Beginning at 2:00 a.m. PST on Dec. 4, the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update will be available for all connected Xbox 360 consoles free of charge, bringing an array of new features and enhancements to the leading gaming and entertainment system.

Among the key new enhancements are the previously announced Xbox Originals game download service, Family Timer parental control feature, and expanded social networking experiences. Xbox 360 owners can also look forward to enhanced navigation, profile and video features and Xbox LIVE Arcade Hits.

This free update will be digitally distributed over Xbox LIVE to the more than 8 million Xbox LIVE members worldwide (Xbox LIVE Silver and Gold) with no disc or hard drive required. Gamers without an Xbox LIVE account can easily sign up for the free network by connecting their console to a broadband internet connection. New features and enhancements include:

Account Management

Added error text to direct under 13 year old user to the Web when attempting to change contact information
Added Messenger Signup into Xbox LIVE signup
Added PEGI logo icons to Game ratings scenes
Added support for switching between Windows Live ID accounts
Added Support for User Graduation
Added support to allow users to change the Windows Live ID they use with their Xbox LIVE gamertag
Added support to Migrate Zune Accounts to Xbox LIVE accounts with purchase rights
Added text for "in-game voice" complaint option
Display MS Points Web Address correctly for Korea
Improved blocking support for Friends Only sessions
Improved enforcement of Windows Live ID and Gamertag Regions
Improved Informational Text for cases where Gamertag already in use
Improved parental control support for 48 hour trial codes
Improved robustness when viewing friends profiles and quickly backing out
Improved support for account recovery when no storage devices attached to console
Improved support for invalid characters in phone field
Improved support to cancel out of Credit Card scenes during account sign-up
Improved support to load Dashboard after exiting from Account Recovery
Improved text for accounts that have been banned
Improved text for Direct Debit in Germany
Improved text for explaining Gamertag, Gamercard, etc to users signing up
Improved text for recovering Gamertag dialogs
Improved text for Zune Accounts in Sign Up app
Improved text spacing for Recover Gamertag dialogs in Russian
Improved text support for handling expired credit cards during purchase transactions
Improved text to inform users that only 1 profile can have auto signin enabled
Improved text translations for Account Management in German Ads
Added support for Audio Mute/Unmute for video ads Community
Added double-high friends list to show more details for each friend
Added new feature "Inside Xbox" on the Xbox LIVE blade
Added support for richer profile viewing including Real name, Bio, Locations, etc
Added support to control privacy settings for Friends of Friends viewing
Added support to show friends a real name
Added support to view Friends of Friends
Display actual friends count and not list item count in Add Friend page
Improved German localized text for recent players blade
Improved robustness in Friends area when rapidly pressing A and B buttons
Improved support of viewing Friends profiles when friend has existing pending friends requests
Improved text messages for Privacy Settings in Blocked Communication scenarios
No longer report Invitations as 'sent' when communication set to 'blocked' Dashboard
Added ability to twist UI left and right to filter/sort in Media lists
Added 'Downloads' button to game launch page on Games Blade
Added fade out transitions for transitions from dash to video playback
Added Friends Playing Now feature to Games Blade for Xbox LIVE Arcade, Xbox Originals, Xbox 360 disc based games, and Xbox 360 Demos.
Added grouping support for TV & Game content in Media Blade
Added localization support for AM / PM in 12-hour clock format for Traditional and Simplified Chinese
Added sort by Title/Date for acquired Video library content
Added support for Featured Downloads in Arcade area of Games Blade
Added support for twist controls in offline Dashboard and Xbox Guide
Added support for updating Marketplace, Xbox LIVE and Games blade without full system update download
Added support for Video album art on attached hard drives in separate .jpg files
Added support to not write trial-version Arcade games to user's played games history (this is only for newly downloaded games after the Dec'07 update is released)
Allow all signed in users to access Banners in Dashboard or Marketplace, not just first signed in user
Arcade area shows '--' instead of '0' for gamerscore when signed out
Changed UI Flow for Media connectivity: default to console, and allow users to change device via X button. Also remember last chosen device
Disconnected MU or Controller Message persisted when launching back to Dashboard from Game Title
Improve accelerated scrolling speed for long lists
Improve transition speed of blades
Improved consistency in confirmation text when deleting items
Improved enumeration speed of lists in games blade
Improved error handling when signing out while viewing a marketplace ad
Improved handling of moving game profiles from MU to HDD
Improved localization text for Polish in System Update dialogs
Improved performance of Guide Transitions
Improved progress bar accuracy when moving large files from MU to HDD
Improved responsiveness of Dashboard overall
Improved robustness after attempting to resume an expired purchased video
Improved robustness when comparing achievements after connection to LIVE is lost
Improved support for Daylight Savings Time in Alaska time zone
Improved support for handling disc full when downloading movies from Marketplace
Improved text layout for blade names in CHT (Traditional Chinese)
Improved text on Startup page in System Blade area
Improved text translations for Arcade area in Japan
Removed PC Affiliation from the System Blade
Starting DVD playback with 2 or more wireless controllers shows all game pads on the console ring of light
Starting DVD playback with a mix of wired and wireless controllers now shows all game pads on the console ring of light
System Update Message in Russian properly formatted

