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

[quote name='Ryuukishi']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![/QUOTE]

I hope so too! :cry: I've had the new dashboard since the beta and was surprised that not all of my avatar stuff is still not working..
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']All the apps got updated along with the dashboard.[/QUOTE]

I know that. But if you look in the HDD:

Netflix XXmb
Title Update XXmb

Don't remember *that*
 
[quote name='kylerg']I know that. But if you look in the HDD:

Netflix XXmb
Title Update XXmb

Don't remember *that*[/QUOTE]
It's been there since at least last year's update, as I know you could delete the Zune Marketplace from the HDD and get back the old style of video library.
 
[quote name='panasonic']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?[/QUOTE]

You don't change it under your profile, what you want to do is go to the My Xbox tab and just click on your gamertag/avatar.

Look through the options and it will have things like "manage account" and "change theme".
 
@Strell

So I talked to my "source". I am unable to verify if there is new non-backwards compatible code in the new update, but he did say that the entire Dashboard uses LUA now.

He did verify that MS would not allow you to keep the 'old dashboard' at the very least, for support reasons. They don't want to support two dashboards.
 
I installed the update on my 360 Elite last night and had no problems. It downloaded and installed in very little time (using hardwired Ethernet) and didn't get any errors. Brightness notwithstanding, I actually prefer the clean look of the new menus, and it doesn't bork my deluxe themes, so I'm happy. If anything, it seems to be snappier, with menus loading much faster.

I'm on Comcast, so I am able to partake of the ESPN 3 offerings. I like the implementation, but will concede that it's a bit of a pain to browse. I'm not a big soccer fan, but I imagine this is quite a boon for those folks. Nice to be able to access so much ESPN news content on demand. I'll check this weekend and see how much live college ball is on there.
 
Wow I can't believe how awful the UI skin and new left-right scrolling animations are.
The scrolling left to right is literally nauseating on a 58" screen due to the hamfisted animations.
The UI skin is flat and crude, and just outright ugly.
And they did nothing to improve the crappy messaging system which has had the same problems since launch..
The underpinnings seem faster, at least.

Too bad you know they won't fix it for at least another year, if ever :(

This clusterfuk screams 'design by committee' ....well i guess you can say it's more MICROSOFTy now....sigh.
 
I've always felt the ZUNE Pass is better than what anything Apple has ever offered.
Now we get it with 360 and soon with the Windows phone 7.

I'm liking this update. Faster menus. Search in Netflix. College football games. Nice.
 
Went to customize my avatar again and after again updating my stuff my avatar awards are working now. Pinball FX 2 shirt still does not though but at least all my other hard work isn't gone lol.
 
I miss the speed at which I could browse the menus when hitting the RB/LB. In ye olde Dashboard, it was slick and fast. Here, it's still quick, but it just feels like it CRAWLS in comparison.

And I despite the cutesy Wii music. And the Welcome tutorials? It just feels like their going down the list of Wii functions and checking them off one by one. And I know some folks will say that copying is not a bad thing as it's done all the time in the video game industry, but it doesn't fit in with the 360. It just doesn't feel/look right.
 
[quote name='Tybee'] I'll check this weekend and see how much live college ball is on there.[/QUOTE]

It's usually all the games on their channels, as well as all the regional games that you'd get on their Gameplay PPV package. Anything on a local channel in your area will get blacked out (i.e. if it's on your local fox sports or other regional sports network etc.
 
[quote name='xtreme_Zr2']Not a huge fan..but approve regardless due to the ESPN3. Every LAKERS game FTW and no more hooking up the computer to the TV.[/QUOTE]

I thought the ESPN3 looked pretty cool, but with the Lakers games, my son is gonna love it. Ever since we switched to ATT Uverse we lost a bunch of the local Lakers games.
 
[quote name='Techsticles']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.[/QUOTE]

Hopefully it doesn't come back but if it does and you're not under warranty might I suggest this site:http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Xbox_360
 
[quote name='seen']Anyway to change the blistering white background that comes up when you press the guide button in game?[/QUOTE]

None that I can find. I hate what they've done to the place...it's flat, ugly, wayyyyy too bright and as someone else mentioned the scrolling is puke-generating. Why did they change it from the perspective view? Gah!
 
