XBox Dashboard Update 11/01/10 (Formerly: Xbox Live Preview Program)

I throw my hat in with the crowd who thinks this new dashboard looks terrible. The whole experience feels like a poor imitation of what I was used to. Perhaps my comfort with the older dashboard appearance has tailored this one but that's how it is. I'll get used to it, it's not like I have a choice, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
 
[quote name='reddjoey']You guys who have been on 360 for a while now should know that things are always screwy on:
1) Launch day of any AAA/Huge title
2) Big Events (Dashboard update)[/QUOTE]You forgot one:

3) Week after Christmas.
 
The first thing I noticed was it doesn't take 30 seconds to load my game library any more. And therefore I approve.
 
I don't like the look but no other issues otherwise. I was originally kicked off Live when I went into avatar marketplace but signed back in with no problems and got my clothes back. I'm pretty excited for the potential of the EPSN 3 channel!
 
[quote name='poopants']to me it seems like the dashboard took a giant step back, It went from having this cool modern look to something that looks like its from the late 90's. Like taking Windows 7 and reverting it back to windows 3.1 (i think I'm showing my age on this one)[/QUOTE]

That's exactly how I feel. I don't know who came up with this design or who they tested it on that approved of it, but it's awful and feels dated.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']You forgot one:

3) Week after Christmas.[/QUOTE]

Yep. Tons of new users, extra users with downtime to play and only a few people (or ones sober enough) manning the helm at Redmond. The "Perfect Storm", except it's every year.

On a side I forgot one thing I hate about LIVE being messed up. I was playing FO:NV and made about 10-15 mins of progress w/o saving and was dumped from LIVE. With LIVE being down when I tried to reconnect to LIVE, I couldn't and thus booted back to the Main Menu. I HAAATTTTEEE that!!
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']That's exactly how I feel. I don't know who came up with this design or who they tested it on that approved of it, but it's awful and feels dated.[/QUOTE]Just because you run focus groups on something and those focus groups tell you that it's crap, it takes just one person in a decision making capacity to screw up that decision making process.
 
[quote name='keithp']I don't mind the look of the update, but I'm disappointed with the ESPN3 channel. For something promising over 3,500 events I'm only seeing 4 or 5. And that includes a story on Randy Moss, which I don't consider an "event".[/QUOTE]

Did you even bother looking further than the main espn menu? There were dozens of on demand NCAA games from this past weekend alone...
 
It might grow on me, the dashboard does seem slightly faster (something which should be a priority, especially when opening my list of arcade games), but I don't like the "swoosh" sounds and the look is just kinda boring. More importantly, for some reason i get a slight headache navigating left and right, especially over the overly white portions.
 
Love the dashboard and love ESPN. This will be awesome for college football and british "football" on Saturday and Sunday. This alone is worth the $60 cost of Live.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Did you even bother looking further than the main espn menu? There were dozens of on demand NCAA games from this past weekend alone...[/QUOTE]

The problem is that most people like me could care less about NCAA "sports" and just want the real ones. And this is where ESPN3 falls flat on it's face. Next to nothing for NFL or MLB stuff. Loads of amateur college crap and soccer.........YAWN!
 
[quote name='dchrisd']It might grow on me, the dashboard does seem slightly faster (something which should be a priority, especially when opening my list of arcade games), but I don't like the "swoosh" sounds and the look is just kinda boring. More importantly, for some reason i get a slight headache navigating left and right, especially over the overly white portions.[/QUOTE]

You can turn off dashboard sound effects in the settings.
 
Dash update looks fine to me. I don't do much more than launch disc games (only 20GB HDD so I don't install) and use Netflix.

I'd love to use the ESPN as I'm a huge college football and basketball guy, but my ISP doesn't support ESPN 3 currently. :( I watched it a ton on my computer when I had Comcast, but I moved over the summer and the internet in my new place is provided through the Condo fees by Direcpath and is great other than not having 360.
 
