Xbox 360 summer dashboard update

By Richard Leadbetter Published 3 August, 2009

All the hidden bonuses in the new upgrade revealed.

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So, the changelogs looked rather unimpressive, and key features promised at E3 were conspicuous by their absence, but having spent some time with the new Xbox 360 dashboard, I can't help feel it's actually rather good, and, as is often the case with these system software upgrades, there are one or two undocumented features added to the mix that should please the hardcore fanbase.

I'm not going to dwell too much on the new features: rather, I'm going to show them off in action via a pristine HD streaming video, complemented by on-screen captions commenting on the changes. While some of the info imparted may be somewhat old now, the implementation is the most important aspect, and the video definitely shows the speed upgrades coded into the new update. Make no bones about it, NXE was slow and laggy, particularly in the manipulation of downloaded items once they started to stack up on your hard disk. In this respect, the new update is somewhat extraordinary.

Annotated video of the new dashboard in action.

There are plenty of small but significant changes here that more than make the download worthwhile, even if some of the show-stopping stuff is reserved for the US audience only. The Netflix "instant on" video streaming and ability to watch movies simultaneously with other Netflix users might not sound too enticing, but the functionality is getting plenty of love from those able to access it.

Something that is bound to prove more divisive is the new Avatar Marketplace. The idea is to further customise your on-screen counterpart by offering a range of new clothing and accessories, seemingly with various levels of wackiness. The kicker is that you're expected to pay for it, and it's fair to say that the prices are not low. Remember when 200 Microsoft Points would actually buy you an Xbox Live Arcade game? Well now you're expected to front up more than that for a themed Secret of Monkey Island costume.

While most individual items of clothing are in the 80 Point range (pricier than a 59p iPhone game), the more gonza items can be staggeringly expensive for what they are. You're going to have to watch the video to see just how much Microsoft reckons you'll want to pay to add a giant cotton swab, retractable telescope or radio-controlled Halo Warthog to your Avatar.

Costume options for male and female Avatars are explored in this showcase of the new Avatar Marketplace. Want to kit out your in-game persona with a rubber chicken? You know where to come.

Of course, it's all optional. But then again, so was the much-maligned horse armour in Oblivion. The difference is, that did actually serve a purpose within the game. It's really difficult to see what value you're getting here. What is interesting, and rather telling, is that there is not one single piece of clothing in the Avatar Marketplace that is free to download. Any further freebies appear to be related to game-based unlocks and right now only the hit Arcade title 'Splosion Man is offering any reward-based clothing (or rather it will be, when the patch is out, hopefully before 11th August).

Perhaps what is most galling about the Avatar Marketplace is that you can't help but feel it is going to be a commercial success. Most of the clothing has been set at price levels that will vacuum up the MSP "small change" you can't help but accrue, or indeed get rid of in any other way owing to the points structure.

In terms of more positive surprises you'll find in the new update, perhaps the best news is that the optional installation of game discs to the hard drive has been optimised, sometimes with huge space-saving results. Just about all games see a reduction of around five to 10 per cent in their installations, but in the case of the smaller games out there, the result is even more dramatic.

The new King of Fighters XII game from SNK drops from 3.4GB to a sub-demo sized 703MB (!), while Raiden Fighters Aces drops from 3.4GB to 484MB (!!). Left 4 Dead is another example of a solid saving, with the original NXE install occupying 5GB while the new install drops 1.3GB to a mere 3.7GB. At the upper end of the scale, games that used to be in the 6.5GB range seem to have dropped a couple of hundred megabytes by and large, although some titles such as Fable II give no savings with the new installation technique.

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Comments (67) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • rotmm #1 3 years ago

    Actually, the speed increases are the best thing about the update by far.

    That said, the install reduction is a nice piece of icing :)

  • Widge #2 3 years ago

    That space saving is going to be a massive benefit for the 20GB-ers out there. Don't you only get 13GB at the end of the day from a 20GB drive? More games on drive = less management going on.

  • Fab4 #3 3 years ago

    What was the 'speed' like when bringing the guide up during a game? For me that is the worst thing about the current implementation. I can seriously wait up to 30 seconds sometimes for it to display my friends list.

