The Fall 2007 Xbox Update: What Do You Think of It?

[Jason Dunn]

This morning I fired up my Xbox and <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,12836">installed the new update</a>. I won't bother going over <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemupdates/default.htm">all the details of what was improved</a> (here's a <a href="http://lordspaceman.blogspot.com/2007/12/xbox-fall-2007-update.html">nitty-gritty list</a>), but a few things jumped out at me as being better. I like the new way that content downloads are organized - it's quick to go through them by pivoting left and right, then up and down to get the content you want. The addition of Xbox Originals is cool, and I can see the framework for the forthcoming drop of Xbox Live Marketplace videos for us Canucks...but I didn't see much else to get excited about. I don't have a lot of content in Divx, though I'm very pleased to see them add it.<br /><br />What I don't like is how they've left photo viewing in the same state: I have it pointed to my Windows Home Server, and when I select photos on the Xbox dashboard, I'm taken to a screen with a single folder called Photos. That's just silly: there should be some intelligence built into the system so that if there's only one folder in the root, it would display the contents of that folder. After going into Photos, I'm shown the three by three grid of folders. The problem is that only 14 characters are shown before it cuts off, so many of my top-level photo folders (organized by category) are truncated. The font is also too small for me to easily see from across the room. I'd much rather see a list view; more folders would fit on the screen at once, and if they used the same-sized font as "Play Slideshow" it would be easier to read. What would be great is if a random photo from the selected folder would appear over to the right of the list view - that would make it much more dynamic and interesting to use, and less like a DOS list.<br /><br />Drilling down into a category folder, it gets a bit worse: I name my folders in a fairly descriptive fashion, so inside the "Christmas" folder I'll have a sub-folder called "Dunn Christmas 2004". Because the view is still the 3x3 grid, all I see is eight identical folders named "Dunn Christm...". How is that useful to anyone? I'm not about to change the way I name my folders just to suit the Xbox - I need the descriptive folders for Picasa and many other programs.<br /><!><br />Here's something bizarre though: when I click into Videos on the Xbox dashboard, I get a list view with Photos and Videos in it (this is again off my Windows Home Server). I'm not sure why this is, but if I go into Photos from here, I get the list view that I wanted, no grid. It doesn't show me any photos though: only folders with videos. I tried playing an AVI file that showed up there, but the Xbox coughed up a "Status Code 80-C00DF242" error and wouldn't play the file. What's bizarre is that I can't find a single Google hit for that error code, nor any mention of it over at the Xbox support site - so I have no idea what it means. It sucks being the first guy to write about a certain problem online - no one has done the legwork for you. ;-)<br /><br />I suspect the problem is that the Xbox can't play back MJPEG-based AVI files, which is what Canon SD series cameras, and indeed most cameras, record in. I think this is a significant failing of the Xbox, because I'm the same as most consumers in that I don't usually take my camera clips and edit them into a "movie" and output it to WMV format - I just leave the file in the folder in it's native format. The Xbox 360 should support MJPEG AVI video files, because that's what most digital still cameras record in. <br /><br />Personally I think Canon has let video recording on their cameras languish and they should have moved away from MJPEG to Divx like Casio has, but until they do, consumers don't have any choice in terms of format - and the Xbox 360 needs to acknowledge that and support it.<br /><br />So what are your thoughts on the new Xbox update?<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. His Xbox 360 rocks.</i>

[Macguy59]

I suppose one could point out that labeling a subfolder "Christmas" is redundant when the parent folder has the same descriptor. I do agree that the character limitation needs to be expanded.

[Tim Williamson]

Maybe it's just my imagination, but the interface seems a little snappier when moving forward and back through folders.

So far my DivX content doesn't play, but I'm thinking my TVersity server might be interfering. I'll have to try disabling TVersity and firing up WMP sharing or Media Connect or whatever it's called. :)

[Jason Dunn]

I suppose one could point out that labeling a subfolder "Christmas" is redundant when the parent folder has the same descriptor.

Ah, but try that naming scheme in Picasa, or any program that gives you a flattened, date-based view of your folders, and you'll see that it falls down - you'd end up with folders called "2005" instead of "Christmas 2005". It just doesn't work. ;-)

The solution here isn't to force customers to change the way they name their folders, the solution is to create a user interface that's flexible enough to work with any number of customer scenarios.