[quote name='Nogib']The problem is that most people like me could care less about NCAA "sports" and just want the real ones. And this is where ESPN3 falls flat on it's face. Next to nothing for NFL or MLB stuff. Loads of amateur college crap and soccer.........YAWN![/QUOTE]

Yes, since no professional football players come from the NCAA. :roll: Do you even understand what ESPN 3 is supposed to cover?

Not everyone gives a shit about pro sports and for those that do they can watch it on ESPN 1 or 2 through other means.

I can't believe people are going to complain about what is offered here when one day ago the option wasn't even available, let alone for no additional cost!
 
[quote name='Nogib']The problem is that most people like me could care less about NCAA "sports" and just want the real ones. And this is where ESPN3 falls flat on it's face. Next to nothing for NFL or MLB stuff. Loads of amateur college crap and soccer.........YAWN![/QUOTE]

You know that the NFL, MLB, and NHL all have crazy exclusive deals, so that argument if garbage.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Did you even bother looking further than the main espn menu? There were dozens of on demand NCAA games from this past weekend alone...[/QUOTE]

I guess not then, at least it didn't seem like there was any more to it than what I saw. They should have better headers than what it seemed like if that's the case.
 
The ESPN3 thing is pretty cool in some ways, and mind numbingly horrible in others. 450 or some such number on-demand events... which you have to scroll through horizontally, in the form of large pictures. Who designed this? Yes, I see that you can select your favorite sports in another section, so that will help, but still. Why even have the main on-demand listing if it's going to be so bizarrely unusable? As far as content, yeah, I want NFL and don't care one iota about college sports. However, I like that it has cricket. I don't understand cricket, but I might watch a game or two and see if can figure it out. I'm a little worried, though, that it will just be the show untouched, which means that they'll be presuming I understand the game already. Maybe I'll learn from osmosis. Oh, and I'd like racing, but the only racing on there now is drag racing. I suppose it isn't racing season? I don't really know, but surely there's some racing going on somewhere in the world?

Of the update in general, it seems amazingly dog slow. I had to download ESPN3 and it sat there for probably a minute thinking about it before finally starting the download. Then I had to install an update to it? Another minute of just sitting there and then finally it downloaded. Other things seem fast. I presume it's just growing pains.

The look is minimalist, but I'm not sure if I like it. Minimalist can work, but I'm not yet convinced that *this* minimalism works. I'll give it more time, though.

EDIT: FYI, I don't have cable, so don't get ESPN1 nor ESPN2. I'd rather they had brought us those, I suppose, but really I'd want all 3.
 
Uh, is no one else completely locked out of Xbox Live? For me, the update always goes 80% if the way and then quits and tells me I have a connection problem (when I clearly don't). I was kind of hoping to come on here and see people saying it wasn't working. I'd love to have the new dashboard no matter what it looks like since that means fucking Xbox Live that I'm expected to fucking pay for works. Maybe I'll just have to play the PS3. I really really hate crap like this. Then my son went to play Halo 2 (since he's on a Halo kick and wants to do the campaign on Halo 2) and it just loads to a dark screen and stays there. Nice.
 
[quote name='io']Uh, is no one else completely locked out of Xbox Live? For me, the update always goes 80% if the way and then quits and tells me I have a connection problem (when I clearly don't). I was kind of hoping to come on here and see people saying it wasn't working. I'd love to have the new dashboard no matter what it looks like since that means fucking Xbox Live that I'm expected to fucking pay for works. Maybe I'll just have to play the PS3. I really really hate crap like this. Then my son went to play Halo 2 (since he's on a Halo kick and wants to do the campaign on Halo 2) and it just loads to a dark screen and stays there. Nice.[/QUOTE]

This has been reported before in the thread. It happened to me for 3 hours, then I was finally able to update it. Try later.
 