  • Dr_Wadd #4 3 years ago

    I`m a bit puzzled by the comment about the 360 only supporting native resolutions over DVI. My previous television was a 720p Phillips with a native resolution of 1368(?) x 768 and my Elite was able to output at the native resolution of the set over HDMI. I can`t actually re-verify this as I no longer have this television, but I`m certain my memory is not faulty here. Or have I misunderstood the point in the article?

  • optimusprym8 #5 3 years ago

    Having got the update, I can say the speed increase of the guide panes is the single best thing about it for EU players. Smaller installation sizes are nice, as long as you don't already have a lot of games on HDD already that will need to be redone. Severely disappointed that the social media elements are missing but at least they are coming soon(TM)

  • insincere_dave #6 3 years ago

    Saved 6+ GB of HDD space after re-installing all my games yesterday. Trivial Pursuit (free with Burnout Ultimate Box before you ask) dropped about 3GB on its own!

  • berelain #7 3 years ago

    just a comment on the Horse armour thing- that didn't serve any purpose. It just changed the visual style of the Horse.

    A far better comparison would be to equate the costs of Xbox Live Avatar clothing to similar equivalents in Playstation Home, which are as, if not more, expensive- a pair of jeans costs 80p on Home, for example.

  • kangarootoo #8 3 years ago

    Ahhhhh, so THAT explains why the clothing for avatars has been so tremendaously rubbish up until now.


    The reduced install size is great news though, as it means I can further put off buying an overpriced 120GB hdd.

  • schnide #9 3 years ago

    New music player next time please, Microsoft!

  • Irien #10 3 years ago

    Sorry to be a dunce, but could someone explain how to transfer gamer profile from hard drive to internal flash? Does it involve the "Retreive Gamertag" thing, or is it something else?

  • GamesConnoisseur #11 3 years ago

    Faster NXE and improved marketplace.. Yippee! My overloaded 120gb with data going back to launch are horribly slow with marketplace and general Reading speed from memory. Was considering getting jasper with embedded 512mb but this update should hopefully make a difference enough to negate getting 2nd x360.

  • udat #12 3 years ago

    I thought the Horse Armour doubled the HP of your horse? :)

  • Moribundman #13 3 years ago

    @berelain - it did actually offer more protection to the horse I believe. But anyway...

    I bought a few Monkey Island bits. Yeah the accessories are crap (would be much more agreeable at 80MSP rather than 160 or whatever) but the clothes for Monkey Island (and a couple of the Fable ones which are from the game) are good. Worth spending less that a dash theme/Rock Band track on anyway...

    I hope more "game character outfits" do become available, but I agree that most of these (and definitely ALL accessories IMO) should be game unlockables.

    Halo T shirts et al are OK, but aside from a different logo they hardly look any different from the freebie ones! Likewise the Steampunk and Recessionista clothes basically look the same as any other range (hip hop/nerd) that has been released for free, and I can see MS stopping free releases in favour of paid for ones now. Which is a shame.

    I WOULD see more justification in paying for designer labels/recreations of real world brands rather than the shitty Simsy pseudo-Gap crap you can choose for free (didn't H&M do a deal with Maxis to release clothes in the Sims?).

    As for the installs, this is good news. Should shut up those whining "teh 4 DVD swapping for Rage; Blu Ray ftw" PS3 idiots.

  • mkreku #14 3 years ago

    The reason for the decrease in install size is because Microsoft has managed to remove the padding from the image files (the copy of the game being installed onto the hard drive). Padding is just empty blocks on the DVD, used to force the actual game code onto the outer edges of the DVD. This technique makes loading the game quicker since the read speed is faster on the outer edges of the DVD than it is on the inside. On a hard drive, padding has no use though.

  • Skooch #15 3 years ago

    @ Irien

    You have to go to Sys Settings and then Memory, select your profile and choose to move it to the internal memory from the HDD.

  • StooMonster #16 3 years ago

    EDID is useful, I mentioned its use in a post last week where Microsoft could use it to solve the problem of gamers running Xbox 360 on HDTV at SD resolutions.

    Digital Foundry is wishing for a bit much in EDID and native resolutions though, HDMI interfaces tend to only carry "official" HD resolutions and not native ones of panels (e.g. 1366x768). Although if a display supports native resolution over DVI then it should be an option in HDMI, but what tends to happen is that display can offer it's "preferred" input resolution (e.g. 720p) and the likes of the Xbox will choose that instead.