DVD / HD-DVD

Added CHT language support to video players
Improved accuracy of tray state when ejecting multiple times
Improved robustness when ejecting discs from external HD-DVD drive

Family Settings

Added Family Play Timer Feature
Improved handling for resetting parental controls to default

Font Support

Added support for Virtual Keyboard and IME for Simplified Chinese
Improved CHT (Traditional Chinese) font support for game achievements

Gamer Profile

Dates and Times support region specific attributes

HDMI

Improved handling of AVMUTE for HDMI
Improved handling of CEA861 mode for HDMI
Improved handling of flashing during on/off mode changes
Improved handling of Standby-3 mode for HDMI

Keyboard

Added IME indicator for Messenger Conversations
Added support for F9 and F10 in Virtual Keyboards
Added support for Polish and Russian USB Keyboards
Improved Chatpad support for Korean Language
Improved handling of Caps Lock for JPN USB keyboards
Improved IME Japan Keyboards in Xbox Guide
Improved overall IME Self Learning support
Improved support for USB Keyboard with System UI Message displays
No longer show keyboard results when entering password via Chatpad or USB Keyboard
Removed extra '@' from CHT Virtual Keyboard

Marketplace

Added "Featured Items" as a top level section of Marketplace
Added "Featured Trailers" and "Shorts" options within the Movies area of Video Marketplace
Added Accelerated List Scrolling to Marketplace
Added List wrapping to Top Download lists in Marketplace
Added prefetching support for off-screen thumbnail images in Marketplace list views
Added support for "New Arrivals" area within Marketplace for all catalog content types
Added support for "Spotlight" area within Marketplace
Added support for displaying audio support in top level UI for videos on Marketplace
Added support for displaying Marketplace video previews in Full Screen mode (newly added files are encoded at higher bitrate, existing previews remain encoded at low bitrate)
Added support for multiple previews (varying languages) for International Video Marketplace (this is content provider dependent)
Added support for renting Movies in several international countries
Added support to Browse, Purchase, Download and play Xbox Original Games
Added support to cache metadata information for off-line usage in Media Blade library scenes
Added support to Play Now from Marketplace storefront for items already downloaded
Added support to prefetch off-screen thumbnails in Video Store
Added support to send actionable Marketplace recommendations to Friends for Arcade games
Added support to show audio language and subtitles for International Video Marketplace
Added Twist Control support for navigation and sorting
Allow Banner Messages to link to Arcade Titles
Changed "Media and Entertainment" to "Video Store"
Improved error handling for corrupt video content
Improved localization text for Belgium Profiles with Netherlands Marketplace
Improved robustness when service returns incorrect number of items when viewing Download History
Improved support of Parental Ratings with Arcade recommendations
Improved text for cases where License is not available for purchased video content
Improved text messaging for playing rental movies on consoles other than the console purchased with
Improved User Experience for Credit Card scenes in Russian
List wrapping functionality identical now between Media blade and Marketplace blade lists
More robust error handling for Add Points dialog page
TV Series on Marketplace now navigate directly to episode list instead of Season1
Unrated Titles now display ratings as "Rating: Pending or Unrated"

