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Just downloaded the new dashboard... not impressed


JamesD

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I can't stand the thing. The first thing that caught my eye, is that the play game square is a small thing in the upper left hand corner... while a giant square playing advertisements plays right smack in the center.

 

My first thought was, I just bought a game, I don't want to see advertisements for other things.

 

I hated the Windows 8 interface, I don't like this at all, and I never liked the Windows Mobile interface. They need to come up with something new, it looks stupid.

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So when you're "logged" in, with no Internet connection, you play your game, get your achievements, etc. Then when you can actually connect to Xbox Live, it'll upload everything you did achievement-wise to XBL.

 

Right I didn't mean to imply you couldn't log into your profile offline, provided the profile was local, the "local" part, that was my point. In the past you had to have your profile on the machine and it could only be tied to one machine at a time as far as I know. Or is that incorrect?

A memory card was the easiest solution since you could just stick it on there, and then remove and insert into various units. I didn't know that other people could access your game saves though. Guess I never tried it. So anyone can boot up the 360, use their gamertag or login as a guest and continue a game off my saves? I'll have to try that, seems kind of odd if that's how it works. In the past if I tried to move a gamesave with a different profile it said I couldn't do it because I had the wrong profile, that's why I assumed others couldn't mess with your saves.

 

As for your gamertag in the cloud, it already is! And your gamertag is not part of your cloud game saves storage so you don't have to worry about your gamertag taking up space (my gamertag is 17 MB). No more having to do recover gamertag. If you have multiple systems, you do have to download your gamertag once to each of your systems. But after that, it's merely signing into your account to switch back and forth. And you can have it save your email/password so you don't have to retype it each time. And they hid the characters so someone playing on your 360 can't choose your profile and copy your email/password.

 

I didn't know this, so technically on the two Xbox 360 I've already activated with my Gamertag, I can just pull the memory card with the profile on it and still log in? I'll be messing more with that later for sure! I definitely may start saving current retail games I'm playing through to the cloud. Would certainly be nice to not have to play find the memory card.

 

EDIT : I just tried to pull the memory card and as expected my profile disappeared. There is an option to download the profile, which might be the problem. When I got the new dash, I may have activated the memory card profile for use on the various 360's and have to instead tie a profile to the console itself. Can anyone positively confirm that you can now have a profile on more than one Xbox 360 at a time?

 

EDIT 2 : Ok I now see where Metal Ghost posted earlier what I now know from experience. You can download your profile to multiple Xbox 360's now!! SWEET!! Been waiting for that to happen for years!! The cloud saves are looking a lot more desireable now for sure!!!

As far as game saves goes, After trying to use my saves with my girlfriends gamertag, I still say they are tied to and can only be used by the profile (gamertag) that made them.

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Right I didn't mean to imply you couldn't log into your profile offline, provided the profile was local, the "local" part, that was my point. In the past you had to have your profile on the machine and it could only be tied to one machine at a time as far as I know. Or is that incorrect?

 

LOL. I think this communication failed on both our parts and we each misunderstood what we were trying to convey. and maybe there's a failure of terminology as well.

 

for example, when you say "local" it seems that you mean local as the profile is located on your 360 rather than the cloud.

 

when I hear local, I think of the gamer profile you can create that is not an Xbox Live Free account or Xbox Live Gold account. an account that you play that has no ties to Xbox Live.

 

so in the case of being offline. I can be logged into my Xbox Live Gold gamertag profile even if I'm not online. When I boot a 360 that is not connected to the net, it'll automatically sign me in with my Xbox Live Gold gamertag profile (because that's what I set as auto-sign). That way I can still play but of course it's not online. Then when I can actually go online, it'll sync up my achievement progress with Xbox Live so everything is in sync.

 

There's absolutely no reason to have a local gaming profile that has no ties to Xbox Live (unless maybe if you have a modded system). Since Xbox Live Free is free, everyone should have an Xbox Live Free account at least (but Gold is better!).

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when I hear local, I think of the gamer profile you can create that is not an Xbox Live Free account or Xbox Live Gold account.

 

Local means the data exists on the device itself, or at least on the local network (ie not cloud)

It can be a picture of your cat you took with your Xbox Live Vision Camera (Does anyone still have one hooked up) and saved to the Xbox HDD...thats considered local. It has nothing to do with gamer profiles, free or paid for nessecarily. (Unless that is the data being kept local)

 

The misunderstanding was that in the past you couldn't have a gamertag profile on more than one Xbox 360 at a time and now you can and that is great news. In the past (as it still is now) your gamertag profile is saved locally, but now you can have it saved to multiple units at one time. This has nothing to do with the cloud, it's mearly something MS is now allowing and it's going to make owning multiple console much easier for sure!! Not having to keep the profile on one single device without recovering means a person can move between consoles and not tie themselves to a memory card. Cloud saves...here I come!! (I will still keep backups on a memory card though I think)

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I downloaded it last night and gave it a short tour. Not really that bad as I like several of the new features and am ho-hum with only a couple others.

