switching to vga for upscaling of dvds

[andrewfee]

yeah i love the vga pic but i find it makes the greyness of the blacks more apparent than with component
The update should fix that. Currently it's outputting 16,16,16 for black instead of 0,0,0 as it's using Video levels. If you adjust brightness you should be able to correct for it, but it's much better to just send the proper signal in the first place.

[billy_dimashq]

ahh that's what's been going on. this 16,16,16, that's out of a maximum of 255,255,255 though yeah? so about 6% difference.

i'm not too hot for lcd's and their handling of blacks, and as you say, just adjusting brightness would do the same thing.

i'm assuming it'll also do other stuff for the colours? didn't a previous update already boost the colour output over vga, though?

[andrewfee]

That really depends on your TV. VGA should be showing the colours as accurately as your TV can. Whether or not you like that is another matter.

[Malc]

For the 600 friends list, does that mean i can have 600 friends all playing on xbox live. Or is it still 100 for xbox live and 600 messenger contacts?

[Akira]

Or is it still 100 for xbox live and 600 messenger contacts?Correct!

[Spatial101]

AceyBongo's is saying that the update should be up early tomorrow morning (for GMT'ers).

Don't know if it'll happen but fingers crossed (the sooner they chuck it up, the sooner I can sort out my gamertag nightmare).

[ChrisField]

Glad to see gamersave cheats might be getting screwed over soon:


Additional Spring 2007 Autoupdate Issues
* ISSUE 1: Cheating Corrupt Files Issue
We may see an increase in the number of users calling stating their saved game files are corrupt after the Spring autoupdate. Please refer and code to the following article for these issues: [KB# not up yet - ask after update ;)]


off http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEZlVlkFFyCVrZQVqJ.php

[billy_dimashq]

"they could start banning consoles from LIVE too (even if that might cause bad press)"

quite.

but what's this gamersave cheating though? what games are these? any idea?

[DavidHolliss]

I guess game saves shared between users, ie. someone completes 99% of a game, uploads the save somewhere for other people to download and fob off as their own. Doesn't give you the gamerscore obviously, but it does go on.

[EvilBoris]

I guess game saves shared between users, ie. someone completes 99% of a game, uploads the save somewhere for other people to download and fob off as their own. Doesn't give you the gamerscore obviously, but it does go on.

It can give you acheivement points too, depends on the game. They need to sort it out quicksharp.

[DavidHolliss]

Didn't know that any games "back dated achievement points" if you know what I mean.

However what you said does make sense, if you look at Rance6's profile (the guy with the highest gamerscore) he got 1000 points out of Earth Defence Force in just one day - and there's no way, even in co-op you could finish all difficulties from scratch in 24 hours - he must have got hold of a save with say just one level left on each difficulty, cheeky git.

[EvilBoris]

It all depends on how the game awards the acheivement points I guess.
I don't think it is a case of the game backdating acheivements as such but more of a preventative in case the game fails to award the acheivement in the first place
If for instance you boot up ridge racer with a downloaded save and it runs safety checks to ensure that it has actually awarded the achievements you had earned, the game would go

"oh this guy has beaten all of the races and unlocked all the cars, I must of glitched up and not awarded the acheivements. Here have them now"

[Akira]

AceyBongo's is saying that the update should be up early tomorrow morning (for GMT'ers).

Don't know if it'll happen but fingers crossed (the sooner they chuck it up, the sooner I can sort out my gamertag nightmare).Looks about right.

Source: Major Nelson (www.majornelson.com)

Ok, we’re getting closer. I just learned that the May ‘07 dashboard release is set to be released just a few hours from now. To be more specific, the LIVE Operations team expects to start rolling out the update after 0200 PT (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=5&day=9&year=2007&hour=2&min=0&sec=0&p1=234) tomorrow morning. I’ll make another post when the team start the roll out.

The PR team has issued an alert (http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/05/08/Media_Blast_Spring_Dash_Update_Details.aspx), so it must be official…right?

[ChrisField]

Didn't know that any games "back dated achievement points" if you know what I mean.

