Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update

With the improvements made in the fall update I can finally say that I’m really happy about my Xbox 360 purchase. The update has fixed some things that has been nagging me now and then.

  • Lightning-fast enumeration and listing of all Xbox Live® Arcade games on the console.
  • Optionally disable notifications from Xbox Live while watching DVD movies.
  • Better handling of unreadable discs.
  • Added new page for viewing content size by category.

And added the one feature that I’ve really missed.

  • Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11, Zune software, or Windows Media Connect.

With the streaming capability it now really is the media hub in my living room in addition to being a great gaming machine.

To be able to stream video to my Xbox 360 from my PC I currently convert my video to WMV I’m using VideoLAN and the batch file found here. I’ve added it to my SendTo menu for quick access. It’s not the fastest and most easy to use solution but it works, and once the transcoding is done the video player on the Xbox 360 works really well. Much easier to use than hooking up my laptop to the tv.

When TVersity supports on the fly transcoding to WMV I’ll probably use it as server instead of Windows Media Player 11 which should make things even easier to use.

Spring Xbox 360 dashboard update

Looks like the next update contains at least one feature, in addition to some user interface tweaks, I’ve wished for many times. The ability to download stuff from the live marketplace in the background.
The media system has also been changed but I have no idea how. I can’t for my life understand what ign is trying to describe.

Changes to the Media section might send little shivers of relief up your spine. Music is now seamlessly integrated into your dashboard to such a degree that you can now play the music of your choice while playing a game without fiddling around.

But I’ll find out soon enough, next week 🙂

Link