I also have to add the guide menu feels laggy when it comes up (the old dash felt faster).

The ESPN3 is such a ploy; if you can get it on your xbox, you've been able to get it for a while on your computer. Most people who are into watching ESPN type programming usually have cable. Can someone please remind me why they make you have a gold account to use Netflix, every other way to view Netflix streaming is free except on the xbox.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']It's been there since at least last year's update, as I know you could delete the Zune Marketplace from the HDD and get back the old style of video library.[/QUOTE]

He's referring to when those apps update, the new UI tells you how large the update you are downloading is.
 
I do enjoy ESPN 3 - I'm well aware that I can watch it on my PC, but you can't do voice chat or group chats while watching.. well, you can, but this is easier. I don't like how it's so behind, though. Sports are crucial to watch live without a delay.. ESPN3 on XBox has about a 90 second delay from what's on TV.
 
Still can't get ESPN3 to work on my 360. Time Warner added it recently and I can view it online, but not through the Xbox.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']@Strell

So I talked to my "source". I am unable to verify if there is new non-backwards compatible code in the new update, but he did say that the entire Dashboard uses LUA now.[/quote]

Ok.

He did verify that MS would not allow you to keep the 'old dashboard' at the very least, for support reasons. They don't want to support two dashboards.
Click to expand...

Fully understandable, because that's a bitch of a thing to deal with, and I imagine their tech support desk - like all tech support desks - is overrun with total dumbasses calling in relentlessly with stupid questions. Simplifying the process is legit for this reason (and is one amongst many that I'm not even going into).

Still don't like it due to the blinding white and jarring animations. It's too clean in a way that looks too artificial. I'm aware that might sound strange, but there's no softness to the entire presentation, and this appears to be a shared opinion. Which is to say, I don't not appreciate behind the scenes stuff if the code is more stable and runs better - I just want the front end to be less...whatever it is right now.
 
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[quote name='seen']
The ESPN3 is such a ploy; if you can get it on your xbox, you've been able to get it for a while on your computer. Most people who are into watching ESPN type programming usually have cable. [/QUOTE]

1. Not all of us can easily hook up a computer to our TVs and thus it's an easy way to get it on the TV--just like Netflix was when they added that.

2. They show a lot more games on ESPN3 than what are on their cable channels (ESPN 1, 2 ESPNU etc.).
 
I watched a video of the dashboard update and it looks pretty ugly. I assume they changed the dashboard to make it more useful with Kinect, but the colors seem kinda weird (really bright!) right now.
 
[quote name='reddjoey']He's referring to when those apps update, the new UI tells you how large the update you are downloading is.[/QUOTE]
In the actual update screen or in memory? Either way, it's been there for a while. I deleted the Twitter and Facebook apps once I saw how pointless they were and they were only 6-7 MB each.
 
Add me to the list of "this looks disgusting".

I do appreciate a few little changes, such as the Xbox Live Subscription/Microsoft Points info when you click your gamertag, the search in Netflix, and the few changes they made to the Guide button menu (I would always scroll down to Active Downloads, the menu would lag, and it would end up selecting Avatar Marketplace instead. So frustrating, glad they moved it to the top).

But still, the white is just too bright, transitions are bad, and the menus/tabs seem more crowded when the next boxes are all the same size as opposed to fading into the background and shrinking.
 
Well I like the new dashboard so far. I am one of those unlucky people who get their internet through Time Warner but my cable through DirectTV so I don't get any of the ESPN3 stuff. For those not aware only Time Warner requires you to get internet and cable with ESPN in order to get ESPN3. Its a joke if you ask me. Anyway I WAS happy to see I can still get highlights and interviews for ESPN through the Xbox now. I could get them on my computer but its much nicer to watch on the big tv and the interface is user friendly.
 
Yeah...I'm another that really thinks the too bright white and new panel sliding/popping out is Fugly. Also have no use for espn. I don't watch sports, I've got all the sports channels removed from my tv's memory, and now it's glaring at me ahead of my netflix panel. Not a happy xboxer.
 