However what you said does make sense, if you look at Rance6's profile (the guy with the highest gamerscore) he got 1000 points out of Earth Defence Force in just one day - and there's no way, even in co-op you could finish all difficulties from scratch in 24 hours - he must have got hold of a save with say just one level left on each difficulty, cheeky git.

One guy i saw on the official xbox forums had 1000 points on Oblivion in one day. Go figure! He was quickly called out as a game save cheat. Hopefully they will put a stop to this.

[huxley]

Update is out.

[bignige]

Bricked!!!

[Bleeders]

Seriously?

[bignige]

Seriously?

Not! I had the 3 rings of light, but all working again.

[monomaniacpat]

As I stated in the news section, I was able to download the FC Instincts demo from both a US and UK account. Wonder how far the limitations reach..

[Oscar]

I'm currently in the office, so I can't check, but I hope that the ability to remove XBLA demos from your profile has finally been included.

Any reports from anyone yet?

- Oscar :)

[1P_King]

I'm currently in the office, so I can't check, but I hope that the ability to remove XBLA demos from your profile has finally been included.

Any reports from anyone yet?

- Oscar :)

Nope, doesn't look like it mate. :cry:

Every update all I look for is the option to delete games from my 'Played Games' list but every time Microsoft decide to leave it out why?

[wush]

The "Reference Level" setting for VGA is a bit ambiguous. I thought there would only be two options.

Standard - Seems to be the old system. So, if your display is expecting a PC-level signal, the floor for colour values is too high, and black would show as grey.

Intermediate - Black now appears fine.

Expanded - Not sure how this differs from Intermediate. Perhaps Intermediate simply applies a (-16, -16, -16) (or whatever) correction to Standard (meaning the roof would now be too low at the top end of the scale), and Expanded uses the full 0-255 range natively?

[peeveen]

I'm currently having a day off work, signed up for the msn integration, and now all my work colleagues are sending me messages thru the 360 ... aarrgh.

Anyone throwing a sicky from work is going to have to be VERY careful! :)

[NecronomiconUK]

Just set the MSN section to appear offline, or do what I do and group all your work colleagues into 1 group then block the lot of em :D

[Dezm0nd]

Not bothered about MSN intergration but i suppose it's a nice touch. The downloading feature while the machine is in low power mode is a better idea :)

[hoolak]

Does this new MSN intergration let your MSN buddies (at PCs) know you're on the xbox?

[Extra Terrestrial]

My friend just phoned me up to ask about a college project we are working on as well as moaning that the lastest Spring update managed to brick his Xbox 360 for good.

Yes, the 'red lights of doom'.

Is there anything else that can **** an Xbox 360 up?

[1P_King]

Don't really want everyone on my msn list to see if I'm on the 360 or not so one question. If I don't set it up on my 360 I won't be able to see them obviously. But will they be able to see me on their PC's?

[NecronomiconUK]

Don't really want everyone on my msn list to see if I'm on the 360 or not so one question. If I don't set it up on my 360 I won't be able to see them obviously. But will they be able to see me on their PC's?
You can just not enable the feature, it's not forced

[monomaniacpat]

I can't sign up to Live Messenger because my Xbox is linked to my old hotmail address. All my messenger contacts use my gmail account. Silly buggers.

For the people that want to get played XBLA games off their list, I read that it's possible to reset your games be retrieving your profile from XBL. Not sure what else it does though...

[DavidHolliss]

mygamercard.net hasn't been working all morning, are there any planned updates for that does anyone know ?

[Jakeway]

I want to load MSN onto my Xbox... but I dont want to many people on my Xbox.

So I was wondering, if anyone has done this yet. Can you remove people from your Xbox MSN, but still keep them on your PC msn? otherwise I’d rather just go without the MSN. Unless you can toggle it off, and keep it off?

I mean... wouldn’t mind using it now and then. I just don’t want lots of messages when I am playing games. And to set my self to offline every time seems like a pain.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Anyone tried the MP4 H.264 stuff yet?

[Yoshimax]

My friend just phoned me up to ask about a college project we are working on as well as moaning that the lastest Spring update managed to brick his Xbox 360 for good.

Yes, the 'red lights of doom'.

Is there anything else that can **** an Xbox 360 up?

Awesome - 1 down :D

Personally don't get why everybody gets a chubby over these updates either - the net outcome will be about 20 posts claiming that it has borked their 360's.

