Fall 360 dashboard update details

[Diamond.G]

Any word on the update? I can't seem to find much of anything online.

 

[Dave Baumann]

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=553762

 

[J_Saint]

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=553762

Firewalled here at work. Can someone summarize?

 

[rbushner]

Firewalled here at work. Can someone summarize?

On a pamphlet included with a GH3 keychain, there is a statement about family friendly features such as a family timer, available Dec 2007 only through Xbox live.

Presumption is this comes with a dash update.

 

[Dave Baumann]

It seems to be some third party evidence (a flyer with a description of 360 features) of the parental timer control feature talked about before. Indicates that this will come in December.

 

[Diamond.G]

December?! I wonder why they are releasing it "so late"?

 

[pipo]

Sounds like the parental controls are an 'extra'.

We still might see the dash update earlier...

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=30395

Similar to its Windows Vista counterpart, the new Xbox 360 Family Timer can restrict children's activity time and can be set on a per-day or per-week basis. Helpful "notifications" will appear to warn the gamer that the session is nearing the end and the feature will automatically turn off the console when a pre-determined time limit has been exceeded.

The Family Timer feature will be available for download via Xbox Live in early December.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Similar to its Windows Vista counterpart, the new Xbox 360 Family Timer can restrict children's activity time and can be set on a per-day or per-week basis. Helpful "notifications" will appear to warn the gamer that the session is nearing the end and the feature will automatically turn off the console when a pre-determined time limit has been exceeded.

And automatically save? This is a good idea in principle, but some games could be messed uo with this in effect. eg. ICO's last 1.5 hours or so had no save points, and you had to play through. Also if you're just near the end of a game and want to finish it and the console switches you off, that'll really annoy people. I expect MGS4 to have something like this. Imagine if moments from completing Halo3, the machine locks you out! Perhaps better would be a time budget that'd let people extend a session to a natural stopping-point? Or maybe games could hint to the system when is a good time to stop?

 

[aselto]

And automatically save? This is a good idea in principle, but some games could be messed uo with this in effect. eg. ICO's last 1.5 hours or so had no save points, and you had to play through. Also if you're just near the end of a game and want to finish it and the console switches you off, that'll really annoy people. I expect MGS4 to have something like this. Imagine if moments from completing Halo3, the machine locks you out! Perhaps better would be a time budget that'd let people extend a session to a natural stopping-point? Or maybe games could hint to the system when is a good time to stop?

Are you sure kids should play MGS4 or Halo 3? These games ar M-rated after all. Though this parental control mechanism would only be useful if 360 was the only machine in a household - otherwise the kid would play on another system if time runs out on 360.

 

[RobertR1]

They need to integrate the "games" tab into the main screen and get rid of the "games" tab. Also, it'll be interesting to see if the MS knows the difference between Fall and Winter!

 

[aselto]

They need to integrate the "games" tab into the main screen and get rid of the "games" tab. Also, it'll be interesting to see if the MS knows the difference between Fall and Winter!

Calendar Winter starts on December 22nd, so they have a lot of time left.

 

[pipo]

Oh, well, 'early December' sounds fine to me.

Previews expected within three weeks then?

 

[infinity4]

IMO Parental control only looks good on paper. I doubt many people will let their parents have a say on what games they should play, when most X360 games are hardcore action.

But better than nothing.

 

[AlphaWolf]

IMO Parental control only looks good on paper. I doubt many people will let their parents have a say on what games they should play, when most X360 games are hardcore action.

Let their parents? I mean ya if you're 18+ and its your console, dad's not setting up timers for you, but lots of parents have an input into their children's activities.

 

[rekator]

And automatically save? This is a good idea in principle, but some games could be messed uo with this in effect. eg. ICO's last 1.5 hours or so had no save points, and you had to play through. Also if you're just near the end of a game and want to finish it and the console switches you off, that'll really annoy people. I expect MGS4 to have something like this. Imagine if moments from completing Halo3, the machine locks you out! Perhaps better would be a time budget that'd let people extend a session to a natural stopping-point? Or maybe games could hint to the system when is a good time to stop?

Or a automatic "stand-by" mod…
But your idea of a "budget time" is probably the more easy to integrate and the less frustated for kids gamers.

 

[ErnstH]

And automatically save? This is a good idea in principle, but some games could be messed uo with this in effect. eg. ICO's last 1.5 hours or so had no save points, and you had to play through. Also if you're just near the end of a game and want to finish it and the console switches you off, that'll really annoy people. I expect MGS4 to have something like this. Imagine if moments from completing Halo3, the machine locks you out! Perhaps better would be a time budget that'd let people extend a session to a natural stopping-point? Or maybe games could hint to the system when is a good time to stop?

Or kids should have to learn when to stop and not play through until the last minute.

 

[pipo]

Or kids should have to learn when to stop and not play through until the last minute.

Finally. The voice of reason.

 

[AntShaw]

Or kids should have to learn when to stop and not play through until the last minute.

Sounds like someone who has some kids!

With that said, this is an awesome value add and will be getting some use in my household!

 

[TrungGap]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/53570-divx-and-xbox-360-a-potential-win-win-for-everyone

Coster - “Just a minor point here, but there was a recent Microsoft (MSFT) conference where I believe their media extender now incorporates the DivX codec on it, is that correct? Can you confirm that and does that mean we’re soon going to see Xboxes with DivX on them?
Hell - “Yes! that, uh, we’re in discussions with Microsoft on that at this point in time, so I can’t go into any great detail on that. Um that is not a certified, that is not a certified or licensed product at this time.”

 

[Red Herring]

That's weird as MS already supports MPEG-4 SP on the Xbox 360 which is part of the MPEG4 standard they certainly shouldn't need to be talking to DviX for codec development as DivX, XviD, 3vix are all just implementations of the MPEG-4 ASP standard and Microsoft should have little difficulty in cooking up that codec seeing as they have a lot of the work done already (assuming their MPEG-4 SP codec on the Xbox is their own handwork & not itself licensed from a third party).

But if Microsoft were in talks with DivX I can only think of one or two reason's as to why;

* Marketing - less knowledgeable people know what DivX is but not that MPEG-4 ASP if written on the box is basically the same thing so having a DivX certified logo on the box would be useful.

* Access to DivX container for menus and other features.

* Microsoft doesn't want to develop an ASP codec for some reason so is letting DivX do the work instead.

The marketing reason is the most plausible one to me as one of the MS guys at one point a while back over on Doom9 alluded to that people are much more familiar with the DivX name when talking about codec support on the Xbox 360.