360 dashboard update to be ready by morning
by Dan Choi 
{ Jun 5th 2006 at 11:27PM }
The long awaited 360 dashboard update is finally coming, arriving by invite for most Stateside gamers sometime early tomorrow morning.
The update will actually begin to go out by 2:00 AM PT, but, according to Major Nelson, it "can take up to four hours for a user to be prompted to receive this update," so the invitation to download the small-in-size (but large-in-scope) update could arrive as late as 6:00 AM PT.
Patient gamers can look forward to 125 new features for their cream-colored Xboxes, including the ability to queue multiple Marketplace downloads, keep your place in DVDs, and even fast-forward to just the choicest parts of videos (like the one featuring the titular Tomb Raider above). Plan your evening and/or morning accordingly, folks.
See also:
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in; also via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The ZeroCorpse @ Jun 5th 2006 11:36PM
Yay!
I've been waiting. Good thing I'm a night owl. I'll be among the first to get it. Woohoo!
Now I can start up all those downloads I've been considering...
jOEfRO @ Jun 5th 2006 11:55PM
yes...finally i cant wait to dwnld EVERY single nacho libre confessional for jack black which they add about a thousand each day
Daniel McCormick @ Jun 6th 2006 12:10AM
Don't know if you saw it but the sixth last point in the press release was:
"Better support for Xbox 360 game disc recognition"
Wonder what that means for those who have flashed their DVD-ROM firmware :)
heavyness @ Jun 6th 2006 12:16AM
i'm looking forward to the back ground dl'ing and the custom music always playing [even from one 360 to another]. boot to dash is nice too!
also, my wife hates the "beep" you hear when navigating through the UI, and now you can turn it off! bonus!
ForbidenMaster @ Jun 6th 2006 12:36AM
Now can you take off annoyances 3,4, and 14?
Dan Choi @ Jun 6th 2006 12:44AM
"Now can you take off annoyances 3,4, and 14?"
Dunno if we can take 'em off, ForbidenMaster (it would probably be best to keep the original posts up, no?), but we certainly are happy that the issues they described are finally being addressed. Trust us, we're probably as happy about the updates for our 360s as you are. Now, about annoyances 1, 2, 5, 6, etc., etc.... =)
ForbidenMaster @ Jun 6th 2006 1:25AM
"Dunno if we can take 'em off, ForbidenMaster (it would probably be best to keep the original posts up, no?), but we certainly are happy that the issues they described are finally being addressed. Trust us, we're probably as happy about the updates for our 360s as you are. Now, about annoyances 1, 2, 5, 6, etc., etc.... =)"
LOL, Touché
jon @ Jun 6th 2006 2:15AM
Wow the scope of the update is amazing. It's good to know that MS is committed to continually improving upon the 360 features and experience throughout the life of the console. The 360 team has proven that it listens to it's customers. Sony take note.
James @ Jun 6th 2006 2:59AM
Maybe not remove each of the annoyance posts listed, but how about an update that the specific annoyance has been fixed?
Scooter @ Jun 6th 2006 5:01AM
Wow, its 2 AM PST, any hour now hahaha
Scooter @ Jun 6th 2006 5:15AM
Just got Update invite, Dowloading right now, actually its restarting already
J @ Jun 6th 2006 5:22AM
Woot. Just got the update.
Fanboyism @ Jun 6th 2006 5:30AM
I got the update also.
It may have 125 features/bug fixes but to be honest it has only 2 fixes that i wanted.
Startup to dashboard when a game disc is in the drive and multidownload.
So far so good. Im downloading 6 arcade games right now. Happy.
Scooter @ Jun 6th 2006 5:30AM
Up and running, I love it!
Danny O'B @ Jun 6th 2006 5:53AM
i can't wait for this update, and i had no idea there would be this many improvements, however subtle. i must say i am impressed by microsoft, they should of said there was gonna be this many improvements, then i wouldn't of been as grumpy about the delay of the update.
on a side note, i noticed in some comments here and some of the pictures posted here, some of the content you are downloading, is not available on my XBLM at all, that leeroy jenkins video i remember clearly as downloading in the picture showing the queue up function, and that jack black comment earlier(not sure whether that was joking around or not) makes me wonder, do you in the US get different content available to you...??
(cuz i for one would love to see that leeroy vid)
Scooter @ Jun 6th 2006 6:15AM
Alright, I was playing burnout, no problems. This is after I downloaded the update, well in the middle of the game it crashed, NEVER had this happen before. got a error that said disc read error, clean disc. Well, ok fine i eject it, PERFECTLY CLEAN. reinsert it, and what is this? it says to play this disc insert it into an XBOX360. WTF do you think i just did? Now it wont play it at all. I will try to restart and go again. WTF did microsoft do to me?!?! Also, on the dashboard it says "Play DVD" instead of game. hmm
Scooter @ Jun 6th 2006 6:20AM
Okay, after the restarr it works again. It happend when I was listening to a custom soundtrack before i started the game and then at a point where the game was saving is when it went crazy. Anyone else come across this?