Seen it, got the T-Shirt :thumb:

[Dezm0nd]

My friend just phoned me up to ask about a college project we are working on as well as moaning that the lastest Spring update managed to brick his Xbox 360 for good.

Yes, the 'red lights of doom'.

Is there anything else that can **** an Xbox 360 up?

I think the question should be "What can't break an Xbox 360" it'd be a much shorter list

[Oh_Mutants]

The "Reference Level" setting for VGA is a bit ambiguous. I thought there would only be two options.

Standard - Seems to be the old system. So, if your display is expecting a PC-level signal, the floor for colour values is too high, and black would show as grey.

Intermediate - Black now appears fine.

Expanded - Not sure how this differs from Intermediate. Perhaps Intermediate simply applies a (-16, -16, -16) (or whatever) correction to Standard (meaning the roof would now be too low at the top end of the scale), and Expanded uses the full 0-255 range natively?
Hopefully the good Mr Fee will be able to clear this up for us :)

[huxley]

"I think the question should be "What can't break an Xbox 360" it'd be a much shorter list"


^ The main problems start afters its had a little dose of electricity and the countdown to doom is on.
One of my mates from work has reported his box bricked. Its his second one up the spout, the last one bricked on the previous update.
After 25mins on hold for the xbox support line hes gone to the pub!
Think I`ll buy him lunch.

[andrewfee]

Awesome update - my 360 isn't seeing any of the H.264 videos I've put on my NAS to try, but it's also now not seeing any of the WMV ones either!

[RobDimmock]

Updates ok, marketplace blade is pretty cool, MSN is alright as well.

[bignige]

Awesome update - my 360 isn't seeing any of the H.264 videos I've put on my NAS to try, but it's also now not seeing any of the WMV ones either!

Same here, when I go to videos, it dosen't see them, but bizzarely it sees my mp3's! It won't play them though!!

[Jebus]

I haven't checked but if my 360 has stopped seeing my mp3s or wmv's then MS can stick this console where the sun don't shine, but the dollar is plenty.

[Shakey_Jake33]

360 now works with excellent colours over VGA on my Bravia, set to 1360x768 :)

[AllYourBase]

360 now works with excellent colours over VGA on my Bravia, set to 1360x768 :)

Lovely stuff. I have just switched to VGA to free up my component port. This is a win!! :lol:

[stainboy]

Love the MSN thing, anyone recommend a cheap usb keyboard? Even one with a cable wouldn't be too bad as long as it's a few metres long.

About to try some video files...

[bignige]

Love the MSN thing, anyone recommend a cheap usb keyboard? Even one with a cable wouldn't be too bad as long as it's a few metres long.

About to try some video files...

Why don't you wait for the joypad keyboard add on?

[bignige]

360 now works with excellent colours over VGA on my Bravia, set to 1360x768 :)

I always thought you said it worked excellent anyways?!

[Mr Pump]

Playing all my files fine, thats on XP using WMP11 if thats useful to anyone. Appreciate the slightly better play back controls too.

I haven't checked but if my 360 has stopped seeing my mp3s or wmv's then MS can stick this console where the sun don't shine, but the dollar is plenty.

Having an angry day today then?

[andrewfee]

Ok, it looks like you have to download a separate update if you want to play MPEG4 - try to play something off a thumbdrive etc (I used my PSP) and it'll ask you to download an "Optional Media Update" which is just the iPod update renamed, with MPEG4 support added to it.

Still not seeing any videos from my NAS though!

[Shakey_Jake33]

I always thought you said it worked excellent anyways?!
With anything but 360. PC and DC looked great, but 360 was always washed. Looks great now though.

[stainboy]

Why don't you wait for the joypad keyboard add on?

Not sure I want that, it looks a bit fiddly and it's bound to be more expensive than a cheap keyboard.

[HumanEnergy]

I downloaded the update at lunch with no problems. I was using component as the picture via VGA on my telly was a bit soft and lacked contrast, but I went back to VGA after the update downloaded and it's much better now.

