Xbox 360 Dashboard Fall Update

Yesterday I turned on my xbox and it told me there was an update. I was surprised, cause I wasn't expecting the update until December. I wondered if that was the update with the 1080p and HD-DVD support. While I downloaded it, I turned on my computer to check the xbox site and see what the update was all about.

Indeed, it was the big update we all were expecting, and these are the most important new features:

General facelift
What you see at first, is that the marketplace menus look better, with images instead of plain text. The navigation through the menus is now much faster, when you enter somewhere, you see it instantaneously, no wait, that's cool.
The acrcade games menu is also changed, as well as the market place it has images instead of plain text, with new cool features that I detail below.

Arcade:
You can see the speed improvements also in the Arcade games menu, you don't have to wait anymore to see the list of arcade games. They've also been restructured, to make it easier to find the one you want. It also has a new feature to auto-download the demo of any new arcade game that is released, you don't even have to visit the marketplace. Nice idea I got to say.
There is a new feature to see the xbox live friends leaderboard for a given arcade game from outside of the game. And if you want a friend to try a game, you just have to suggest it to him using a new feature that sends automatically a message to a friend you choose.
You have just downloaded a new game from the arcade? Don't waste time going to the arcade menu, select "play now" directly from the marketplace and there you go!

HD-DVD and Full HD Support:


Yes! Finally the Microsoft console supports the Full HD (1080 progressive lines) format, as the PS3 does. The games released by now only supports 720p or 1080i, if you have a 1080p TV and you run a current game, it will upscale it.
But new coming games might support 1080p. They even say that Splinter Cell Double Agent supports natively 1080p already.

With this new update, the HD-DVD extern player will now work, as well as other numerous new devices (like the wireless headset and the wireless wheel)

Video Playing:
One of the features I looked forward the most is the video playing from your computer and from any external device or physical media (cds or dvds). It also reproduces Microsoft formats (like WMV), but at least you don't need anymore to have Windows Media Center to play them. I do have it, but now it's much simpler to play a video. You can even use the Windows Media Player 11 media share function.

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Those are the most remarkable new features, but there are more, don't forget to check the whole list.

In conclusion, I am very happy with this update. It's the first update I get since I bought the console, and I love that, after buying it, I can get more brand new features without paying a cent.
I'm looking forward for the next one. What will come? An Internet Explorer? Messenger? DivX support? (I doubt this one)

Source
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