Trying to download anything is really slow, so I think they are just swamped with all the updating and such, and thus the problems. It's a shame that it can lock you out, though. That certainly sucks. We had no problems updating, but that was around 7 AM this morning (eastern).
 
[quote name='reddjoey']Yep. Tons of new users, extra users with downtime to play and only a few people (or ones sober enough) manning the helm at Redmond. The "Perfect Storm", except it's every year.[/QUOTE]
How did you guys make your avatars pose like that?

ETA: Figured out that it's dependent on when you hit the Save button in the online editor.
 
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Haven't seen the new update yet, but for people complaining it's too bright, does that mean that themes don't work anymore? I probably just have to see it to understand.

Oh and ESPN3? What does that have to do with anything? Couldn't care less about it. Yet they do away with 1vs100, sigh...
 
[quote name='Viva Las Vegas']My isp isn't ESPN approved. Does anyone know in general how fast ESPN3 is getting picked up by isp's?[/QUOTE]

Most big ones have it, but not all. A lot of small ones may never get it.

The issue is ESPN charges them to provide the service, so it's a matter of whether ISPs want to eat that cost or are willing to raise fees a tad to cover it (I don't know what the charge is per subscriber).


Also, I didn't notice any dashboard slowness--or live issues when playing Reach--tonight. Everything seemed as quick as usual to me.
 
Downloaded and installed in about 5 minutes for me. I was wondering for those having issues, do you have the older 360's? I have the slim and it was lightning quick. Updated Netflix and ESPN without a problem. The ESPN quality was jaw dropping. HD with no hiccups. Awesomeness.

The overall quickness of the dashboard seems normal to me. I don't notice any degradation in quality. The overall look will grow on me. It seems like they took a step backwards, but whatever.

The audio quality has drastically improved. That's the best feature for me personally. Talking with friends was a pain because there was always an echo on everyone's end. The delay was atrocious as well. After speaking with my buddy online for just a few minutes, it was way better and easier to hear him.
 
[quote name='porieux']Haven't seen the new update yet, but for people complaining it's too bright, does that mean that themes don't work anymore? I probably just have to see it to understand.[/QUOTE]

Themes still work but they really don't change anything other than the background. I actually reverted mine back to the "day" theme because it looked like crap on the one I previously had and I'd rather it all match. In that respect, it looks nice, but I'm not crazy about it. I get it being too bright for some people.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']live is definitely having issues. It's funny that some people interpret it as the dashboard itself being slow.[/QUOTE]
Well, when you exit menus to the main blade and it freezes for a few moments, anyone could interpret that as slowness.
 
I was also coming in here to complain about the damn white (BRIGHT!) boxes. Ugh, how stupid.

Otherwise, it did seem to speed up the dash a bit, which I'm all for. I'll just have to start putting on my sunglasses to navigate the menus.
 
[quote name='Pck21']Downloaded and installed in about 5 minutes for me. I was wondering for those having issues, do you have the older 360's? I have the slim and it was lightning quick. Updated Netflix and ESPN without a problem. The ESPN quality was jaw dropping. HD with no hiccups. Awesomeness.
[/QUOTE]

I have a relatively old model. Pre-falcon (extra heat sink, but not falcon or later chip) bought in Oct 2007.

Was very quick download (5 minutes or so) and no slowdown issues after installing.
 
[quote name='reddjoey']I know the white is really bright, but have any of you considered adjusting the brightness on your TV?[/QUOTE]