The blacks definitely look blacker, and it looks a little bit sharper, although that could be my imagination. I think I'll be sticking with VGA now so I can say goodbye to overscan :)

[Shakey_Jake33]

Played a bit of Gears, love how I can see more of the screen, looks as good as ever too.

[HumanEnergy]

I just had a very quick look at Crackdown and RR6. Before I used to get a... hard to describe, a white sheen over the screen like the brightness was turned up too high. Now it looks basically identical to component in terms of colours, contrast and black levels.

It's great when you see the extra picture you're getting. You can really notice it when you bring up the guide and there's a big chunk of space at the side that was cut off before.

[stainboy]

Ok, it looks like you have to download a separate update if you want to play MPEG4 - try to play something off a thumbdrive etc (I used my PSP) and it'll ask you to download an "Optional Media Update" which is just the iPod update renamed, with MPEG4 support added to it.


Is there a way to access this update manually? Don't have a usb cable for my ipod, how about if I burn a file to DVD?

EDIT: Success! I burned an .mp4 to CD and attempting to play it provided the update. It plays fine from the disc but I can't yet get the console to find any video on my hard drive even though it finds mp3s fine.

[Charlie]

Bit disappointed personally with the new VGA options as, to the best of my knowledge, they don't seem to do anything that couldn't be achieved by fiddling with my TV's contrast and brightness settings. Oh well.

[monomaniacpat]

Was MPeg4 the only video codec added? What's the extension for an mpeg4 - mp4? Is it used by iPod or something?

Either way I'm quite happy with my OG Xbox.:)

[andrewfee]

Bit disappointed personally with the new VGA options as, to the best of my knowledge, they don't seem to do anything that couldn't be achieved by fiddling with my TV's contrast and brightness settings. Oh well.
There is not a significant difference if you actually knew how to properly set brightness/contrast on your TV.

Posted up new settings for the WLT68 here: http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showpost.php?p=1091630&postcount=233

[stainboy]

Success! I burned an .mp4 to CD and attempting to play it provided the update. It plays fine from the disc but I can't yet get the console to find any video on my hard drive even though it finds mp3s fine.

Okay in WMP11 in Media Sharing I only had music checked, not video. Now I get a list of my PC's video folders through the 360 but the mp4 files are not showing up. I only have one .wmv and that is there. One of the files that should be there is exactly the same one that works from disc.

To be honest though if all I have to do is burn .mp4s to dvd-rw I can live with it.

[DavidFallows]

I really don't want MSN anywhere near my 360. Having a friends list is bad enough.

[RobDimmock]

ooo I hate having the msn contacts on the FR list! Go away!

[Keith]

Press the Y button and they do just that.

[RobDimmock]

oooo aaaah, ty for that mate:P lol I was gonna have a mini rant about MS there lol.

[NecronomiconUK]

ooo I hate having the msn contacts on the FR list! Go away!
You can filter them out i thought?

EDIT: Doh, beaten to it

[HaHaUK]

How does the regional lockout work? Downloading a Pacman episode from the US Marketplace right now and its downloading fine. Does it tell you you're not allowed to view it after you complete the download or something?

[Spatial101]

Apparently content won't be locked until 24-48 hours after the update release.

[monomaniacpat]

Q: The email address assigned to my Xbox LIVE account is different to the email address I use on my PC for Windows LIVE messenger. Is there a way for me to still access my messenger account?
A: Not at this time. We are working on the ability to allow users to change the email address they originally used when signing up for Xbox Live. The feature will be available in an upcoming release.

About bloody time, too. Thanks, Major.

[Paulos G]

I'm pleased they're working on that.

[bignige]

I really don't want MSN anywhere near my 360. Having a friends list is bad enough.

You might want this near it though, & thanks to the update this will now play!Probably got it if you have a hd-dvd, if not here's a sample.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/nin.html
Don't DL the 1080p, it jerks about all over the shop!

[prinnysquad]

I like the way it displays the currently inserted game on the 'open disc' bar at the bottom of the screen, and a little data window pops up. Totally shallow and inconsequential but a nice touch.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Interestingly, people on MSN on the PC knew I was playing Gears of War.

[DavidFallows]

You might want this near it though, & thanks to the update this will now play!Probably got it if you have a hd-dvd, if not here's a sample.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/nin.html
Don't DL the 1080p, it jerks about all over the shop!

