Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

[CS10029]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Yeah, I just found out about a few minutes ago that it ended. Kind of sucks, I guess I will just have to wait till next month.

The HDD feature is the most intriguing.

Netflix for me. Gonna be sick to watch a whole season of a show through my 360.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Except the PS3's installs aren't much of a help.

I thought that games fully installed on the new NXE for 360 games. So this way the DVD drive is getting no use and 1 less component from killing the system. LOL!

[Pared]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Except the PS3's installs aren't much of a help.

Maybe in terms of loading but they certainly ease stress on the drive and keep noise down.

It also helps compensate for the slow drive.

[Altimus]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Maybe in terms of loading but they certainly ease stress on the drive and keep noise down.

It also helps compensate for the slow drive.

Well except for the obvious.

In terms of loading it is slower than the loading of a DVD drive in the Xbox which shouldn't be the case.

[CS10029]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

I got an E-Mail yesterday that Netflix has added a bunch of **** to there library.

[Altimus]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Same, but at least this is optional I doubt there's many games I'd load on, except if any discs come out with a multi-disc.

I'm going to install every game almost and delete it once I'm done playing it.

The noise factor.

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

MTV Multiplayer

So here are some initial impressions based on some dabbling I did this week during the few hours I was home in New York:

The transition to the NXE is easy: It took all of one minute to get the NXE on my machine. Another six minutes were required once I logged on to Xbox Live, further updating the NXE. I was prompted to edit an Avatar for myself, which seems to have cost me my old Gamerpic, but nothing else was lost in the transition. My friend’s list, downloaded content and settings all carried over.

NXE is quick: Everything in the NXE loads really fast. No more hiccups and pauses in the system while it tries to display icons for Achievements or Marketplace content. The overall presentation is smooth.

More feasts for the eyes: There’s a lot more visual information to take in. You’ve got images of the games your friends are playing propped up next to their avatars. You’ve got many more still and video promos for highlighted content and contests. I was browsing the Xbox 360 Marketplace and found that there were screenshots being displayed for any Arcade game I selected, which realy helped me ascertain what the game’s all about. There are a lot of visuals to take in, and while it’s too early for me to judge if it’s all for the better, I can say that it’s remarkable how all of these things are just … there .. for you to see. Nothing ever seems to be loading. It’s all already waiting for you — or at least appears to be.

My 360 is finally quieter: I installed “Fable II” to my hard drive, a new feature available through the NXE for any game. The 6.8 GB installation of “Fable II” took 12 minutes and my system ran far more quietly once I booted up the game. I didn’t have a chance to compare load times yet but the lack of any noise from a spinning disc drive is a great improvement. The game disc has to be in the system when playing an installed version. Opening the 360’s disc drive during my session of “Fable II” re-booted my console. That’s a small price to pay for being able to close my eyes and finally distinguish my Xbox 360 from my vacuum cleaner.

Spying on my friends is now an extra click away: My only disappointment with the service at first blush is that the thing I like doing the most when I power on — checking out my list of online friends to see what they’re playing — is one or two clicks further away than it was on the original dashboard. Yes, I can easily select the NXE’s new Friends option and flick through a hallway of avatars that represent my friends and display boxart of whatever game they’re playing. I can spy on them that way. But I can only see four friends’ avatars at a time. To get the old-school text list of all my friends, I have to press the 360 controller’s Xbox Guide button, select the Friends’ option from there and then select the list. It’s not a big hassle and it is a sign of how the original dashboard functionality is retained in the Guide section. But it’s also a demonstration of how, as some are concerned will be the case with PlayStation 3’s “Home,” that a more visually-oriented design can’t always present information as efficiently as can something oriented on text.

I’ve been out of town for a few days, so I haven’t had a chance to try some of the NXE’s key features, such as the party system and the new Netflix integration and some small but interesting features I’ve read about in the promotional material. We’ll have more on that next week.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

My 360 is finally quieter: I installed “Fable II” to my hard drive, a new feature available through the NXE for any game. The 6.8 GB installation of “Fable II” took 12 minutes and my system ran far more quietly once I booted up the game. I didn’t have a chance to compare load times yet but the lack of any noise from a spinning disc drive is a great improvement. The game disc has to be in the system when playing an installed version. Opening the 360’s disc drive during my session of “Fable II” re-booted my console. That’s a small price to pay for being able to close my eyes and finally distinguish my Xbox 360 from my vacuum cleaner.