    Edit: must improve Monday morning spellings. :)
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/09 @ 12:15

  • Irien #17 3 years ago

    @ Skooch

    Thankyou very much :)

  • TOOTR #18 3 years ago

    Looking a bit dense here but I only just realised from reading this article and comments that the guide button navigation is so slow in NXE because of the accumulation of game installs, demos, videos etc

    Isn't there a disk defrag type option?

    Would clearing the xbox cache (which, I think, I used to do by holding down the A button when Oblivion was loading - or did that just work for Oblivion data?) help?

  • bioreit #19 3 years ago

    @ TOOTR

    Not sure if it's down to that - my Elite has about 40 gigs of used space (demos, videos, installs and saved games) and is pretty damn slow navigating the NXE. My old 20GB Premium has a gamertag and two sets of saved game files (The Outfit and Call of Juarez, like anyone cares) and is just as slow. The new-ish 60GB Pro is also pretty slow - not that I use it myself that much.

    Don't think it's down to local storage levels, but more down to NXE optimisation and data transfer over the Internet for all the ads and page content.

  • miiiguel #20 3 years ago

    "Would clearing the xbox cache (which, I think, I used to do by holding down the A button when Oblivion was loading - or did that just work for Oblivion data?) help? "

    You have a way to do disk maintnance which does clear the cache globaly by performing a shady button sequence, I suspect it does a disk defrag - though not sure. The downside to that is, that you need to reinstall all the patches for all the games, it's not much of a big deal though, as they are all pretty fast. It seems to improve NXE globaly, give it a try.

  • X #21 3 years ago

    Did I forget about this feature previously or did they introduce ejecting a disc by pressing X instead of A to play the game in the 'My XBox' section? Lazy shortcut :)

  • bobmar360 #22 3 years ago

    whens it available???

  • FiOth #23 3 years ago

    I think the most important thing we ought to notice with every update of the XBOX360 dashboard is how much the feature has evolved. I' ve never seen something like that before, meaning a system's base interface improving so much in such a small time frame.

    In case of this specific update, I really DON'T like the Avatar Marketplace thingie...they are going to rip the more naive users off while getting "a little something" out of the rest of us.

    Everything else if fine imo. I really don't care about the whole facebook thing so the specs offered at the moment cover all my bases.

  • Sonic_D #24 3 years ago

    I'm glad the speed is improved, becuz at present it is intolerable at times. Why they have not mentioned this in any of the hype for update is probably down to them not wanting to admit there is currently a problem with the speed of the guide.

  • Roamer #25 3 years ago

    Have they fixed the two biggest grumbles I have about Xbox Live though?

    1. If your console dies, and it will, your downloaded Arcade games cannot be played offline anymore
    2. It's easy enough to join Xbox Live by entering your credit card details through your Xbox, but when you want to quit or delete your details, you can't due to - get this - "security reasons". Makes no sense. So you have to make an arduous call to customer service.

    Fix these and I'll be satisfied.

  • Floppy #26 3 years ago

    I'm a little confused, but think I know where I stand. Will I be able to set my resolution to 1366x768 on my non-HDMI endowed 360? I use YPbPr Component out, and having it view natively pixel for pixel would be a proper bonus.

  • Demiath #27 3 years ago

    For us with 20GB Xbox hard drives, the game install optimization is without a doubt the single most significant and welcome feature in any dashboard update ever (with the obvious exception of the update which enabled hard drive installation in the first place, that is).

  • linksdad #28 3 years ago

    I've got an issue with my Jasper over HDMI on my technosonic 32" (Woolworths rebranded thompson) where the image is compressed horizontally in the center area of the screen and possibly stretched towards the sides. It is fine over component.

    Unfortunately MS have been particularly crap with this issue, failing to call me back on two seperate occasions, cutting me off twice when talking to their barely understandable call centre staff and ignoring my first email but saying 'thankyou for contacting xbox polease go to xbox.com" in response to my second email (that is what the email actualy said)

  • StooMonster #29 3 years ago

    link'sdad: sounds like your display thinks 16:9 signals are 4:3 and is applying some sort of "non-linear stretch" ('Smart stretch'). Can you change the aspect-ratio or is it fixed? Does it do it to all resolutions? (i.e. SD ones, 720p, 1080i, 1080p over HDMI).