Media - All

Added more user friendly text for various error related messages
Added Shortcut keys from Remote Control: Pressing Play on a Video/Song/Picture will immediately start playback of that item from the list (pressing Start from gamepad does the same thing)
Added support for Album/Video artwork larger than 500kb
Added support to enumerate metadata in the background and not just when selected by the user
Added support to make sort options sticky across console reboots
Added support to show all available Media Sharing Servers on the local network and allow automatic re-affiliation
Automatically delete older versions of Optional Media Update package when new ones are downloaded
Improved consistency in storage naming across all areas
Improved performance for displaying Album Art when connected to remote sources
Improved text messaging when connection to PC is lost when streaming Music/Photo or videos

Media - Music

Added support for CD Playback from music area in Xbox 360 Guide area
Added support for listing multiple computer sources in Xbox Guide music sources
Added support for Y button to toggle full screen on and off for music visualizer
Disable 'play all' button when folders only contains playlists (with no audio files)
Disable Y button when no list items selected in Music player
Improved device support for new iPods (classic and 3rd gen Nano) - iPhone and iPod touch are not supported
Improved error handling for mixed encoded playlists (aac,mp3,wma)
Improved handling for MTP Music devices with >200k entries
Improved handling of game background music after playing videos in Dashboard
Improved handling of music playback over games (if music source terminates or has errors, background music returns to game background)
Improved performance for "Play All" with attached MTP devices
Improved performance of music enumeration via Guide
Improved robustness when playing back HFS+ formatted iPods
Improved support for returning to game background audio when user's music player session terminates
Improved support for scrolling song lists while listening to music during game playback
Improved support when ejecting game disc while selecting music source through Guide

Media - Pics

Added support to display PNG files when streamed from Windows Media Player 11 on Vista
Improved enumeration for PTP cameras including Cannon Powershot SD 630 and Apple Iphone
Improved playback performance of "Play All" when PC source has 1000s of photos and subdirectories
Support Folder view of Photos from MTP Portable Devices