 

The fact that MLB Baseball is being added is a very nice feature for me and I'm curious as to what the SyFy channel is going to be. But overall, its still disappointing that several of the features being offered are not available to me as I don't have access to Fios, Comcast, or an internet provider that will give me access to ESPN. The downside of living in the quiet of the boonies!

 

 

Mendon

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I downloaded it last night and gave it a short tour. Not really that bad as I like several of the new features and am ho-hum with only a couple others.

 

The fact that MLB Baseball is being added is a very nice feature for me and I'm curious as to what the SyFy channel is going to be. But overall, its still disappointing that several of the features being offered are not available to me as I don't have access to Fios, Comcast, or an internet provider that will give me access to ESPN. The downside of living in the quiet of the boonies!

 

 

Mendon

 

so far the Syfy channel is a bit disappointing to me because I expected more. let me preface that this household no longer has a TV provider as we just recently cut the cord and removed our TV cable package and only have broadband access now. so maybe that's why Syfy is limited for us (similar to how ESPN is nerfed for Time-Warner people). but Syfy is not the entire Syfy channel. It doesn't provide full episodes to everything. I was hoping that I could watch current shows from the very beginning (the pilot episodes) but you have a subset of episodes you can watch.

 

but it's still early and maybe they'll roll out additional programming I'm curious what someone with a TV provider can see in the Syfy app.

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Before I figured out you can use the bumpers I instinctively pushed up to set my selection to the section header. Then you can move between the sections without having to go through all the items in each section. After realizing the bumpers worked as well I started using them. I found that I had to keep reminding myself to use them. I will get used to it eventually but at least you can get through them with the section headers as well for when I don't remember.

 

Overall I have not really formed an opinion of the new dash yet. I never liked the previous one. The blade system wasn't better simply as a matter of comfort. It was better because it was quicker to get to what you want and there was less junk. Half of what was displayed in the previous dash was never of any interest to me whatsoever. The new dash seems to be a mix of the two plus some new ideas that serve kinect well. I will never own kinect so I am not really interested in how it navigates with it. I am only interested in how it works with a controller and so far I think it works pretty well. After spending some more time with it I think I am going to really like it but it is always hard to start out. One thing I already like is the detail you get about games when you select them. You used to have to go to the marketplace to get that kind of detail. What I will concur with others on is that the new Netflix interface is poor. The Netflix interface on 360 has never been as good as it is on Wii. I don't know why they don't move more in that direction.

 

An issue that I always had with NXE was that when my sound system is hooked up through HDMI the 360 would fail to register as outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 and I would find I'm playing with 2-channel sound even though the 360 is set to Dolby Digital. I would have to set the 360 to stereo and then back to Dolby Digital to get it to register correctly. It had to be done whenever the system was turned on and often I would forget to do that and totally under-utilize my sound system. Looking online I found many other people had the same issue. So far this has not occurred since the update. I'm hoping they fixed it. I will see if the issue occurs over the next few days.

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An issue that I always had with NXE was that when my sound system is hooked up through HDMI the 360 would fail to register as outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 and I would find I'm playing with 2-channel sound even though the 360 is set to Dolby Digital. I would have to set the 360 to stereo and then back to Dolby Digital to get it to register correctly. It had to be done whenever the system was turned on and often I would forget to do that and totally under-utilize my sound system. Looking online I found many other people had the same issue. So far this has not occurred since the update. I'm hoping they fixed it. I will see if the issue occurs over the next few days.

 

Wait-a-minute! Are you saying its possible to use HDMI from Xbox to HDTV to Receiver and still get Dolby Digital 5.1?

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Typically you go from 360 to receiver to display which was how HDMI was intended to be used. It is meant to be a one-cable solution. As matter of fact, HDMI can do Dolby TrueHD and optical can't. So HDMI is rated to provide higher quality audio. In some cases displays do support going from the display to the receiver. That just isn't the typical solution as many receivers actually act as a switch. So instead of having to switch both your video input and audio input you simply select the input on your receiver and you're good to go.

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As an example, I know that my TV (a Toshiba REGZA) is not able to take a 5.1 signal that's input via its HDMI and output to a receiver. It ends up outputing in stereo.

 

Regarding outputing from 360 via HDMI in 5.1 though, that'd be great if it indeed was fixed in this latest update. I hadn't heard that it was, but really that seems like a pretty silly issue to be having....of course I'm saying that not knowing anything about the underlying causes.

 

I output via optical so it's not an issue for me. Good'ol Yamaha receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs anyway. :)

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Typically you go from 360 to receiver to display which was how HDMI was intended to be used. It is meant to be a one-cable solution. As matter of fact, HDMI can do Dolby TrueHD and optical can't. So HDMI is rated to provide higher quality audio. In some cases displays do support going from the display to the receiver. That just isn't the typical solution as many receivers actually act as a switch. So instead of having to switch both your video input and audio input you simply select the input on your receiver and you're good to go.

