Microsoft has announced nearly 85 enhancements to its Xbox 360 for the Fall season that include support for native 1080p games and movies, faster Arcade game list display times, and more video playback options, amongst others.

The enhancements will be distributed for free via the Xbox Live Online Gaming and Entertainment Network to Gold and Silver members. Currently, Xbox Live has a membership of more than 4-million.

With the expanded HD display with 1080p resolution, gamers can now enjoy gaming and video content in the best possible HD resolution. A separate HD-DVD drive will be provided by the company later this month that will allow Xbox 360 owners to play HD-DVD movies in 1080p, when connected to a 1080p HDTV.

The HD-DVD player will cost around $199 (Rs 8,960), and will come with a limited edition HD-DVD of Peter Jackson's King Kong.

The extended video playback options will include support for 50 hz HDTV display modes, whereby Xbox users can stream WMV video from a Windows PC-running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
Another enhancement will be the ability to play video files from data CDs and DVDs, as also from storage devices like USB 2.0 flash drives and Xbox 360 Memory Units.

Further, newly-released Xbox Live Arcade trial games will now be able to be automatically downloaded, thus doing away with the need to manually search for new downloads.

Some other enhancements include fast enumeration of games; new sorting options such as 'Recently Played' and 'By Category'; a new option on the game info screen titled 'Tell a Friend'; and an expanded friends Leaderboard within the Xbox Live Arcade.

As part of the enhancements, certain features have undergone a nip and tuck, including the 'Play Now' feature.

Source: http://www.techtree.com/

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