Given the amount of first-person shooter online gaming I partake in these days, it was bound to happen… In a recent Call of Duty World at War online match with more than the usual amount of trash talking going on (guilty, as charged), one player who couldn’t hold his own in the virtual battle or in the verbal sparring took it to another level when he threatened me, saying “I’ll kill you in real life with a real gun.” Of course, it’s highly unlikely I’m in any danger. What we have here is a maladjusted individual with poor anger management and interpersonal skills.

However, this seemed like a good opportunity to change my Gamertag to something a bit more anonymous. You see, when I originally setup Xbox Live I had zero intention of gaming with others. It was all about downloading high definition movies. And I’ve never been shy about interacting online without a veil of anonymity. But, going forward, why tempt fate? So I gave the Xbox Live support folks a call… and it turns out a death threat doesn’t exempt you from the Gamertag change fee, which runs 800 Microsoft Points. As Microsoft doesn’t actually match Points to dollars or sell 800 Point bundles via Live, I ended up paying $12.50 for 1,000 Points to fund my new identity.

Death threats must come in regularly, because the support staff didn’t seem concerned. In fact, I’d say they were pretty dismissive. Which leads to the point of this post… Keep your kids away from Xbox Live, ensure they’re supervised by an adult, or get a Wii instead. There’s just way too much profanity, hate speech, and apparently threats going on.

The New Xbox Experience (NXE) has finally arrived. And I imagine many will be rushing home from work to check it out tonight. Some thoughts, after living with it a few weeks…

The most obvious changes you’ll see are to the interface. Microsoft blew up the “blades” and has pretty much started from scratch. While some organization and navigation conventions will feel vaguely familiar, the look & feel is vastly different. Some have said it’s more efficient and better organized, though I’m not so sure - perhaps a couple years of muscle memory is holding me back.

The first thing you’ll want to do is create an avatar. While I’ll still not entirely sold on the concept (or point), here’s my first, best, and only attempt at a virtual DZ. Once you’ve gotten past that, Netflix subscribers who have Xbox Live Gold membership should immediately download and sample the video player. (You’ll also want a remote.) It’s a pretty nice experience, other than the limited fast forward and rewind functionality, especially due to the introduction of select high definition movies and television programming. Though, competitor Sony (PS3) may be playing licensing hardball. Speaking of downloadable content, the Xbox Marketplace is now available on the web - view your history and purchase new stuff: videos, games, themes.

Last, but surely not least, of the notable new features is the ability to rip games to the hard drive. I highly recommend this for titles you plan to invest significant time in - Call of Duty World at War in my case. While you’ll still need to keep a game disc in the drive for authentication, it’s not going to spin up with considerable noise while you play. I assume it also reduces load times.

Once you’ve taken the New Xbox Experience for a spin, let us know in the comments what works for you and what MS muffed. And if you’re looking for a bit more guidance, check out Gizmodo’s Top Ten List or NewTeeVee’s summary of Netflix streaming.

My Xbox 360 finally experienced the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD). Over the last few weeks my 360’s been randomly freezing-up while playing Dead Space. It crashed/hung more and more frequently until I couldn’t run the console for more than 10 minutes without locking up. Many times it froze on the boot screen and initially I didn’t get the classic Red Ring of Death.

I called Microsoft support, expecting to have to pay for a warranty repair. Happily, while the support rep walked me through his trouble-shooting script, the console displayed the Red Ring of Death for the first time. I was able to boot the 360 a couple more times after the first RRoD, but it inevitably failed to the Red-Ring-of-Death state within minutes or seconds.

The reason why I’m happy about this, is because I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones that acquired the 360 at launch  – November 22, 2005. Microsoft’s extended RRoD warranty lasts three years from the date of purchase. My 360 RRoD’d just days before the third anniversary of my purchase date. As a result, I qualified for the free replacement.

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Netflix Week continues (and we may not even done)…

This morning, the New Xbox Experience (NXE) was delivered to my console. After quickly creating a non-representative (i.e. slender) avatar, I jumped right into Netflix. Unlike the previous 360 interface, the new one appears to be extensible - adding functionality without requiring a massive software update. What I’m trying to say is that Netflix isn’t pre-loaded and, by clicking on the tile for the first time, I was prompted to download it.

The Xbox Netflix interface is much richer, both in appearance and functionality, than what currently exists on the Roku Netflix box. A conceptual hurdle for some, at least initially, may still be fast forward and rewind via thumnail rather than traditional video scrubbing - a Netflix streaming limitation design decision. Like Engadget, I can put to bed the HDCP requirement rumors… Netflix, Xbox, and my HDTV are all reporting high definition streaming. I suppose it’s possible that Netflix is reducing the resolution over my component connection, but wouldn’t the UI indicate that? It also may be possible that HDCP is required only when using HDMI - meaning, some early HD sets may not support the handshake.

In the video above, you can see the opening Xbox video and a brief Netflix Watch Instantly walk-thru. Keep in mind that due to my network capture technique and YouTube encoding, you’ll probably notice dropped frames and longer buffering - this is not entirely representative. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps a recording is worth 10,000. At least until that take-down notice arrives…

The NXE is currently available as a preview to a limited subset of customers and official launch is scheduled for November 19th.

Like all dedicated Xbox 360 fanboys, I’ve spent my morning delving into Engadget and Gizmodo’s New Xbox Experience (NXE) coverage. Buried within Engadget’s write-up was one very compelling picture (above) and related commentary:

A small perk — but huge deal as far as we’re concerned — is the inclusion of a limited amount of HD content. We previewed Heroes in HD, and the quality was stunning. Right now there’s only about 300 titles on offer, but we think after folks get a taste of this, they’ll be begging for some expansion.

The inclusion of select HD streaming is quite promising, especially in conjunction with the new Starz lineup and as long as Netflix continues to freely bundle online video with unlimited disc rental plans. Though I wonder if this will be an Xbox-only exclusive for now, or if we’ll be seeing HD streaming on computers and other hardware platforms soon. We do know the Roku Netflix box is capable of outputting HD resolutions, but is the hardware capable of crunching and caching the content? Remember, most 360s have plenty of hard drive storage…

While the Xbox team was taking preview applicants, I imagine most of us will be impatiently awaiting the official launch of NXE on November 19th.

I first came across PlayOn a few weeks ago. The PC-based software streams several Internet video site’s content to DLNA-compatible devices. PlayOn is still in beta, though the promised Netflix Watch Now support has just hit. Like most of the PlayOn experience, it continues to be rough around the edges - which is not unreasonable for pre-release software.

There’s a lot of promise here… Folks would much rather watch long form content from their couch and PlayOn leverages existing hardware platforms, such as the Xbox 360 and PS3 with Wii support on the way. While I am hopeful, thus far my experiences have been mixed. Check out the list of folders below right. That’s how you (try to) navigate Hulu. My Netflix experiment this AM wasn’t so successful either. While I could bring up my playlist (above), no movies would stream. And after a few minutes of futzing, PlayOn decided my Netflix credentials were no longer valid.

If they can tighten up the experience, both interface and reliability, while keeping up with any changes these sites will periodically throw at them, PlayOn will be well worth the $30 software fee. But not yet.

While Amazon and SonyStyle don’t yet have inventory, the new 80GB Playstation 3 SKU slated for a September release started shipping to various other retail outlets as early as August 20th. In fact, my local GameStop received inventory last week. And today I swapped my (former) Xbox 360 for the new PS3. Sony’s more compact and less noisy design appeals. But Blu-ray winning the HD optical disc war coupled with inclusion of the new DualShock controller are what finally moved me.