 

if you want surround sound, you have to send your 360 output to the receiver. and then have the receiver output to the TV. a lot of this depends on the features of your TV and of your receiver. but most TVs will output stereo PCM to a receiver, either via HDMI or optical. only with ATSC broadcasts (your cable, satellite, OTA, etc.) will output 5.1 from the TV to the receiver.

 

if you want surround sound from your HDMI, you have to run your HDMI to your receiver first. and then run HDMI from the receiver to the TV. in fact, in the modern age, the receiver is the center of your entertainment system and the TV is merely an output. sure, there are exceptions and some TVs/devices allow you to have the TV as the hub but most companies want you to have all your inputs and outputs from the receiver.

 

go to any AV forum (such as http://www.avsforum.com) and they'll tell you in more depth about HDMI and hooking up to a receiver.

 

and metal ghost... check your Pac Man CE. :D

Edited by onlysublime
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I've never had a problem with my 360 outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 to my receiver via HDMI. What is the particular issue?

 

I described the issue in my previous post:

 

An issue that I always had with NXE was that when my sound system is hooked up through HDMI the 360 would fail to register as outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 and I would find I'm playing with 2-channel sound even though the 360 is set to Dolby Digital. I would have to set the 360 to stereo and then back to Dolby Digital to get it to register correctly. It had to be done whenever the system was turned on and often I would forget to do that and totally under-utilize my sound system. Looking online I found many other people had the same issue. So far this has not occurred since the update. I'm hoping they fixed it. I will see if the issue occurs over the next few days.

 

If I use an optical cable to the receiver this problem does not occur. With other HDMI devices into the same receiver this does not occur. It is an issue with the 360 in particular and I have found other people complaining of the same issue online including on avsforum and xbox-scene. I haven't seen anyone describe a permanent solution besides switching back to optical for audio. Dolby Digital works fine from the 360 to the receiver. The problem is only in the 360 registering as producing 5.1 when the unit is turned on. By disabling and re-enabling it the issue is resolved and it works great. Once the system is turned back on the issue will happen again. It does not matter what order I turn on the 360 and receiver.

Edited by Hyper_Eye
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I really like the new blades for "My Games", easier to navigate and pick games from my XBLA, Indie Games, etc.

I don't like the interface for the Game Marketplace at all. You can't tell when looking at a game if it's really a game, or a video for a game, or an add-on for a game... they've really messed that part up. You've got to click on a game and only if it has an option to buy is it available; it doesn't tell you before you get into it what you're getting into. It shows Alice: Madness Returns and I was thinking the game was available for download now. But no, just the older Alice game and some Dress pack. Weird.

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You could always use one of these to have 5.1 through optical and video through HDMI: http://www.amazon.co.../ref=pd_cp_vg_1

 

It seems that a lot of people have to solder that one. I would spend the extra money and spring for the Madcatz one: http://www.amazon.com/Catz-Xbox-360-Analog-Adapter-Headsets/dp/B004TEN2TO/ref=sr_1_8?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1323406020&sr=1-8

Edited by Hyper_Eye
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Overall I like the new dashboard. I do like that when you start your 360 it defaults to placing the icon on the game in the dvd drive. It was kind of annoying having to scroll up one to play a game. It's also a billion times faster. It was annoying having to wait for screens to load just to see what my most recent games were so I could start one.

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Well, sorry guys, but if I ever found out who was responsible for this piece of crap I'd have them executed in front of their families!

 

Normally I can get used to updates pretty quickly. Not impressed by this one at all. Can't find anything that I'm looking for, even when I know it's name - they just don't show up in the search (and no, I'm not dyslexic). Indie games seem to have disappeared altogether. They must be there somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find them. So, for the very first time, I've had to use the PC to 'purchase' a trial. No idea how this works but I'll let you know if it does.

 

I won't be downgrading my other Xbox to this piece of distended rectum.

Edited by Tickled_Pink
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Well, sorry guys, but if I ever found out who was responsible for this piece of crap I'd have them executed in front of their families!

 

Normally I can get used to updates pretty quickly. Not impressed by this one at all. Can't find anything that I'm looking for, even when I know it's name - they just don't show up in the search (and no, I'm not dyslexic). Indie games seem to have disappeared altogether. They must be there somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find them. So, for the very first time, I've had to use the PC to 'purchase' a trial. No idea how this works but I'll let you know if it does.

 

I won't be downgrading my other Xbox to this piece of distended rectum.

 

your indie games should show up under the "Games" tab. by default, under My Games, it shows all your games together. but if you want to only see your indie games (or your Kinect games, or your arcade games, etc.), you hit "A" on the "show" button and select "indie" so that it filters your games by indie only.

 

or if you want to go directly to your indie game, just say, "Xbox, bing, ______". so if I wanted to play Avatar Ninja, I would say "Xbox, bing, avatar ninja" and bam.

 

in terms of finding new indie games, under the Games tab, there is a "game type" button. select that and you'll see "indie games" and you can browse and filter your search. and/or use the bing search to find what you're looking for. Yeah, indie titles kind of got pushed to the periphery with the new dash.

Edited by onlysublime
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