It's actually starting to grow on me. After the initial day of sluggishness, it now seems faster then the previous version. The white panels don't seem to be too glaringly bright on my TV. Maybe you folks just need to turn the brightness down. ;) :) There's some bad design in some places, but for the most part I think they improved the layout. I doubt I'll ever really use ESPN3 that much, but I might pop in to check out the weird sports on occasion.
 
All of the complaints of "TEH BRYTNESS OMGZZZ MAH EYESSSSS!!!!" really make me wonder how many people have their TV's picture setting set to Vivid/Dynamic or just haven't done proper calibration.
 
I like the new update, the navigation is way faster which is good only thing that bugs me is that the text doesn't look as sharp as before, it looks a tad pixelated.
 
I'm not real big on the look but IF it makes things run smoothly then ok... Thing is for me - when I leave a game/netflix/espn it takes about 5+ seconds longer to bring up the dash now - just goes to this black screen for 5+ seconds...

Love espn on there though - very nice.
 
[quote name='Tybee']All of the complaints of "TEH BRYTNESS OMGZZZ MAH EYESSSSS!!!!" really make me wonder how many people have their TV's picture setting set to Vivid/Dynamic or just haven't done proper calibration.[/QUOTE]

It's definitely harder to read if your eyes aren't so good. It's fucking lighter grey text on a white background, it shouldn't take a genius to understand this. This isn't just bitching for the sake of bitching.
 
[quote name='Tybee']All of the complaints of "TEH BRYTNESS OMGZZZ MAH EYESSSSS!!!!" really make me wonder how many people have their TV's picture setting set to Vivid/Dynamic or just haven't done proper calibration.[/QUOTE]

As I mentioned to someone earlier, even someone with a properly calibrated TV can still complain about the brightness.

I had my TV professionally calibrated, and I still think the white is just too damn bright.

Now, I also agree that there might be many/plenty of people out there that don't have good calibration on their sets...but some of us that are complaining do. ;)
 
Turning down your TV brightness is not a solution, that means everything else will be too dark. /logic

Good UI and information design is not simply a matter of preferences. This update is doing some things wrong, whether someone says they 'like' it or not doesn't change that fact, unfortunately. You would think a company with the resources of MS would have pros who know this subject inside and out, and perhaps they do, but this type of failure is all too common for various reasons (many times due to bureaucratic meddling/politics). It's a shame.
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']I like the new update, the navigation is way faster which is good only thing that bugs me is that the text doesn't look as sharp as before, it looks a tad pixelated.[/QUOTE]

I actually liked the update from the beginning of the preview, on my 360 hooked up to the HDTV. With the update happening to my other two 360's, text on the one hooked up to the non-HD TV is really hard to read, especially in the Netflix movie descriptions.
 
[quote name='DukeEdwardI']I miss the speed at which I could browse the menus when hitting the RB/LB. In ye olde Dashboard, it was slick and fast. Here, it's still quick, but it just feels like it CRAWLS in comparison.

And I despite the cutesy Wii music. And the Welcome tutorials? It just feels like their going down the list of Wii functions and checking them off one by one. And I know some folks will say that copying is not a bad thing as it's done all the time in the video game industry, but it doesn't fit in with the 360. It just doesn't feel/look right.[/QUOTE]I think they've realized that pandering to the Wii type crowd is where the money is.
 
[quote name='porieux']Turning down your TV brightness is not a solution, that means everything else will be too dark. /logic[/quote]

I wasn't referring to the brightness setting specifically. I was just suggesting that a poorly calibrated set is going to exacerbate problems like too-bright whites and poor contrast between text and a background of a similar color.

Good UI and information design is not simply a matter of preferences. This update is doing some things wrong, whether someone says they 'like' it or not doesn't change that fact, unfortunately. You would think a company with the resources of MS would have pros who know this subject inside and out, and perhaps they do, but this type of failure is all too common for various reasons (many times due to bureaucratic meddling/politics). It's a shame.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Windows ME and Vista are proof that MS is perfectly capable of fucking up a UI. And this one certainly has its issues. But I do appreciate the attempt at a cleaner, less over-designed interface. Just wish they could have been a little more mindful of the colors they were using in their rush to play "Wii too!"
 
