New XBOX 360 Live Experience...

[Aaron]

  Last night I turn on my 360 and it appears the new interface with avatars has been released.  I played around with it for about an hour and have to say so far I am impressed.  While the whole avatar thing really does not mean much to me, it seems to have been handled well and will probably be a lot of fun with games that incorporate them.  I certainly enjoy the Wii games that incorporate avatars.  I really haven't taken enough time to dig into the new interface much but one of the biggest surprises was how intuitive the menus are now.  Another nice surprise was that I went to the music and video interfaces and found that it had automatically detected all of the computers in my home and linked to them, allowing me to stream music and video from any compuer in my house to my HD TV with surround sound.  I know that it was possible to this before, but it appears that a lot of work went into making things easier and more intuitive this time.  I am planning this weekend to explore the new NETFLIX feature for streaming movies. 
     I really wish I had a PS3 so I could make some comparisons with it's online experience, but there really is no comparison when it comes to the Wii.  I will be the first to admit the 360 certainly has it's share of faults (reliability comes to mind) but for an online experience I would venture to say they are leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.
     I would love to hear some feedback from everyone as to there experiences with the new interface and maybe some new features they have discovered that I should check out.

[Nixontech2071]

I love it! And I love how it takes advantage of the 360's unused CPU strength. Notice the interface. 

[Steve1]

I have not downloaded the update yet but I already know one feature I will like (and one that others seem to like also). I hate to look at my profile and see 0 gamerscore for demos and downloads. One thing I like about Xbox Live Arcade is that every game has a free download. Even if I like them, I don't download them all but they remain in my profile with 0 gamerscore. The ability to delete this is a welcome feature.

I've also heard a lot of people complain about the avatars. Personally, I am looking forward to this. I already have Scene It which uses avatars and I like the way it is implemented. Now, at least I can create my own.

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=Nixontech2071]Notice the interface.[/QUOTE]

Well, it's all interface, so which part of the interface?

[Nixontech2071]

[QUOTE=m0zart]

[QUOTE=Nixontech2071]Notice the interface.[/QUOTE]

Well, it's all interface, so which part of the interface?

[/QUOTE]

All pretty much, its like the CPU is finally utilized ALOT on the dashboard. Sorry...

[Aaron]

I certainly need to play around with it more but I am already considering purchasing a second 360 now.  One to put in my game room.  This is a room with a pool table, bar, poker table, a few arcade machines etc.  With the ability to stream music and video so easily, I could have a machine basically dedicated as a "jukebox" connected to some flat screen tv's in the room.

[Aaron]

[QUOTE=Nixontech2071][QUOTE=m0zart]

[QUOTE=Nixontech2071]Notice the interface.[/QUOTE]

Well, it's all interface, so which part of the interface?

[/QUOTE]

All pretty much, its like the CPU is finally utilized ALOT on the dashboard. Sorry...
[/QUOTE]

I agree graphically it is very impressive, although that has never been that important to me versus function.  So far on how intuitive the interface is and ease of use, I feel it is a giant leap forward over the old 360 interface.  That means a lot to me considering I always felt like the old interface was very good.  This new one though really has me envisioning the 360 as more than just a games machine but rather an entire entertainment centerpiece.  Again this is all based on very early impressions, I hope I am not disappointed as I learn more about it.

[bluemonkey1]

I was surprised as I thought I would hate the avatars but they're actually alright.  I think because they are more lifelike than the Miis on the Wii.  The biggest feature for me though is the Party options.  The ability to group chat, follow each other across games without having to reinvite each person individually and then auto rejoin the party after game updates is pure class.  Love the new UI and the fact it seems to cache XBLA and audio/video content too.

[JasonhasRSI1]

For me, the best feature is the ability to install games to the HDD. Not only does this drastically cut down on loading for most games, it all abut wipes out the single most annoying (non RROD) thing about the 360 - the annoying fan and disc drive noise.

[ActRaiser1]

I spent a good hour last night copying disks to my xbox only to find out not all of them will be sped up, in particular Halo 3 is actually slower.  Bungie's website has it posted as well.

Anyways, I'm liking it a lot.  I played around with the Netflix option and found it incredibly easy to use.  The only downer is that Netflix's list of movies and tv shows to stream is pretty small so it's not going to replace your existing disk based queue.  One other quark was that as the console itself displays in 1080i you might just have an up converting dvd player when streaming content.  I couldn't stretch the 4:3 images like you normally can do when watching regular movies on the 360.  As a result, I'm not really sure yet if the image quality is better than a standard dvd but it's an interesting aspect regardless.