  • StooMonster #30 3 years ago

    Floppy: EDID only applies to HDMI and DVI, and querying it for capabilities is smart thing to do; especially "best resolution", it should put an end to SD on HD displays (unless the user specifically sets it).

    Trouble with outputting 1366x768 over analogue is that almost every screen has different settings for timings, e.g. Front Porch; so to work with all 1366x768 analogue displays Microsoft Xbox 360 would need a few different output settings. This is why video processors from Lumagen, DVDO, Crystalio, etc. have several different 1366x768 output settings.

    If using a digital connection then the native timings will be in the EDID data if it supports native input, although one has to consider that its the HDMI Receiver chips are often the limitation to receiving native resolution over digital interfaces (i.e. most off-the-shelf chipsets only support the minimum HDMI specification required resolutions) and why it is missing from EDID data.
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/09 @ 15:46

  • interceptor #31 3 years ago

    @Roamer

    Perhaps I'm missing something, but sure if your console dies, you can't play ANY games on it til you get it fixed?

    When your console gets repaired, they transfer all your licenses over so you can play all your downloaded content on your new console if thats what you're complaining about...

  • Retroid #32 3 years ago

    I don't recall 200 points ever getting me an XBLA game, the cheapest price they've ever had has been 400. Indie / Community games, on the other hand.... ;)

    I'm hoping the 'rewards' offer similar stuff, as I don't think I'll ever buy anything for my avatar (but I won't discount it, as I went and bought an NXE Mass Effect theme because I love that game).

  • DarthCheesiest #33 3 years ago

    I think Feeding Frenzy and a couple of others were half price for a while.

    Edit: Possibly also Xbox1 Live Arcade Games.
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/09 @ 16:51

  • Retroid #34 3 years ago

    Oh, and as for the EDID thing, that could be useful for me as one of my 360s runs on a 22" 1680x1050 monitor (with black bars as it's a 16x10 display) through an HDMI > DVI-D cable, and the EDID of the monitor helpfully tells the 360 that it doesn't support 50hz signals, even though I've ran 50hz stuff through it previously.

    Hopefully this will allow me to try out 50hz modes again; useful for some of the stupidly-locked-to-50hz Xbox BC games.

  • Balor #35 3 years ago

    .MKV support is available on xbox 360 when using windows 7. If you have the RC1 you can use this here to get you started.
    Edited by 1 at 03/08/09 @ 16:40

  • LiamK #36 3 years ago

    @Roamer

    "Have they fixed the two biggest grumbles I have about Xbox Live though?

    1. If your console dies, and it will, your downloaded Arcade games cannot be played offline anymore"

    As Interceptor said, if you get your console repaired then they transfer over the licences so that you can play all your downloaded stuff offline. If you just go and buy a new one, you can still do it if you use the "Licence Transfer" option on Microsoft's web-pages. Granted, it's not advertised very well, but it's been there for at least a year.

    "2. It's easy enough to join Xbox Live by entering your credit card details through your Xbox, but when you want to quit or delete your details, you can't due to - get this - "security reasons". Makes no sense. So you have to make an arduous call to customer service. "

    While looking through the preview stuff, I believe I saw an option to "Delete Credit Card details". I'll check when I get home.

  • DrDamn #37 3 years ago

    Bit confused on the speed improvements. How big are they for the majority without Jasper chipsets and the option to install your GT to flash memory? The initial info indicates things have improved for all - but then it goes on to say installing your GT to the flash memory makes "navigation of the gamer profile on the dash much more rapid". So if there is a further notable performance with that - then that means it's still sluggish without?

  • DarthCheesiest #38 3 years ago

    That is interesting, I would like to be able to force my monitor to dispaly at 50hz, but the last one we had that could do that was 10 years old.

  • Dodgymat #39 3 years ago

    miiiguel "You have a way to do disk maintnance which does clear the cache globaly by performing a shady button sequence, I suspect it does a disk defrag - though not sure."

    There's no defrag, it just does what it says on the tin - empties the cache. Since this recent update the 'shady button sequence' has gone. Now replaced by the option to press Y on the drive, where you can then conveniently select 'Rename' , 'Format' or 'Clear System Cache'

    Saved 1.4G today by re-installing 4 games. Not desperate for space on my 120G, but it all helps. Installs took no more than 10 minutes either whereas before they easily took 15-20.