I've got a plasma TV that is calibrated (service menu level and all that jazz). So, definitely not an option for me.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']The ESPN3 thing is pretty cool in some ways, and mind numbingly horrible in others. 450 or some such number on-demand events... which you have to scroll through horizontally, in the form of large pictures. Who designed this? Yes, I see that you can select your favorite sports in another section, so that will help, but still. Why even have the main on-demand listing if it's going to be so bizarrely unusable? As far as content, yeah, I want NFL and don't care one iota about college sports. However, I like that it has cricket. I don't understand cricket, but I might watch a game or two and see if can figure it out. I'm a little worried, though, that it will just be the show untouched, which means that they'll be presuming I understand the game already. Maybe I'll learn from osmosis. Oh, and I'd like racing, but the only racing on there now is drag racing. I suppose it isn't racing season? I don't really know, but surely there's some racing going on somewhere in the world?[/QUOTE]
They did the same thing to the video library to make it even worse to navigate, which amazes me that it keeps getting worse with each new update. It went from a simple, clunky text list to a simple, clunky text list that was poorly organized and slow to load to an NXE-style horizontal list with pictures that is slow to load and poorly organized. Does the deletion trick still work to turn it back into the old style? Now that the 4th season of The Guild is over, I have no reason to keep the Zune Marketplace until they do a 5th season.
 
I hope they fix this but after the update my avatar awards are still there but not usable. The icon shakes and I get a sound effect telling me sorry no way that's happening. Oddly enough though my Fable III avatar awards are usable and I just bought an avatar hat which also works.
 
I have to agree that it is really bright. I got used to the last big update from the blades but don't know about this one. It seems the same just really bright however it makes me want the old blads back and I didn't really like them all that much. I have noticed that it locks up or slows down some when I bring the blades up with the guide button. It is only 1 or 2 seconds and not much of an issue. The 2 issues I did see after installing it other than it just being so damn bright is that it said I was logged into live when I was not. I spent 5 minutes or so looking for friends, messages, current downloads and all that till I clicked on the box for my avatar and saw the connect to xbox live. After that when it was connecting it showed I had 3 messages yet once all the boxes were gone that came up when I was trying to log in it showed 0.
 
[quote name='kylerg']Since when do I get to see Title Updates on the HDD for apps? Is it just for apps?[/QUOTE]

All the apps got updated along with the dashboard.
 
Voice through speakers is affecting in game sound as well.......thought I was losing it until I pieced that one together.
 
[quote name='Viva Las Vegas']My isp isn't ESPN approved. Does anyone know in general how fast ESPN3 is getting picked up by isp's?[/QUOTE]
IF your ISP is also a cable TV provider watch out if you have to basic cable as well like fucking Time Warner. I would switch but no one else is in my area. No ESPN3 for me.
 
I have a cousin that works for the IT Department at TWC. I don't know if he knows what he's talking about but he said when it came time for them to renew their contract with Disney (ESPN), they basically upped the cost something like 30 million for ESPN3 and other stuff and told them they had to pay it if they want ESPN at all.

Take it with a grain of salt, I can't prove any of that - but if it's true then it's possible smaller cable company's are either being cut different deals or will not be able to afford it.
 
I'm glad to see people bitching about the color scheme...when I first got the beta it was the thing I immediately sent feedback on. It's awful. Definitely harder to read if your eyes aren't that great.

Haven't had any speed issues really. Netflix took longer than usual to load last night one time, after that it was normal.

My main gripe now is that some avatar stuff still doesn't work. What the fuck?? How could they not have this fixed by now?!
 
I'm hoping it's just that the servers are a little slammed right now, but I still haven't been able to load any of my avatar awards on the 360 itself. Everything is working on the online avatar editor though!
 
Update installed fine on my main Xbox yesterday morning via downloading it directly to the system. Last night I attempted to download the update directly on my second console and the download bar never moved so I canceled the update and download it from the web to a usb drive.

When I stuck the usb drive in my second 360 it recognized the update and asked me to install it. It took maybe 1-2 minutes to install the update and when my console power cycled it got an E71 error. I turned it off and on about 3 times and it still had an E71 error. I unplugged all the cables, replugged them back in and removed the usb drive and it booted to the new dashboard finally.

Anyone have any experience with the E71 error? Hopefully it won't come back.
 
WTF you can't change your themes. It says go to profile to change it but all it lets you do is change gamer pic. Anyone figure out how to change the theme?
 
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