New Xbox Experience gets clarified by the Major
by Xav de Matos 
{ Jul 21st 2008 at 12:00PM }
Addressing the two concerns above, Major assures Xbox 360 owners that they won't have to create an Avatar and that installing Xbox 360 titles will never be a requirement. Color us relieved so far. For more details and answers to your questions make sure to check out Major's latest episode.
[via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
xlockstockx @ Jul 21st 2008 12:19PM
ok, so my question is...i think i saw a portion of a video where someone was watching a netflix movie via xbox live, but it was presented in 4:3. HOW could that be? It makes me mad already that MS is charging the price they do for non hd movies. Obviously, anyone that owns and xbox 360 is able to upconvert to hd, so they should all be HD anyway. So correct me if im wrong...but if i let netflix deliver the dvd to my door, i can put it in my xbox and be happy with the upconversion, to match my 1080p tv, or i can watch it through xbox live for the same price but get no upconversion, and it looks like im watching cable. no thanks
Xav de Matos @ Jul 21st 2008 12:22PM
Well that is based off the Netflix service which doesn't have HD streaming. It's not really in Microsoft's hands. But they say it's DVD quality. We'll have to wait and see.
joey @ Jul 21st 2008 12:26PM
The video podcasts I stream through my Xbox does look better than on my computer. So I assume netflex movies will be up-converted as well.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but Xbox will only up-convert the video through HDMI or VGA.
natrontheape @ Jul 21st 2008 1:58PM
Component cable only goes up to 480p. The VGA cable can handle 1080i I think, but the only way to get upscaled to 1080p is over HDMI.
N.
GregA @ Jul 21st 2008 2:21PM
Nope, you are mistaken, component does 1080p just fine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
I think you are mistaking it with composite video...
On the other hand, avoid HDMI devices, if you want the next gen port you should go with display port devices. HDMI is burdened with IP taxes, and HDCP support. Also, there are no actual devices that support HDMI anyhow. Just wait for Display Port to displace HDMI.
Phocas @ Jul 21st 2008 2:24PM
upconversion to 1080p works great through the VGA cable.
GregA @ Jul 21st 2008 2:32PM
Oh also... 1080i is actually lower resolution than 720p, 1080i is only 540 lines of resolution while 720p is... um 720p...
samisin @ Jul 21st 2008 2:38PM
Greg: Of course component can handle 1080p. Though, on the Xbox 360, if you use component you won't get 1080p upscaling. You will get it with VGA or HDMI though.
And what is the BS about HDMI. My 360, my HD DVD, my PS3, my Popcorn Hour and my Digital Set box all use HDMI to my TV. In addition I use a 3 in-2 out HDMI switch so I also can watch everything easily on my projector. Through HDMI.
HDMI is the best thing on the market at the moment, so your comments are not really valid.
samisin @ Jul 21st 2008 2:44PM
Greg: 1080i is not half the resolution of 720p. Once again you are wrong. The difference is that 1080i is interlaced; quite the difference compared to half the resolution. If you have 1080i in 50Hz and display it on a regular TV it is deinterlaced into 25Hz which gives you 1080p but at 25Hz.
GregA @ Jul 21st 2008 2:55PM
LOL, google the component manufacturers who are dropping HDMI in favor of DisplayPort. Mostly because HDMI is expensive and requires all the extra silicon for the mandatory HDCP stuff(HDCP is optional on DisplayPort).
Looking how fast companies are dropping HDMI in favor of DisplayPort (particularly for computer video cards and laptop computers) is almost humerus. Intel, AMD and NVidia have all announced they are dropping HDMI in favor of DisplayPort(again mostly becayse of the high costs of software and silicon needed for HDMI).
If you already have a TV/device that is saddled with HDMI, then I guess you have a point. But this time next year HDMI will be a fading memory now that the big signal generating companies have all dropped it.
Ron @ Jul 21st 2008 3:40PM
Displayport is something meant to replace DVI/HDMI on computers, not to replace HDMI in televisions. I am not saying it can't happen; I am saying it will not happen any time in the foreseeable future.
Vassillios @ Sep 15th 2008 7:05PM
you are severely mistaken
the xbox 360 can't "upconvert" anything.
Everything on the 360 runs at a fixed resolution- games, movies, even the dashboard.
You have probably heard that "the 360 can scale anything to 1080p!" Dosen't that sound great?!!! 1080p for everyone !!! yay!!1!1
not.
Scaling dosent do ANYTHING for 99% of 360 owners.
People seem to think that scaling and upconverting somehow magicaly turn 720p into 1080p without any performance cost- this is utter bullcrap. Scaling can only degrade the image by introducing the whole new problem of scaling artifacts.
The ONLY BENEFIT of scaling chips, is to make all games compatible with all TVs. Some old-school HDTVs (usually inthe period of time when 1080i was the best you could get- those giant rear projection jawns) can only display 480p and 1080i correctly- any 720p image was downscaled to 480i or some other crap resolution. With a scaler, you can just set your xbox at 1080i, and have the xbox stretch the signal from the game's resolution to the tv's resolution.
