Comments on: The New Xbox Experience Is Here

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:01:15 +0000

Does anyone else find it incredibly frustrating that the Netflix app doesn’t indicate which movies are available in HD? You have to hit play and wait for it to buffer before it tells you if the title is available in HD. I wonder why they’re doing that. For people like me who only want movies in HD, that’s really annoying. Hopefully they add an indicator to each movie soon. In the meantime, I’ve been using isitinhd.com to see which movies you can watch in HD (although I don’t think that’s a complete list yet).

By: Tom M

Tom M — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:27:48 +0000

I like what I see so far, but it’s going to take some practice to figure out where everything is. Also, the Netflix ‘Watch Instantly’ catalog is disappointing.

I tried to install COD4 onto my drive last night but it crapped out 19% of the way through due to some scratches on the DVD. I assuming I could borrow a copy, install it, and then use my scratched up copy to satisfy the MS copy protection scheme.

I started to setup my avatar as an approximation of myself but then figured a huge mustache and a linen suit looked better.

By: Alexi

Alexi — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:14:57 +0000

As someone who spends a lot of time playing games on the device, the new party option is a huge improvement over the old chat that limited you to two-person communications outside of games. Not having to accept chat invites (which can take valuable seconds when you’re running for your life in a fast-paced FPS) is a pretty big deal. Also – more information about what you’re doing in-game is available to friends that join your party. For instance, I can see not only which game my friend is playing, but which team they’re on, as well–information that wasn’t previously available from anywhere but in-game. Now if only Sony would ease up a bit on that Xbox-restricted content…

By: Harvey

Harvey — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:36:46 +0000

I was extremely underwhelmed. I had been waiting for this for months and the only positive thing I’ve found is installing games to the hard drive. The avatars look too silly and there is no content available for them yet. It feels too much like a money grab. There are tons of new things to buy out there, but they won’t get any money out of me for it.

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:19:29 +0000

I actually signed back up for Netflix after the update and it’s implemented very well outside the limitation of no adding items directly from the interface and a lack of some content (i.e. Xbox streaming not available at this time). Anyhow, I’m impressed after 20 minutes with it. Installing GOW2 to the hard drive as I type this.

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:20:46 +0000

Kevin, do they have designer glasses for your avatar?

Spark, agree on the long lists. I’m surprised this still hasn’t been solved and doesn’t work well (with a lot of content) using a 10′ interface. The Netflix browsing/adding limitation is also present on other Netflix STBs like the Roku. I do agree it’d make sense to offer the entire catalog… though perhaps they too are struggling with the ‘list’ problem. (And the PS3 doesn’t have a solution either with those tiny thumbnails I can’t see from the couch representing VOD titles.)

By: Spark

Spark — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:14:19 +0000

Some initial reactions:
1) The Netflix interface is nice. The inability to add movies via the XBox interface is clearly a tradeoff they made. However, the setup was fast and efficient, and when I add movies to my “Instant Queue” via a web browser, they show up on my Xbox in about 3-5 seconds.

2) They have made no changes to the “browser” for large lists of content. This is a huge problem for me. I use the XBox as my mp3 players. There is no quick way to move through the ENTIRE list of Artists. The same is true for any other list. Go to the Video Marketplace and try and find a movie. You basically get a big list of 800+ items to scroll through. They really need to fix this, but apparently they don’t agree. I find this to be a real limiting factor for using the XBox as my “media center”.

3) The new look and feel is nice. I think right now I just like the newness of it. I still hate avatars. But, I guess we are in an avatar world for a while..;)

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:20:48 +0000

I only logged on to upgrade today and create my new Wii, er Xbox avatar. I’ll have to kick the tires tomorrow. For now, I’m trying to figure out who’s avatar looks more like them in real life: yours or mine?