Xbox360 Dashboard is fugly!

[Sc4freak]

I just bought a new Xbox 360, and I was immediately startled at how ugly the dashboard is. Not the design of it or anything, but it appeared to be very low resolution. The textures and the text were blurred, pixelated, as if they used low-res textures.

I've already configured my Xbox 360 to HD mode, and my TV confirms that it is running in HD. There's no problem in games, just the dashboard. I compared it to the PS3's menu, and the PS3's text is sharp, crisp.

Is the dashboard supposed to look like this, or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Arwin]

I think it's partly due to the fact that the dashboard hasn't really been designed to deal with different resolutions all that well. On a widescreen TV you can really tell because everything still fits within a 4:3 window. All graphics are also fixed resolution.

I can't remember though whether or not you can set a separate resolution for your games and your dashboard, that might make things worse. But in general, yes, the dashboard could have been designed better imho.

 

[archangelmorph]

I just bought a new Xbox 360, and I was immediately startled at how ugly the dashboard is. Not the design of it or anything, but it appeared to be very low resolution. The textures and the text were blurred, pixelated, as if they used low-res textures.

I've already configured my Xbox 360 to HD mode, and my TV confirms that it is running in HD. There's no problem in games, just the dashboard. I compared it to the PS3's menu, and the PS3's text is sharp, crisp.

Is the dashboard supposed to look like this, or am I doing something wrong?

Mine's the same.. I think it is from what I can tell.. An update a while ago seemed to help it a bit more (since I was running in 1280x1024 via VGA..) but it's still nowhere near as sharp & crisp as the XMB on my PS3..

 

[woundingchaney]

What size is your tv?? I have a 65 inch in the living room and the text can get a bit blurry/jagged as you state, however I didnt notice this on my old 50 inch.

 

[pipo]

No way.

I'm using it on my HD projector and it's fine. You're either overreacting or doing something wrong with your setup.

What's the Dash resolution?

 

[infinity4]

1280x1024 is apparently the worst resolution in Xbox 360.

I run it on 1280x1024 and dashboard looks really pixellated only when I open up grey blade if you know what I am talking about.

But the rest looks fine IMO.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Looks great IMO.

 

[PARANOiA]

What kind of display are you using? What's the native resolution? What resolution is your 360 running at?

 

[AzBat]

I just bought a new Xbox 360, and I was immediately startled at how ugly the dashboard is. Not the design of it or anything, but it appeared to be very low resolution. The textures and the text were blurred, pixelated, as if they used low-res textures.

I've already configured my Xbox 360 to HD mode, and my TV confirms that it is running in HD. There's no problem in games, just the dashboard. I compared it to the PS3's menu, and the PS3's text is sharp, crisp.

Is the dashboard supposed to look like this, or am I doing something wrong?

The only thing I can I think of is might have forgotten to slide the switch on the AV cable to HDTV. By default it is set to TV.

I have a LCD that's native 768p and it looks just fine.

Tommy McClain

 

[Sc4freak]

My TV's native resolution is 1920x1080, full HD. I've got my Xbox 360 set to 1080p, and the switch is set to "HDTV". As I said, the games look fine, but it just looks like the entire dashboard is using low-res textures.

 

[archangelmorph]

My TV's native resolution is 1920x1080, full HD. I've got my Xbox 360 set to 1080p, and the switch is set to "HDTV". As I said, the games look fine, but it just looks like the entire dashboard is using low-res textures.

That's because it does..

Don't forget peeps:

- The dashboard needs to be consistent from one blade to the next
- The blades need to be accessible during gameplay
- The blades (& the rest of the OS) can only occupy a limited amount of RAM while in-game

Ergo if you take all these points into consideration it's clear why the dashboard GUI had to be compressed quite a bit for effeciency reasons..

 

[AzBat]

My TV's native resolution is 1920x1080, full HD. I've got my Xbox 360 set to 1080p, and the switch is set to "HDTV". As I said, the games look fine, but it just looks like the entire dashboard is using low-res textures.

I'd suggest trying the other output options (VGA like archangelmorph or HDMI). Hopefully you'll find a connection that looks better.

BTW, the dashboard uses a psuedo flash language to create the interface and the current update only takes up 7mb. When the 360 first shipped it only took up 3mb. They've got 9mb left of the 16mb NAND flash. Lots of room for updates going forward.

Tommy McClain

 

[JacksBleedingEyes]

My TV's native resolution is 1920x1080, full HD. I've got my Xbox 360 set to 1080p, and the switch is set to "HDTV". As I said, the games look fine, but it just looks like the entire dashboard is using low-res textures.

I certainly see the difference when changing the resolutions, but when I run it in 1080i it's about as crips as it gets. So long as the text is crisp I couldn't really care about the graphics, which as far as I'm concerned serve their purpose.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I've only seen the dash in 1080i on a 1080 native set, and in glorious SDTV-o-vision. The HD version looked very good and crisp. The latter looked like SD does - not the most clear of text, but not a ghastly mess.

 

[valioso]

it looks just fine on my tv...

 

[specwarGP2]

Dashboard is an aesthetic mess. This is one area where PS3 is clearly superior to 360

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Not really IMO.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Well I agree that aesthetically the Dashboard doesn't support great design. It's higgledy-piggledy and cluttered, and lacks panache. After seeing Media Centre I was hoping for something more swish like that. Even Wii is a lot classier than Dashboard IMO.

 

[specwarGP2]

Not really IMO.

Dashboard is cluttered, has bright garish colors, and is plain big ol mess. Its like a myspace page.

 

[Tap In]

Dashboard is cluttered, has bright garish colors, and is plain big ol mess. Its like a myspace page.

that's because it's a technical masterpiece.. for what it does do (fitting a lot in a small space and fully functional ALL the time). oh.... and you can customize the colors.

BTW, the dashboard uses a psuedo flash language to create the interface and the current update only takes up 7mb. When the 360 first shipped it only took up 3mb. They've got 9mb left of the 16mb NAND flash. Lots of room for updates going forward.