I am one of people who is not seeing all this "brightness" some people are talking about. It looks grayish white to me. I do have to wonder like the poster above me if some people still have their televisions on torch mode.
 
I definitely like some of the new features. The UI is still utter crap, though. Eventually, we'll get to use to it, but that doesn't change the fact that it blows.
 
[quote name='HydroX']Still waiting.... would love to tinker with this while the gf is still working.[/QUOTE]

I'd like to tinker with your gf while you try to get this working... nyuck nyuck nyuck

Snazzy update for Netflix, being able to search for a movie is one thing I've wanted since the start.
Didn't see where to find ESPN. Doesn't matter much to me anyways since they've decided that the NHL isn't worth their time. Arcade titles still load very slowly. The new guide button menu is certainly more fancy than before. Haven't really noticed anything else.
 
The one really inexcusable omission is the complete inability to select favorite download games, or better, to layout the arcade games library however the hell we want. People love to hate the Wii here (though I don't), but what I wouldn't give to have something like the Wii's easily customizable dashboard (or whatever it's called there.) I can't believe, with the huge and great XBLA and Indie libraries, that you still can't do this with your downloaded games, even in some really basic form, like setting favorites.
 
[quote name='Clak']I think they've realized that pandering to the Wii type crowd is where the money is.[/QUOTE]

Ironically, the reason why I sold my Wii and kept my Xbox is one of them was like a Wii and the other one wasn't.
 
Do they not show commercials on ESPN 3? It just says something about resuming shortly. As much as I don't like commercials, I hate dead air more.
 
ESPN 3 rarely shows commercials, if you see one it will probably be for ESPN and occasionally an insurance company.
 
The little sounds it makes now are weird.
Figured out how to pose. For some reason it is showing mien clapping in the sig, but that's not what I saved.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']Still can't get ESPN3 to work on my 360. Time Warner added it recently and I can view it online, but not through the Xbox.[/QUOTE]

They only did access through the web and not on the XBox. They said they're working on adding access through the XBox. If you don't have video, you still won't have access to it as Time Warner is locking it to only people with both data AND video service through them.
 
Did anyone else have their avatar awards from Destination Arcade disappear after the update? I had to redownload it to unlock them....
 
[quote name='dark-star']None that I can find. I hate what they've done to the place...it's flat, ugly, wayyyyy too bright and as someone else mentioned the scrolling is puke-generating. Why did they change it from the perspective view? Gah![/QUOTE]The entire redesign is meant to lure children. It is geared for the motion controller nonsense that is the Kinect.

Think of how a child draws compared to an fully-artistic adult. Children have no sense of perspective. They do not understand vanishing point. Children use overly bright colors. They can't comprehend complementary hues.

And as a result, we are stuck with a kid-friendly, Fisher-Price UI for morons. The tabs/blades/menus had to be flattened for cursor navigability.
The brightness issues seem to be related to the Kinect not liking the dark. The colors are bold, over-saturated and tacky to attract young eyes. You know, not everyone has a stupid Kinect or kids. But hey, why care about that.

Everything in the updates is now in your face with its assault on your senses. It's All-Kinect Spotlight as your sign-in tab - that you can't change. It's ironed-out 2D. It's Donkey-schlong ugly, hard on the eyes, literally nauseating, and really has to change.

There is no reason that the 360 can't be more fully customizable at this point. Let us choose the color scheme, contrast, font. If you can do it on your smartphone, why not here. We certainly wouldn't pick neon-puke green and ultra-vibrant grayish-white. Oh wait, why would M$ do that when they can make easy cash selling us premium themes if we want a fix to this blinding nightmare.

This graphical aspect of this update should have only been mandatory (as punishment) for those idiots that bought the gimmicky Kinect. This was nothing short of a rushed, forced marketing disaster of a Pied Piper downgrade.
 
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