Xbox 360 Preview now rolling out

[Arwin]

Pretty ok with the new dash myself, although I don't have Kinect, and I also don't have Netflix, so the biggest pros and cons are passing me by. I like the search function though, that's a good addition, though not a big fan of the text input. But the new dash does pretty much ruin the themes, it seems.

However, I admire Microsoft for sticking to Kinect all the way. For instance this:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-09-microsoft-all-new-xbox-dash-apps-must-support-kinect

I wish Sony did more in this area. I would love to show my content in person to whomever at Sony thinks they've done enough with the XMB for Move support. Yes, it works and is super smooth and fast, but it is not intuitive for people coming from other platforms, and for apps, the store and the browser it is really not the best solution by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[RudeCurve]

I like the new interface overall. With the new Tile UI the "Picture Viewer" was moved to Apps/My Apps....for awhile I couldn't find it. Not a big deal after I knew where it was.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Can you set it to only show demo's on game type? When I go to say arcade games it seems to also show videos now which I don't like, I just want to see the demos.

I thought all arcade games were mandated to have demos?

 

[BadTB25]

I updated last night and overall I am pleased with the new dash. It takes a little getting used to, but the voice functions work pretty good. I like being able to swipe though the menus quickly with gestures even though the controller will probably be faster. I'm looking forward to when they add new apps.

The video player (not the Zune) also works with Kinect although limited to pause and back motion only.

 

[RudeCurve]

YouTube app is coming soon.

 

[Acert93]

Not sure why anyone is having problems browsing for game content in the new marketplace. If you want indie games, or arcade games, just look at "game type" off of the games layout in the marketplace. Then you can sort the listings a variety of ways. So far it's very easy to navigate by any of the control methods they've provided. The only thing I'm not super keen on is the friends layout showing avatars. It would be nice to have more on screen at once, but I like that you can choose to view by individuals or by party. I tend to use the list on the guide popup anyway.

And yet it is 4 days later and the Indie games is still broken, e.g., don't sort right. It is broken. I know for someone who never uses it it appears ok but they have 2 year old games showing up as the "recent releases"! And it may be a design choice but there is a Games, Add-ons, etc sections but when you go to Games they are showing up non-game material like addons.

 

[Scott_Arm]

And yet it is 4 days later and the Indie games is still broken, e.g., don't sort right. It is broken. I know for someone who never uses it it appears ok but they have 2 year old games showing up as the "recent releases"! And it may be a design choice but there is a Games, Add-ons, etc sections but when you go to Games they are showing up non-game material like addons.

When I was looking through I didn't notice any of those problems.

 

[AzBat]

So far I've liked the new organization, but I posted on the forums some concerns. Naturally it's too late in the cycle to make those changes but hopefully they'll get fixed in future updates. BTW, I really like the addition of Apps. Lets hope they open it up more to developers. Also glad they are making Kinect support required, but it seems like they haven't made it required to use voice for searching. Some apps have a search function & those that do it won't let you use your voice. BTW, those that got in with the Preview evidently get early access to the upcoming apps. Currently I have about 16 different apps. YouTube is one, but it's not working yet. UFC is another one. They give you the PPV for free for testing tonight. So I'm watching it to see how it works. Kind of neat.

BTW, I don't get the complaints on auto-playing in Netflix. The biggest complaint should be about the removal of Party support. It's missing from all apps I believe. That was suppose to be the added feature that warranted requiring a Live Gold subscription. Seems like they should be making it available all Live members now.

Tommy McClain

 

[AlphaWolf]

BTW, I don't get the complaints on auto-playing in Netflix. The biggest complaint should be about the removal of Party support. It's missing from all apps I believe. That was suppose to be the added feature that warranted requiring a Live Gold subscription. Seems like they should be making it available all Live members now.

You really think there's anyone that gave a crap about netflix party support? A feature that almost no one ever used is unlikely to register as the biggest target of complaints.

Generally I like the new netflix app there's some big improvements in the features, but there's some issues that I don't like, but most of those are easily fixable (such as episodes listed last to first).

 

[AzBat]

You really think there's anyone that gave a crap about netflix party support? A feature that almost no one ever used is unlikely to register as the biggest target of complaints.

There are least 2 people in this forum: me & Rancid. Plus there were many complaints in the preview forums too. You may not care for it, but I know myself & others do.

Tommy McClain

 

[AlphaWolf]

Forums don't tend to be very representative of the general population. I very much doubt it was a highly used feature, and I expect that might have brought about its demise.