Aye mate, cheers for the heads up though :)

[Keith]

Yeah, it comes up on a wee caption under your name saying what you're playing, and what your gamertag is. :)

[EvilBoris]

Bit disappointed personally with the new VGA options as, to the best of my knowledge, they don't seem to do anything that couldn't be achieved by fiddling with my TV's contrast and brightness settings. Oh well.

the WLT68 never seemed to have a problem with the VGA output of the 360, but the new options definately make the blacks blacker without affecting the rest of the image.

[EvilBoris]

I can't sign in the messenger, it has been doing this all day.
Good old messenger

[MJ]

The update installed in about 30 seconds and I like the VGA tweak but it would be good if it described what each setting did and/or had an example pane of the effect when you select them.

Here is a comparison of the new VGA Reference Level options:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7216

For some reason I don't like where the Marketplace blade is and would prefer the main Xbox Live blade to be first like it used to be.

I don't use IM so couldn't care less about that functionality.

It's a shame it doesn't tell you what HD DVD or DVD is in the drive, unless this isn't coded on the discs of course.

[EvilBoris]

It isn't coded into DVDs, I'd be suprised if it wasn't in HD-DVDs though.

They've still not fixed the interlaced DVD issues though, swines.
I love the way it shows you your recent achievements when you go to select the disc drawer.

[Paulos G]

I like the little arrow indicating that a friend's game is joinable. Very handy.

Has anyone tried group chat yet?

[Shakey_Jake33]

I've not used 360 VGA in ages, but the DVD playback/upscaling is certainly better than I remember it... some Japanese R2 DVD's I have, which are almost always shoddy quality for some reason, look real nice.

[Jebus]

Has anyone tried group chat yet?

Group chat wasn't in this update mate... :(

[Paulos G]

Oh. Bother.

[Jebus]

Quite, good sir. The rambunctious little scallywags neglected to include it in this update. Perhaps we shall be fortuitous enough to recieve said function in a an update in the not too distant future.

Of that I'm sure we are all in acquiescence.

[Paulos G]

:lol:

I salute you, Sir, for your rather wonderful turn of phrase!

[Kotatsu Neko]

I'm not having any luck with the new H.264 video playback. I fed it a 720p H.264 video in MP4 format, which it found and did an auto update for, but then crashed when I tried to play it.

I'll try some more files this evening but so far it's looking pretty broken.

No luck with the MSN stuff either. I tried to sign up but it just gave me some random numbered error and kicked me out.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Tried another 720p H.264 MP4 and got an error message this time- 'this type of media may not be supported'.

So the new video support then - total rubbish.

[Tankshell]

Seem like there is a bug with the auto-sign in after the update. If you leave the Xbox Live auto sign-in to enabled BUT disable the MSN Messenger auto sign in...when your Xbox boots up it WONT sign you into either =P

Nice one bug testers, how'd you let that one slip through the net =P

[EvilBoris]

Erm mine doesn't do that. Thank goodness as my messenger doesn't want to work adn i don't want to see

"Can't sign in to messenger" every time I turn the console one.

Also I WANT MY MONEY BACK MY THEMES ARE MISSING A PAGE.
How long until the outrage occurs?

[MJ]

I've just noticed that when you turn the info pane on for videos there's now a status bar in the middle and when you quit a stored video you have the additional option to resume playback.

[dvdmike]

Tried another 720p H.264 MP4 and got an error message this time- 'this type of media may not be supported'.

So the new video support then - total rubbish.

The files I have on my external HDD for the ps3 (encoded in ps3video9) in 1080p play on the 360 but they pause and skip due to high bitrates :(
Guess its ps3 for MP4 still.
Does any one know if you can put icons in for the videos now ? it looks like it supports it

[EvilBoris]

I like the way you can see all the people in your list who are joinable in games.

[Geo-V6]

Not sure if its a coincedence but after dl the update my console rebooted and my screen is now all green, sussing its an av problem i have now removed my scart lead and used the hd cable only using red white yellow
so my 2nd xb is now goosed and will be returned, the change was instant as I had gears running in the back ground before the update.