This problem applies to about 0.1 percent of 360 owners.
Im kind of wandering with this, but the point is-
popping a dvd into your 360 makes it as standard def as standard def can be- its exactly zero percent HD. The netflix movies your talking about look bad because the 360 just has a poop video processing capabilities so the video ends up looking like something youd download from bittorrent and watch on your pc.
xlockstockx @ Jul 21st 2008 12:45PM
well i guess if netflix doestn offer it then there is nothing anyone could do, cept for netflix....and i assume that if you have an hdtv, youre using an hdmi cable. and i think it still upconverts with the component cables as well if you have the older version of xbox
Enzemo @ Jul 21st 2008 1:00PM
Any word when the update will actually be released? Thats the question on mine, and most my friends minds.
Tony @ Jul 21st 2008 1:14PM
They keep saying "late fall" about stuff like Netflix... I believe last year the Fall update came out during the first week of December.
Sean @ Jul 21st 2008 1:56PM
"Late Fall"
The last day of fall is on December 20th. That would suck.
I bet they will try and release it before Thanksgiving so that they can include the new UI in commercials before the holiday buying season.
Michael GT: Chefmichael21 @ Jul 21st 2008 1:01PM
I don't know is this has been asked, or explained anywhere but is there going to be an option to have more than one person in video chat??
TORO @ Jul 21st 2008 1:15PM
Can someone let me know when "New Xbox Experience" is being released? Just curious thanks ;)
Gemini Ace @ Jul 21st 2008 1:17PM
If we knew, it would be on the site.
Gemini Ace @ Jul 21st 2008 1:17PM
Major is also on This Week in Tech this week, too.
MrMuggs @ Jul 21st 2008 1:31PM
I like the new look but I don't understand why they only use about 40% of screen real estate. As you can see from the photos, the images are a small fraction of the screen size with the majority of the screen covered by a background which serves no purpose other than decoration.
Sean @ Jul 21st 2008 2:04PM
I like the part of Major's cast where he said that devs have asked if they could make avatar clothing as rewards for reaching certain acheivements. For instance, he said a Fallout 3 dev asked if they could create a hazmat suite for your avatar. That would be really cool! Halo Armor, HL2 suit.... just geektastic.
Don't knock the avatars too much. My wife has spent endless hours creating different famous Mii's on the Wii. I would say it's progbably the "game" she has played the most. Anything that can sell more Xboxes and expand the community can only have a postive effect on the numer of games that get released for the console.
I suspect they didn't show a lot of half of what the Avatar can do.
I'm actually getting excited about the new UI.
Dwag @ Jul 21st 2008 2:09PM
Avatars still look ugly hope that gets modified alot and they still are gonna include ads lol.
Sean @ Jul 21st 2008 2:13PM
It's the whole "less is more" design philosophy.
For instance, my wife has a hard time finding what she wants using the current blades UI. There is too much information focus on at one time for her and she gets confused and hands the controller over so that I can open an arcade game for her. (I guess they didn’t teach that when she was getting her PhD). For me, and most “core” gamers, the UI is easy as pie and we are used to it.
New UI is always a tough sell on experienced users.
jkdoug @ Jul 21st 2008 2:43PM
What idiot honestly thought that you'd be forced to install every game to your hard drive to play? Use what little common sense you were given, people! Sheesh. :)
Loban @ Jul 21st 2008 5:30PM
I agree. Since when did "You'll be able to install games to the hard drive" turn into "All new games will require installation to the hard drive".
Hey guess what, cars allow you to shift to reverse and drive backwards. OMG, are we going to be forced to drive backwards everywhere now!??!?!!?
Loban @ Jul 21st 2008 5:27PM
I personally love the new "copy the game to the harddrive" feature. My Xbox's drive rattles like a old chevy when it's spinning at full speed. Well technically, the drive spinning causes something else to rattle like the case fans or something, but either way it's really annoying. The only problem is that I don't have much harddrive space on my tiny little 20gig and I really don't want to pay the money for a new 60gig (assuming they'll be available for purchase seperately) just to be able to install games. I'm never gonna need the space for media as I stream everything my QNAP server. Guess I'll just have to do some regular housecleaning on my 20gig.
joeross @ Jul 21st 2008 6:07PM
Why are loads of people whinging about this update. Seems to me there's loads of extra functionality and the update is FREE!!
webster1990 @ Jul 21st 2008 7:42PM
It's lookin' pretty noice.
Roll on Fall update.
tehpwnmstr @ Jul 25th 2008 5:25AM
if i get this update, does that mean al my themes i have are more or less 'not useful anymore'?
DREW @ Jul 26th 2008 12:11PM
@GregA
DisplayPort is meant to replace DVI not HDMI idiot !
DisplayPort will also replace Anolog/VGA in bacially it will allow digtial and anolog displays through one port
Thast why most are switching to DisplayPort!
Get your fact straight !
http://www.displayport.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort
No doubt will be called a VESA port named after the designer