<edit>

The new app platform on Xbox does not support the video party mode feature at this time, so will not be available in any existing app partners that have updated their app, like Netflix, or any of the new Xbox app partners. The feature is still available in some of our international video apps, like BSkyB in the UK and will likely be included in the next version of the app dev kit. For customers that would like to chat with their Xbox LIVE friends while gaming or watching videos the chat feature is still available via the Xbox Guide.

So I guess it may make a return. /shrug

 

[AzBat]

Here's the link to Microsoft's official response...

http://kotaku.com/5866245/say-goodbye-to-netflixs-party-mode-on-the-xbox-360

2 interesting things from that: 1) they've created an App platform 2) it's possible it will show up in the next dev kit

Rancid, there's still hope. Until then we'll have to watch movies the old fanshioned way. LOL

Tommy McClain

 

[Barbarian]

Well they are sorely mistaken, I still can't believe how bad the app is and it's even worse they would defend their decisions seeing all the backlash on the internet.

It's pretty clear from the recent events that Netflix don't know what they are doing anymore.
I find the new app pretty terrible as well. Is this the price to pay for subtitles and 5.1? I hope not.

 

[NavNucST3]

So far I've liked the new organization, but I posted on the forums some concerns. Naturally it's too late in the cycle to make those changes but hopefully they'll get fixed in future updates. BTW, I really like the addition of Apps. Lets hope they open it up more to developers. Also glad they are making Kinect support required, but it seems like they haven't made it required to use voice for searching. Some apps have a search function & those that do it won't let you use your voice. BTW, those that got in with the Preview evidently get early access to the upcoming apps. Currently I have about 16 different apps. YouTube is one, but it's not working yet. UFC is another one. They give you the PPV for free for testing tonight. So I'm watching it to see how it works. Kind of neat.

BTW, I don't get the complaints on auto-playing in Netflix. The biggest complaint should be about the removal of Party support. It's missing from all apps I believe. That was suppose to be the added feature that warranted requiring a Live Gold subscription. Seems like they should be making it available all Live members now.

Tommy McClain

I can only imagine that the only people who continue to be confused by this never watch TV shows through Netflix. Either that or every person in the household has their own Netflix account. Or, in their households when an episode reaches 100% it never resets its flag and when you go to play, at a later time/date, what should be the next episode, the one you've previously watched plays again. It is even better when watching a long series like Doctor Who where episodes from seasons ago play because their watched flags have cleared. Or, those of use with parental controls turned on who previously could click an obfuscated title and after entering the passcode it would display all cover arts again can no longer do such because the movie immediately plays.

Epix is the same way whereby I can't see show most cover art because of parental controls. I still hate how Parental Controls + Standard Programming gives me a complete Zune video marketplace but Parental Controls + Family Programming doesn't, even though I've never seen the descriptor for the Programming setting saying it would affect Zune Video. Speaking of which I mentioned this on GAF but since I get no eyeball time there I'll mention it here as well, for those that get offended by the "Advertisement" panel in searches and on the dash, if you turn on Family Programming it disappears. The downsides are it affects zune marketplace AND which Sales/Deals you see (that is the frustrating one).

 

[AzBat]

Haven't played any TV shows since the update. Will give that a whirl to see what the fuss is about. BTW, I no longer use parental controls. So that's not an issue for me anymore.

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

Found another way to block ads without using parental controls...

http://kotaku.com/5866681/how-to-block-xbox-360s-newest-feature-dashboard-ads

Personally I don't have a problem with them.

Tommy McClain

 

[RobertR1]

My other half is not happy about the changes to netflix. Hopefully the live team is passing all feedback to netflix.

 

[NavNucST3]

Found another way to block ads without using parental controls...

http://kotaku.com/5866681/how-to-block-xbox-360s-newest-feature-dashboard-ads

Personally I don't have a problem with them.

Tommy McClain

I would wager that 90%, if not 95% of my gaming "in the know" comes from dashboard items so there is no way I would want to take the chance that blocking would cause more items to not appear (which is my problem with Family Programming).

 

[Scott_Arm]

For some reason never shows me my recently watched and never shows me a new movies category. WTF? Those were pretty much standard lists I wanted to see, and now they are never available.

 

[willardjuice]

My other half is not happy about the changes to netflix. Hopefully the live team is passing all feedback to netflix.

She's 100% right. What a horrible update for netflix.