Media - Video

Added 2 line support for entries in the Video Area of the Media Blade
Added ability to recognize Colorspace attribute for Video Marketplace Content
Added fade in transition for start of video playback
Added full screen buffering animation for streaming videos from Xbox LIVE
Added Suggestions scene for Video Library area in Media blade of the Dashboard
Added support for 16x Fast-forward/Rewind
Added support for AC3 embedded audio (see video faq for full information)
Added support for enumeration of video files from Zune 2.0 devices
Added support for Left Shoulder button on controller to chapter skip backward
Added support for Left Trigger button on controller to rewind
Added support for moving past the point user has viewed when doing progressive downloads of Video Marketplace videos
Added support for MP3 embedded audio (see video faq for full information)
Added support for Mpeg-4 part 2 video files in AVI containers
Added support for Right Shoulder button on controller to chapter skip forward
Added support for Right Trigger button on controller to fast forward
Added support for Zune Podcast video playback from Zune device
Added support to display metadata and thumbnails embedded in video files
Added support to enumerate .divx video files
Added support to group TV shows by Series in Video Library of Media Blade
Added support to group Video and Game Trailers into same area of Video Library of Media Blade
Added support to sort Movies or TV Shows by Title or Download date in Video Library of Media Blade
Added top level support to show expired or soon to expire information for purchased movies from Video Marketplace in Media Blade
Improve support for "Play Now" calculations with ISP that boost download for the first 20MB of a file
Improved accuracy of bookmark positions when video player abnormally ends
Improved accuracy of download progress bar after chapter skipping operations
Improved auto resizing experience for small (under 100x100) video files
Improved Bookmark / Resume experience with 60fps Interlaced WMV videos
Improved bookmark support while progressively downloading videos from Marketplace
Improved calculations for "Play Now" for Video Marketplace downloads
Improved deinterlacer support for video playback
Improved enumeration speed for user-generated video content in Media Blade
Improved error message support when playing back video files without valid licenses
Improved error message support when pulling USB drive while playing back video files
Improved handling for USB memory stick removal while on Video device selection list in Media blade
Improved handling of video playback when transitioning from 4x FF to Play with MP4 video files
Improved handling of WMV bookmarks when rewinding and shutting down video player
Improved info pane timer when playing back DRM's WMV content from Windows Media Player 11 from Windows PC
Improved message support for progressive video playback
Improved overall UI, content descriptions and navigation of Video Library of Media Blade
Improved performance during Fast Forward to Playback transition when playing back MP4 content
Improved performance for buffering and playback of streaming videos from Xbox LIVE
Improved performance for low bandwidth streaming of MP4 videos from Zune PC software v1.0
Improved performance of skip forward/backward with WMV video files
Improved performance of trick modes when streaming videos from Zune PC client
Improved performance of WMV playback for WMV7 & WMV8 encoded video files
Improved playback experience after extended pauses of video files from Marketplace
Improved playback experience when resuming from a stopped/paused state
Improved playback performance for h264 720p .MOV files
Improved playback performance with 1920x1080 MP4 files
Improved playback performance with 5Mb h264 encoded video files
Improved playback performance with 60fps 720x480 MP4 content
Improved playback performance with h264 files in .m4v containers
Improved quality for upscaled user videos when played back full screen
Improved quality of MP4 decoder: Global Motion Compensation and VMX optimizations
Improved quality of MP4 decoder: improved Interlaced Support
Improved quality of MP4 decoder: Out of order frame output, bidirectional motion vector handling, etc.
Improved quality with non-square pixel video files
Improved responsiveness of trick mode controls for video playback
Improved robustness during chapter skipping of h264 video files
Improved robustness for streaming problematic video files from Zune PC Software 1.0 or Windows Media Player 11
Improved robustness of video player when playback catches up to downloads in progressive playback scenarios
Improved robustness of video streaming when network congestion / stalls occur
Improved robustness when closing video player after attempting to play a video file that would not open
Improved robustness when entering and exiting video playback on a portable device repeatedly
Improved robustness when exiting video files encoded in h264 and playing back from attached USB HDD
Improved robustness when playing back Mp4 video with consecutive bad aac samples encoded into it
Improved robustness when shutting down console during h264 video playback
Improved robustness when trying to play a video recently moved from MU to HDD or vice versa
Improved robustness with video player when exiting player via Xbox Guide button -> Y
Improved support for AAC-LC 2 channel encoded audio in MP4 video files
Improved support for chapter skipping during progressive downloads of Marketplace Video content
Improved support for MP4 video files with discontinuous time stamps encoded in
Improved support for MP4 video playback from burned optical dvd-r's
Improved support for resuming downloaded videos after reaching end of an uncompleted download
Improved support for resuming partially downloaded videos from Marketplace
Improved support for using Big Button controller during video playback
Improved support for Video bookmarks when playing MP4 videos from USB portable hard drives
Improved sync of video display and info pane display when rewinding
Improved text for Windows Media Center setup instructions
Improved Trick mode support when streaming videos with AAC embedded audio
Improved video performance for 60fps interlaced WMV videos
Improved Video performance with 15Mbs 1080i 24fps WMV video files
Improved video playback for Fast-forward and immediate exit usage with h264 video files
Improved video playback of MP4 content from Zune PC Software v1.0
Improved video playback when source content has incorrect sync samples encoded
Improved video quality for SD Composite AV pack displays of the on-screen display for video controls
Improved video support for chapter skipping of MP4 videos
Improved Videotrick mode support with 24fps 1080i WMV video files
Improved visual display of WMV video files while rewinding
Improved WMV Playback performance for 60fps and 1080i 30fps videos
Improved WMV7 performance with VLC encoded content
Removed occasional purple flickers in video playback when transitioning between FF and RW
Removed potential 9 second delay when rewinding WMV video files