Stevie @ Oct 17th 2006 5:06PM
I'm quite surprised that I haven't seen anyone yet pointing out the fact that you couldn't switch the Dashboard's sound effects off until now.
That's something I'm really looking forward to, it gets quite annoying after a while!
Kudos to Microsoft for listening to their customers, I really hope they can keep this up.
It'd be very nice to have an RSS Reader, MSN Messenger integration and a browser next... :)
Ryan @ Jun 6th 2006 7:37AM
The update hit at 6:03AM CDT!
Billy Dee Williams @ Jun 6th 2006 7:45AM
Burnout Revenge for the 360 is just as buggy as the XBox and PS2 versions.
teknomusik @ Jun 6th 2006 8:19AM
"16. Alright, I was playing burnout, no problems. This is after I downloaded the update, well in the middle of the game it crashed, NEVER had this happen before. got a error that said disc read error, clean disc. Well, ok fine i eject it, PERFECTLY CLEAN. reinsert it, and what is this? it says to play this disc insert it into an XBOX360. WTF do you think i just did? Now it wont play it at all. I will try to restart and go again. WTF did microsoft do to me?!?! Also, on the dashboard it says "Play DVD" instead of game. hmm"
That has happened to me before... I can't remember what game I was playing but it happened a few weeks ago. A restart fixed it for me as well.
vidGuy @ Jun 6th 2006 9:24AM
I'm glad MS is releasing this update, but I'm also somewhat skeptical.
"It's good to know that MS is committed to continually improving upon the 360 features and experience throughout the life of the console. The 360 team has proven that it listens to it's customers. Sony take note."
Well, MS is smart to update their console and support it while there's no competition and a large market to collect. I'll truly be impressed if they continue to release a new update "every six months" after the first 18 months of the 360's life.
Yet there's also an argument to be made that if they hadn't jumped the gun on this console generation, background downloading and similar features would have been available from launch like they should have been.
KilgoreTrout XL @ Jun 6th 2006 9:41AM
Vidguy:
I guess I just don't buy that argument. Not that it isn't somewhat valid I suppose, but if you're an advocate of it then your position basically would be that you favor waiting nine months for the "perfect dash" over getting what was an already great menu, but left room for improvement. In other words, the last nine months simply weren't worth it.
Why I think that ISN'T the case is simple: If your argument was adopted by MS, then I wouldn't be able to play Geometry Wars or Table Tennis in 720p when I get home from work tonight. And that would suck.
hoos30 @ Jun 6th 2006 9:50AM
So far so good on the update; Got it this morning before work and I'll check out the rest when I get home. I've even dl'ed sutff I don't want. Who the hell is Matisyahu anyway....
DouggyD @ Jun 6th 2006 9:52AM
I can't wait to get the update, would have been nice if it came before E3, but who am I to complain. Just a quick note that I also had a similar problem with the disc read error, etc., but it was with Oblivion, and it was a couple weeks ago. Not sure why, I've never had a problem before or since, seems pretty random.
sputnik @ Jun 6th 2006 9:58AM
#22...It takes time to reach perfection. The Xbox Live service has been evolving and improving for over 4 years now. MS changed controller designs several times listening to customer input, The 360 controller is MS 3rd controller and much better than the previous 2. This update and Microsoft general mentality towards user feedback is very good indeed. There are not many pieces of hardware that receive this much attention and support.
We have never seen such service and attention to detail from either Sony or Nintendo. So while not perfect (update delivered 9 months after launch), this type of attention and response to users is the best in the industry. MS deserves a little credit for that.
MickeyD @ Jun 6th 2006 10:12AM
Alright now, this new dashboard is great! Boot to dashboard? Check. Continuous music player between apps? Check. Menus a bit faster? Check (but mainly when streaming music, at least for me). Oh and my 360 remoted has been de-gimped. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't speed-scroll through my 1000+ songs streaming from my computer, I would still grab the controller and hold the right trigger, somewhat defeating the purpose of using the remote in the first place. Did I forget something? Oh yeah. The background downloading is awesome, the crippled 360 syndrome really sucked. Nice job Micro$oft, now back to Table Tennis, Juergen Rulez!
Geezer @ Jun 6th 2006 10:30AM
It says DVD playback at native resolution. Does this mean that it will playback at 720p if thats the resolution its set at.
Paul @ Jun 6th 2006 10:48AM
Indeed. DVD upscaling!!!!!
Why doesn't that one get honorable mention?!?
Mookie @ Jun 6th 2006 11:33AM
Current DVD CCA rules specifically prohibit SD DVD upconversion over component outputs.
n00b_sauce @ Jun 6th 2006 12:00PM
I'm very happy to see the addition of USB keyboard support- does this mean WOW is one the way? Where is mouse support?