Now this is going to be sweet. I hope that the system purs as quiet as a cat with this. It's that damn DVD Drive that is causing all this excessive heat, working like a horse.

[Pared]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Well except for the obvious.

In terms of loading it is slower than the loading of a DVD drive in the Xbox which shouldn't be the case.

Why wouldn't it be the case? Multi-platform developers don't change the data coming off the drive and the way it gets read. They just copy it directly from the 360.

A little birdie told me that if they were to do it specifically for the PS3 you would see a difference. Not much since it's still an optical disc of the same size but a difference nonetheless. Blame the developers, not the console.

As for first party exclusives, they typically use higher resolution textures resulting in loading times that may "feel" similar. But at least they're making use of the technology available to them.

[Altimus]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Why wouldn't it be the case? Multi-platform developers don't change the data coming off the drive and the way it gets read. They just copy it directly from the 360.

A little birdie told me that if they were to do it specifically for the PS3 you would see a difference. Not much since it's still an optical disc of the same size but a difference nonetheless. Blame the developers, not the console.

As for first party exclusives, they typically use higher resolution textures resulting in loading times that may "feel" similar. But at least they're making use of the technology available to them.

Perhaps, it just goes down to what way you want to tackle the project.

One thing is obvious, the overpriced 360 HDD is faster than any standard notebook HDD. Or perhaps it is other things at work.

All I know is I'm very excited about optional installations.

[Pared]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Ha. Yeah, and the way they usually tackle it is lazily. I've seen it first hand.

If you're up on your knowledge of the 360 then there is absolutely no reason to be up on Sony's system and what it can do differently. Sad but true.

Rockstar proved this with the friend's list on GTA. And others continue to prove this with the omission of Trophies, YouTube uploading and Image capturing.

Any videos of the disc installations to the drive yet and the difference? I'm curious to see what games will be compatible with this. I'd be surprised if it was fault free. Reminds of the PSP being able to save entire games to the hard drive with the right tools. Works wonders for the system.

[Altimus]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Ha. Yeah, and the way they usually tackle it is lazily. I've seen it first hand.

If you're up on your knowledge of the 360 then there is absolutely no reason to be up on Sony's system and what it can do differently. Sad but true.

Rockstar proved this with the friend's list on GTA. And others continue to prove this with the omission of Trophies, YouTube uploading and Image capturing.

Any videos of the disc installations to the drive yet and the difference? I'm curious to see what games will be compatible with this. I'd be surprised if it was fault free. Reminds of the PSP being able to save entire games to the hard drive with the right tools. Works wonders for the system.

All games will support installation; even King Kong. lol From reading on it, it takes 10-12 minutes or somewhere around there. Older games will see a nice change in faster loading while newer games loading time won't be that drastic.

I read some where that pop in and texture rendering was improved because of the HDD installation; guess we'll have to see if it holds true. I assume it is based on game to game and as more developers develop now with knowing they can install to the HDD, maybe they will use some new tricks. Also I remember playing Mass Effect last year and thinking to myself if any game needs HDD installation, it is this one.

I don't care so much of loading times but the fact that the noise is gone and heat is decreased. And if it helps pop in and texture rendering, that is a plus!

[Pared]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

Hmm... well, it sounds nice but I can't think of any game that really needed it. I've never found the loading unbearable on the 360.

Worked wonders on the PSP. Especially in those 2-D fighting games that needed maybe 2 seconds of loading. Cut all that right out.

You're right though; Even if it cuts out that vicious jet-engine it would be for the better!

[23]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

will this stop the overheating and RROD though

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Experience coming 11/19 - requires 128mb of space

NXE Review: It's Pure Improvement

...

HD Netflix streaming comes to Xbox 360 first

It's something you can't get on the Roku. Nor on LG's BD300. Nor on Samsung's P2500 / P2550 Blu-ray players. Nor through Netflix's own "Watch Instantly" portal. It's high-def Netflix streaming, and it's coming first to Microsoft's Xbox 360. Yes friends, when the all new dashboard hits on November 19th, with it will come HD Netflix streaming for Xbox Live Gold members. You should know that this is only a "soft launch" with about 300 titles available for now, and the litany of details you're surely craving simply aren't available at present time. At any rate, we'd say things just got a lot more interesting in the world of digital downloads, but there's really no need. The real question is: when will everyone else follow suit, and how quickly can we expect current Netflix streamers to get the HD upgrade?