  • GreyBeard #40 3 years ago

    I'm sure I'll get rated-down to hell for this, but I think its a fair point:

    All the new installer seems to do is to just copy the actual data on the disk, not create a complete, uncompressed, whole-disk image. Isn't that what it should've done in the first place?

  • etyek #41 3 years ago

    I'm not keen on the idea of spending real money on virtual clothing, but I do wonder whether Microsoft could do a deal with various clothing companies whereby if you buy a real-life shirt, you get a code to download the virtual version of that same shirt? MS could even launch a "Clothing Marketplace" on the dashboard and let you order online and pay with Microsoft Points?

  • busboy33 #42 3 years ago

    New speed boost for the dash is aces, but the biggest feature me and my friends thank the Gods for is the auto re-connect for Parties.

    We assume it's a router issue, but depending on the specific make-up of a party some of the people will keep getting dropped out. Example: If a party is made up of A, B, C, D, and E, then everything works fine. If the party is A, B, C, D, and F, then B will drop every 15 minutes or so. Annoying.
    With the new update, the system automatically re-connects them . . . no more pausing the game and waiting for them to access the "join a party option". I wish they'd fix the drops completely, but it's a welcome work-around.

    re: the Avatar Marketplace
    As money-grubbing as it is, I've gotten something from the service (the Fable2 Guard jacket). It was "impulse buy" cheap, my girlfriend liked it, and I had some spare points that wern't useful otherwise. I'm happy with the purchase.
    Would I make a habit of it? Probably not. Do I wish they were free? yes, but then again I wish the games were free, so that's kind of a moot point.
    As people have said, there's plenty of free options out there if you don't want to pay for kit. And with games offering "free" swag (I want a Splosion Man flaming hat!!), then as far as I'm concerned its all good.

  • WinterSnowblind #43 3 years ago

    @Roamer
    For your second point, yes, they've added a method of disabling auto-matic renewl of Gold accounts, so it won't automatically charge your credit card once your subscription runs out. As far as I know, there's still no way to completely delete your credit details, but at least this makes it so you don't have to call customer support, if you want to cancel your subscription.

    http://ma jornelson.com/archive/2009/07/2...

  • LiamK #44 3 years ago

    I've just checked, and you CAN remove your credit card providing it's not currently associated to your subscription. Is that different from how it works at the moment, or is this a change?

    It's under My Xbox- Solutions-Accounts-Remove a credit card. Although it just tells you to go to xbox.com/accounts and select "Manage Payment Options". I guess it might involve buying a Xbox Live card or something in order to disassociate the card from your account. I can't test as I don't use a card. Sorry.

  • LiamK #45 3 years ago

    Oh, it also tells you what site to go to if you want to transfer your licences to different machines. Good Microsoft, for no longer hiding this quite important information.

  • Sunyavadin #46 3 years ago

    Blame PS3 users for proving people were willing to pay for it, and how much they were willing to pay.

  • EggyDeth #47 3 years ago

    Am I entirely alone in finding these avatars completely vile?

    They remind me of TV ads where companies patronize their customers by showing them in as cute little cartoons. The best one was British Gas, which had the voices of "real customers" spoken by little animated gas-flames with smiley faces - I guess the implication was that they could extinguish you at a moments notice if you tried to switch suppliers.

  • SaberEdge #48 3 years ago

    In my opinion the three best new features of the update are the speed increases, the smaller game installs, and the ability to rate content in the marketplace.

    All in all I am really impressed with this update. I don't know why some journalists are acting like it is disappointing that we aren't getting the Facebook, twitter and Last.fm features with this update. I was under the impression that we would see an update in the Fall with those features and I didn't even know that we would be getting an update before that, so to get this update so soon is awesome. Then, in a couple of months, it will be even better.

  • womble #49 3 years ago

    Thanks for all the work on these articles DF! Much appreciated! It's great to hear from people who appreciate the technical artistry and work that goes in to game development.

    Re the update, it's pretty light-on if you're not a Netflix subscriber. It feels like a stop-gap release, until we get the REAL update. (You know, the one with the all the stuff promised at E3...)