Now its all green ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ChrisField]

Erm mine doesn't do that. Thank goodness as my messenger doesn't want to work adn i don't want to see

"Can't sign in to messenger" every time I turn the console one.


Is your MSN profile set up as an under 18 account? i.e. date of birth under 18 years old. Apparently there are problems with that.

edit: this off MN: Q: I don't want to automatically sign in to Live Messenger on my console...how do I turn it off?
A: Sign in to Xbox LIVE, go to the Xbox LIVE blade, then select your gamercard and press A. Go down to 'Auto Sign-in' and press A. You can set your preference for Xbox Live and Windows Live Messenger separately here.



Also I WANT MY MONEY BACK MY THEMES ARE MISSING A PAGE.
How long until the outrage occurs?

If you're referring to the marketplace page, then that will never be themed. I think the idea is that it gets branded whenever a new release is being promoted. of course, if you're on about a differnet page, then i'll get my coat...

[DavidHolliss]

Not sure if its a coincedence but after dl the update my console rebooted and my screen is now all green, sussing its an av problem i have now removed my scart lead and used the hd cable only using red white yellow
so my 2nd xb is now goosed and will be returned, the change was instant as I had gears running in the back ground before the update.

Now its all green ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sad news mate, I downloaded the update and Double Dragon earlier, was relieved when all still worked OK, phew.

[ChrisField]

I really like the list of who's playing what in the Arcade. Nice touch. Also the game in the tray - about time! Also the whole thing seems a tad quicker too, which is ALWAYS welcome.

[Tankshell]

Erm mine doesn't do that. Thank goodness as my messenger doesn't want to work adn i don't want to see

"Can't sign in to messenger" every time I turn the console one.

Also I WANT MY MONEY BACK MY THEMES ARE MISSING A PAGE.
How long until the outrage occurs?

Arse. Mine still does it everytime. Have tried reseting the toggles to both enabled and disabled but the bug persists whenever my xbox boots up....maybe there is a specific combination of settings that leads to the problem?

FFS. :curse:

[HaHaUK]

Arse. Mine still does it everytime. Have tried reseting the toggles to both enabled and disabled but the bug persists whenever my xbox boots up....maybe there is a specific combination of settings that leads to the problem?

FFS. :curse:

How about removing the password from the account management option?

[MJ]

Details about video playback from the dev team:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/05/09/spring-07-video-playback-faq.aspx

[dvdmike]

How low are those bit-rates !!!! what a waste of time

lol if you rename the .mp4 ext to .wmv more files work, MS for the home hackjob win

[NekoFever]

Seems like a good update so far. Nothing groundbreaking (in fact MSN is just annoying and I turned it off immediately) but a lot of decent tweaks.


Finally being able to see what disc is in the drive (even with Xbox games) is long overdue.
I like how it shows who on your list is joinable.
Giving the Marketplace its own blade makes sense, and it's a bit more navigable now. It seems to get slightly better every dash update.
I'm not sure whether or not this is new (I'm don't remember it working like this), but I had GRAW 2 in the drive and got an invite to play it, and when I accepted the invite it loaded the game up automatically. I swear I used to have to start the game manually.

[Destrukticor]

the vga tweaks are a massive improvement IMO they really have sorted the black level out and vga no longer looks washed out at all.
MSN is nice and pointless to me
the joinable game icon is a good idea
the game in the drive is also a good idea

not bad overall

i likes

[stainboy]

Details about video playback from the dev team:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/05/09/spring-07-video-playback-faq.aspx

Thanks for that link, that actually confirms a suspicion I had that I needed WMP11 to recognise my .mp4 files before the 360 would.

I'm having trouble remuxing .mp4 files. I can demux them from .mkv into seperate video, audio and subtitle but both Yamb and MeGUI fail to remux them into .mp4. It seems this might be because the video is AVC, I've hit a bit of a sketchy wall on what to do about that.

[dtrain]

Not sure if its a coincedence but after dl the update my console rebooted and my screen is now all green, sussing its an av problem i have now removed my scart lead and used the hd cable only using red white yellow
so my 2nd xb is now goosed and will be returned, the change was instant as I had gears running in the back ground before the update.