Messaging

Removal of stale Xbox 1 Team Recruit Messages from Xbox 360 Message Center

Messenger

Added "Invite Friends" scene after Messenger/Windows Live ID switching dialog
Added localization support for " has joined conversation" in Messenger
Added messenger notification to Private Chat
Added support for adding contacts via Windows Live ID from Xbox 360 console
Added support for child accounts (ages 13 through 17)
Added support for dual platform invites / text messages to PC client
Added support for IME in Chatpad overlay
Added support to send game invite to Messenger Contact from Xbox 360
Display Signin option instead of Join Xbox LIVE when accessing messenger from a signed out profile
Improved handling of transitions between messenger conversations and personal profiles
Improved localization text for Spanish, Portuguese and Russian in Chat and IM dialogs
Improved online status reporting with accounts that have passcodes set
Improved performance of buddy list enumeration
Improved performance with greater than 250 contacts
Improved performance with Messenger and large lists
Improved support for sending multiple friends requests from messenger contact dialog
Improved support for signing up for Messenger on 2nd signed in profiles
Improved sync performance between buddies and gamertag friends during login
Improved text message for blocking Windows Live ID Child accounts
Improved visual display of Up/Down arrows on Select Contacts scene
No longer displaying '??' when Kanji characters are used in Messenger Display Names
Nudges from messenger now translated into rumble notifications on controller during game/movie playback
Remove flash of LED on controller when Chatpad keyboard is invoked
Removed 2nd notification when connection to LIVE and signed into Messenger
Updated icons for Messenger in Private Chat area

System

Added fade out transition when powering down console
Added support for browsing XNA games within the Games blade
Added support for video playback from UDFS formatted USB devices
Added support for XNA Game Studio Express V.2
Added support to connect to Apple Extreme routers in 802.11a/n mode
Added support to pause background downloads when streaming full screen videos or ads
Added support to retrieve game thumbnail directly from XNA game package
Added system wide support for Simplified Chinese language
Added text to explain flashing LED in the Ring of Light during background download low power mode
Addressed rare case where game disc would spin in the DVD drive while playing HD-DVD Movie in external HD-DVD drive
Disable Optical audio output when in low power background download mode
DVD player no longer converts to YCbCr709 when output is over HDMI
Improved auto sign-in to Xbox LIVE with Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter
Improved clock accuracy for S/PDIF optical streams
Improved compatibility with NEC WR8400N WiFi routers
Improved download speeds when in low power background download mode
Improved DVD Tray State notifications immediately after application of System Update
Improved Forced Aspect Ratio Changes via HDMI output (including DVI)
Improved handling when ejecting game disc during game start
Improved handling when removing MU after sending Arcade game recommendation to friend
Improved localization text for Wifi setup in German
Improved performance for Game Titles to reboot in backcompat scenarios
Improved performance of Xbox Guide during Messenger signin
Improved robustness when ejecting game disc when prompted for game title update
Improved robustness when inserting two MU's at the same time on the device selector scene
Improved support for 3rd Party Controllers
Improved support for Buffalo WiFi routers
Improved support for Creston AV receivers with HDMI
Improved support for JPN Corega CG-BARFX network router
Improved support for signing into Xbox LIVE with Big Button Controller
Improved support for starting console with Big Button Controller when console is charging attached Wireless Controllers
Improved Xbox guide performance ~2x
Removed "Windows-based PC" from Computers area in Systems blade
Removed option to "Turn off Controller" when using Big Button Controller
Resync the Ring of Light pattern to the boot audio/animation
Updated copyright dates for 2007