    Top of my list: speed and .mkv support.

    Divx/xvid support is old-hat now. We really need Microsoft (and Sony) to support .mkv with h.264 video and subtitles, natively.

    Regarding the paid avatars, they are a complete joke. They're a terrible punchline to the bigger joke/scam that is the MS Points system. Of course people are going to buy avatar crap with their left-over points, thanks entirely to Microsoft's policy of pricing products outside of the MS Points PURCHASE denominations of 500 and 1000MSP. What a rort!


  • spudsbuckley #50 3 years ago

    Fix the RRoD problem first, then add more bells and whistles.

  • Darren #51 3 years ago

    It's a bit daft that you can rate content that you've not tried... it'll leave it open to blatant abuse. It could easily be fixed by checking the content is in the user's download list... if it is then they can rate it, if it isn't it's greyed out. The Xbox 360 already does this anyway as anything you've downloaded is flagged as such and you're given a "Download Again?" option.

    As it is I see publishers such as EA and Namco getting low ratings for much of their content since their "unlockable" keys in particular are extremely unpopular from what I can gather.

  • Oceadge #52 3 years ago

    So, on Saturday I got an e-mail with the following:

    "Welcome to the Xbox LIVE Preview on Connect!
    Congratulations! You’ve been accepted to the 2009 Xbox LIVE Update Preview.
    Welcome, and we are glad that you are on board!

    When will you receive the update?
    We are working on the final touches for the update. You will receive a notification by email when the update is available."

    So, with a general release just one week away when do you think I'll be able to try it?!

  • CARL05 #53 3 years ago

    Weak update if you ask me,
    an eject button and a poorly executed rating system doesn't quite get me excited.
    I don't really see any difference in NXE speed tbh and the possibility of saving a few gigs isn't what the majority of people are asking for.

  • darkmorgado #54 3 years ago

    Next they just need to accept debit cards for XBL: Gold and points. Why do American sites always seem to assume that everyone in the world has a fecking credit card?

  • Harmonica #55 3 years ago

    ^ they do except debit cards. I've been using my Electron card with them since XBL launched.

    I think these updates are quite cool, even the horrendously expensive clothes. 68p is just beer money, so I could definitely see myself rocking out in a Lionhead t-shirt, or RARE, Codies, etc, whoever we get eventually. The monkey island clothes are awesome in a nerdy way but there's not much to be said for personalisation if everyone is wearing them!

    Although, some of these updates are comically belated. My HD-DVD drive is literally gathering dust, and finally the eject button on the HD-DVD remote ejects the HD-DVD drive. That would have been useful in 2006. How many times will I use the HD-DVD drive in the future? 5? 10? Until Blu-Ray becomes affordable? (a year then, tops)
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/09 @ 17:04

  • Harmonica #56 3 years ago

    Also, has anyone here heard *anything* about when the Sky player is arriving? The footie season is fast approaching, and it's about time I sort out what I'm doing with a Sky subscription and all that.

    Do they think people will just up and hold off on buying a satellite dish until they announce details of this? The majority of dish installations happen around sporting events like the start of the premiership.

  • womble #57 3 years ago

    1) It's winter in one half of the world, not summer. Just saying... (It's a big world, people.)

    2) I'm puzzled by the reports of increased speed and responsiveness in this build. I've looked for it, but have seen NO speed increases whatsoever, whether its in the dashboard or the guide. The guide in particular remains very slow indeed, almost frozen in some areas.

    3) I can confirm that .mkv support is definitely not there, as expected. This update even required me to download the Media pack again.

    This really is a very light update, relative to the amount of attention Microsoft have given it. I see no reason for these three tranches of public beta except for marketing purposes. I strongly suspect that the "public" aspect of the "testing" is mostly irrelevant, and that the whole thing is merely a way for journalists and fans to talk about the 360. (As we're doing now.)

    Oh, and I received no email notification from MS. Just a notice on my xbox that an update was available.

  • Darren #58 3 years ago

    @Harmonica - Blu-ray is already affordable. There are standalone players on sale for under £100 now (I bought an excellent Profile 2.0 Sony one for under £150 two months back) and a lot of online retailers are selling older discs for as little as £7.