Now its all green ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is not a coincidence! It happened to me, too, and there's another post about it on the Xbox forums. So far, here're the commonalities:

1. US Xbox connected to UK TV with SCART lead.
2. Happened precisely when the console rebooted after the update.

I don't know about yours, but my SCART lead is a 3rd party (MadCatz), so just in case I might try buying an MS lead tomorrow and seeing if that works. Perhaps coincidentally (perhaps not) I ALSO had Gears running in the background during the green-ening.

I'm on the support line with MS right now, so don't return your box quite yet, it's probably their own fault and it's the update that's done it.

Let me know if you were using an MS SCART cable, as well -- maybe we can get closer to the bottom of this...

Cheers,
- dtrain

[John Parry]

Do you think maybe some idiot there had the bright idea to copy the Sony RGB video green screen thing?:)

[dtrain]

Well, I hope not - MS support didn't seem to have a clue about the green screen thing. They said I was the first one to report the issue and to go out and buy an MS SCART cable and call them back if everything's still green. Which I was planning to do anyway, but I'm none too keen about dropping the 18 quid. I guess I could call MadCatz if the MS cable works and demand a refund, but...not bloody likely.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Thanks for that link, that actually confirms a suspicion I had that I needed WMP11 to recognise my .mp4 files before the 360 would.

I'm having trouble remuxing .mp4 files. I can demux them from .mkv into seperate video, audio and subtitle but both Yamb and MeGUI fail to remux them into .mp4. It seems this might be because the video is AVC, I've hit a bit of a sketchy wall on what to do about that.

I've remuxed MKVs into MP4s successfully but the 360 won't play the resulting file. It either crashes or says that type of file isn't supported.

I did get it to play a low bit rate low res MP4 video podcast... but those nice 720p H.264 TV Shows look to be beyond it's abilities.

It's a real shame MS keep crippling their own device. I can't imagine why they do it other than to appease the likes of the MPAA/RIAA.

[Psyduck]

I use a program called Tversity for videos - lets you play any video format at all on your 360 by transcoding it into a format your 360 will play. Might be worth trying?

[BaudAttitude]

Now that the VGA support seems to be sussed out, I find myself with a few VGA related questions question I'm sure someone else here has run in to.

360 games are all in 16:9 aspect ratio.

PC monitors are generally one of three aspect ratios: 16:10, 5:4 or 4:3.

Is the 360 smart enough to letterbox the images on a 16:10 display, or is that something it leaves up to the monitor? For that matter, can it letterbox an image onto a 4:3 or 5:4 monitor?

Also, if I'm using a 1680 x 1050 monitor, I'm assuming I'll be limited to the 1280x720 resolution, and then that gets scaled up (to 1680 x 945? is my math right?), so again, is that a 360 function or does it hand it off to the monitor?

Thanks for putting up with annoying questions; if these are answered in a FAQ somewhere I've missed it. :)

[EvilBoris]

The 360 doesn't letterbox anything so it is down to your monitor.

Also with the upscaling everything is 1280*720, so if you set the resolution higher it will be upscaled, then the monitor will upscale aswell to fill the screen

[stainboy]

720p doesn't matter to me at the moment as I only have an SD TV but I understand the frustration, it should work otherwise what's the point? It feels like a half arsed supported format at the moment. I have some .mp4 episodes of Nodame Cantibelle from the same subbers yet only some of them work, you'd think they'd all have been encoded the same? This feels like when I used to experiment with emulators and divx on the Dreamcast, this shouldn't be feeling the same.

Thanks Psyduck am going to give TVersity a try, not seen anything specifically mention the 360 yet that was very quick of them.

[wush]

Now that the VGA support seems to be sussed out, I find myself with a few VGA related questions question I'm sure someone else here has run in to.
The only way you'd effectively get 1680x945 would be if your monitor had a nice "aspect retaining scale" option. Not many do, so your options are pretty much having the picture blown out the full panel size and stretched to 16:10 or (if the monitor supports it) disabling scaling and having the 1280x720 displayed 1:1 with black borders in the unused space. I do the latter myself - bit on the small side but it's pin-sharp. :)

[BaudAttitude]

The 360 doesn't letterbox anything so it is down to your monitor.