[Tim Williamson]

One minor, but nice change is when I start a large DivX movie, it used to just display a blank screen for 30 seconds, now it actually gives me a "buffering" status bar so I can see that it's actually doing something.

[Jason Dunn]

...now it actually gives me a "buffering" status bar so I can see that it's actually doing something.

Cool! I'm a bit less impressed when playing back a large WMV file: fast-forwarding then stopping results in about 4-5 seconds of black screen, then it finally comes back. I'd rather see "buffering" in the screen for a few seconds rather than nothing. I also saw some glitches with the controls: if you fast forward using the Xbox controller, then press "A" twice to resume playback, you can't fast forward or rewind with the triggers until you press "B" to take the controls off the screen.

[Jeremy Charette]

Things I like:

- Divx playback works. Hallelujah. I can finally watch all 10 seasons of Top Gear on my HDTV.
- The marketplace blade is significantly cleaner and easier to navigate.
- It's much easier to sort &amp; manage my content on the Xbox itself, as well as downloads.

Things I hate:

- They broke HD DVD playback. Transformers locks up my console now.
- Divx and xVid CANNOT be played back in Media Center Extender. How assinine is this? That means I STILL can't playback my Divx rips of my DVDs in the My Movies add-in.
- DVD and HD DVD playback still sucks. ExtremeTech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2228134,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532)tested the 360's HQV Benchmark performance, and it scored a 40 out of 130 on DVD playback, and 0 out of 100 in HD DVD playback. I think I'm going to buy an OPPO upconverting DVD player instead.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/02/360dvd1.jpg

[Jason Dunn]

- They broke HD DVD playback. Transformers locks up my console now.

Oh my. I haven't tried HD-DVD playback since installing the update. I sure hope it hasn't screwed up playback of any of my discs!

Divx and xVid CANNOT be played back in Media Center Extender. How assinine is this? That means I STILL can't playback my Divx rips of my DVDs in the My Movies add-in.

Yeah, that fully sucks. It seems like the they're really not putting much effort into the Media Center extender experience. I'm not sure if it's a technical limitation - it's really just a form of remote desktop, so I think that has an impact on codec support. Though if the Media Center PC has the codecs to decode the video, and it's just streaming it to the Xbox, shouldn't it work?

DVD and HD DVD playback still sucks.

Wow - those screen shots are *shocking*. I've only ever seen HD DVD played back on my TV via the Xbox 360...is that really the difference I'm missing? 8O

[mordin]

I wish they would have made accessing media on a network connected PC easier. Why should I have to leave software running in the back ground on my PC to access media. I have to 'add' the media in MP11 and remember to update it when locations or media changes. I think they should have used an explorer type system where any networked PC (with file sharing turned on) would show up as a type of external HD.

Also is it true that any external USB drive plugged into the Xbox360 needs to be in fat32 format and the 360 doesn't recognize the NTFS format?

[Infektad]

I liked the 360 and always defended it against the Playstation. Even when the PS's games seemed more original. I always said that it was great because it was like a giant media player, which in many respects it still is, but now even more money hungry than before.

With the new update one of the reasons it lacks what it used to, is due to the fact you don't have access to new demos as soon as their released. Well, unless you have a gold membership. So now there's a wait?! Does Microsoft think that every time someone downloads a demo it's taking it out of stock so others can't use it? Perhaps it runs low on quantities occasionally? It just seems like a load of BS to me.

The music videos are no longer free, except for the ones it let you have before the update. Big whoop. You can find music videos on the net on various sites for free, so why not download them, then play them back on the counsels video section. Oh, that's right. If you don't own Windows Media Center, then you can no longer do that with the new update. At least I haven't found a way yet. Sure it connects to my PC, but now it won't run anything. Hell, I can't even get my MP3 player to work on it anymore.

And to make matters worse, when they said those lame ass xbox arcade games have gone down in price, that was another lie. Look at how much they used to be, in comparison to what they want to charge for the ones they've just added. Dig Dug alone already costs too much.

Alas, there is two good things. They finally removed their heads from their butts and realized the potential they had and made it possible to download full versions of their older games. That I'll eventually take advantage of. Also, you gotta admit, as ****ty as the new update is... it's pretty damn stylish and beautifully laid out. So if pictures are the only thing your mad about, relax, the people stuck watching your vacation slide shows are probably a little happier now. I know. My victims were.

[Tim Williamson]

Check out TVersity, it lets you stream pretty much anything to the 360, and make sure to install the recommended open source codecs.