  • Oceadge #59 3 years ago

    Okay, the update was available for me today when I logged on to Live on my 360. I set it to download the update and started to walk away thinking it would take a few minutes but I heard the startup sound - it had already downloaded and had reset the console before installing - it literally only took seconds to download (compare that to PS3 updates that can take anywhere up to 5 hours for me to download). The installation took about 3 minutes.

    So, out with my trusty stopwatch. I selected Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 as I started my stopwatch. 17 seconds for the new page/tabs to appear. While this is still too long in my opinion it is significantly quicker than before. That 17 seconds allowed for the download of all tabs (if that's the right word) including screenshots etc. Before it would take up to one minute for the first tab to open and the others would still be downloading which could take another full minute. 17 seconds is usable.

    I wonder if it will remain usable for me though. When the NXE first came out I never had to wait 2 minutes after selecting something - it was a few weeks before it got that bad.

  • Darren #60 3 years ago

    @Oceadge - I regularly have as long as one minute pauses while accessing the Marketplace for new content (oddly, it doesn't happen with my US and Japanese profiles) so any news that the new update reduces this issue is music to my ears.

    However, I can't help wondering if current NXE beta testers are connected to different servers than the rest of us hence the reason for the improved performance and come the 11th it'll be back to its usual sluggish self? Although not the same thing, I remember how quick my Xbox 360 was at accessing the Games Library for example when I got hold of the beta version early but then I was offline.

    Seems to me that all these pretty images that fill up the dashboard are the reason for NXE being so lethargic at times and its worst in the Marketplace when it has to download all the screenshots and images for each bit of content. I much preferred the pre-NXE Marketplace to be honest, it might have been a bit messy and plain (even ugly?) but at least it worked quickly. Well for me it did.

  • Oceadge #61 3 years ago

    I too do not have the same delays with my US profile. I guess we'll have to wait until next week to see if the speed increase I noticed is permanent. Fingers crossed.

  • Roamer #62 3 years ago

    @LiamK and Interceptor:

    Excellent! I wasn't aware of this. My arcade games didn't work after my first repair, which was 2 years ago, and haven't after any subsequent repairs (I'm on my fourth) but I'll try that licence transfer thing again, although I think I've done it before. My problem is that I got a different Xbox back from the store, rather than the one I handed in. It had HDMI though, so it was fine with me.
    Edited by 2 at 05/08/09 @ 15:24

  • LiamK #63 3 years ago

    You shouldn't need the serial number of the old console. I had to do it when I bought an Elite, and from what I remember it just shows all your downloads and what console they are currently assigned to, and you just then change them.

    "they do except debit cards. I've been using my Electron card with them since XBL launched."

    Is this the Visa Electron that is given to 16 year olds, or is it another one that's like a Visa Delta? They have always worked because (I suspect) they are processed like credit cards (specifically, Visa credit cards). Maetro cards are treated differently than Mastercard credit cards, which is why they won't work.

  • Harmonica #64 3 years ago

    Yeah, I think I got my Electron when I was 16, and I've stuck with it since I don't need a credit card. I don't really think it's MS's fault the way your Maestro behaves, they'd support it if they could.

    @ Darren: I know that there are some good Blu-Ray players out, but you see I have to factor in the cost of being an early HD-DVD adopter. I dumped what turned out to be a lot on that, so I am reticent to go splooging more on another player just yet. Especially given that it's Sony tech and I hate the way they behaved to get where there are now.

  • interceptor #65 3 years ago

    @Roamer

    If for any reason your licences don't get transferred automatically when you get a replacement console (or you just get a new console), you can do it yourself via Xbox.com

    URL is http://www.xbo x.com/en-GB/support/drm/
    Edited by 1 at 07/08/09 @ 12:50

  • TC57UK #66 3 years ago

    Dashboard looks smooth but £19:99 for 360 games on demand that u can get for £10. nice one Microsoft rip us off again.

  • mizcicz #67 3 years ago

    wheres the dog at the fable avatar marketplace huh????????????????

  • Stuart78 #68 3 years ago

    within 1 hour of updating i got dis-connected from live twice, also a friend in party got dis-connected once both at different time's. For some reason when i went to update my first attempt failed and left me signed out, i signed back in andwas asked agin to install update, this time it work but wonder if its in working order seeing the disconnect's?

    P.s disconnects has never happend before to us.