Also with the upscaling everything is 1280*720, so if you set the resolution higher it will be upscaled, then the monitor will upscale aswell to fill the screen

The only way you'd effectively get 1680x945 would be if your monitor had a nice "aspect retaining scale" option. Not many do, so your options are pretty much having the picture blown out the full panel size and stretched to 16:10 or (if the monitor supports it) disabling scaling and having the 1280x720 displayed 1:1 with black borders in the unused space. I do the latter myself - bit on the small side but it's pin-sharp. :)


Thanks both of you for the quick answers.

My wife and I have HP f2105 monitors which will scale while keeping the aspect ratio intact on the VGA inputs but which stretch anything coming in via the DVI input - so it sounds like I could use the DVI input for the PC, hook the 360 up to the VGA input and be fine.

Good to know. I was rather hoping to be told that the 360 did it all and I didn't need to worry about the monitor, but at least I have an answer (two!) that I can work with.

[DavidFallows]

I couldn't notice any difference on the dash itself, but when I logged into FFXI everything was MEGA dark, as I'd adjusted the games gamma levels internally to make it look 'darker'. I had to move everything up to default.

So yeah, something's worked.

[stainboy]

I use a program called Tversity for videos - lets you play any video format at all on your 360 by transcoding it into a format your 360 will play. Might be worth trying?

Can't get it to work so far, can get the 360 to recognise it but not any files, not even the sample ones it comes with. That's if you are meant to be able to select them on the 360 and have TVersity transcode it on the fly. At the mo I'm having it save something to .wmv and just seeing if I can share that. I've never been able to encode to .wmv before without crashing.

[Psyduck]

Thanks Psyduck am going to give TVersity a try, not seen anything specifically mention the 360 yet that was very quick of them.

Tversity has been out and working since the last dash update. However, the new one broke it so they've released a patch to fix it. Try using that if you haven't already.

As far as operation goes, you just import the folder into Tversity (you have to manually refresh to see any new ones), then choose them on the 360 like you would normally.

[Zero9X]

i tried that. but apparently it keeps saying im missing a directshow filter on tv versity and it won't play them on my 360. any help?

[Psyduck]

Can you play the video files on your PC?

I've got a fairly fresh install of Vista, some codec pack off the internet, and then the newest TVersity and it's playing anything I've downloaded fine. I think it's the FFShow codec they tend to use for me

[Psyduck]

The forums on there seem quite good for answering questions, I've solved any problems I've had using them. Might also be worth downloading a pack of codecs, just google to find one, if you've not already.

[Zero9X]

cccp codec pack already installed >_<

[stainboy]

Make sure windows media player can play the files or TVersity won't be able to. Haali Media Splitter should help wmp play mp4s.

[stainboy]

Noticed a weird thing with the background downloading on my SD TV. I turned the console off to watch Neighbours, had sound on all channels but no picture; just a black screen. Had to unplug 360's scart lead to get picture back.

[NekoFever]

The 360's probably putting out some kind of basic signal (just enough to say that it's still on) and your TV is interpreting that as being something connected to that input. Does your TV automatically switch to the correct AV input when you turn the 360 on?

[monomaniacpat]

Sounds like the console is retaining scart control in low power mode. I.e. the scart cable is keeping the tv autoswitched to the scart channel.

Pretty stupid bit of coding, if so. Component obviously won't do that, since it has no such feature. The best thing you could do is to use a scart switcher and put it on another input.

[stainboy]

I have TVersity working! I hadn't downloaded the new 360 patch d'oh :lol:

It only worked for a few minutes before crashing BUT this is my PC's problem not the software, my computer hates all forms of encoding. I might try using TVersity to transcode the files in advance as it made a playable .wmv earlier.

[stainboy]

The best thing you could do is to use a scart switcher and put it on another input.

That didn't work either, I had to remove the scart from the switcher. Yes it does switch over automatically when the console is turned on, it might even do it when a different input is selected but I can't remember at all.

It's not a problem as I'll most likely be doing background downloading when I'm not in the room at all, I was only doing it this time cos I hadn't done it and wanted to see it :mellow:

[monomaniacpat]

That's just plain weird - I take it you have a manual switch and not an auto-switching scart selector box?