Though the Xbox 360 Dashboard update has delivered quite a few innovations for the 360 user, it has also been seen as a step backwards in some regards. For example, Netflix viewing has become much more inconvenient, forcing the user to preview an episode of a TV series before being able to select a specific episode. But Microsoft should be blamed for Netflix making poor decisions (Qwikster anyone?); however there have been some changes that they are solely responsible for.

One of the other, and probably biggest, impacts the Dashboard update has delivered is a decreased quality in video playback. While previous videos were of a comparable quality to anything found on the PS3 or online, videos are now pretty lackluster.

Some of the complaints recorded by gamers are washed out colors, and blacks looking more like grays — it’s hard to see the differences from a screenshot, but in motion the difference is fairly pronounced. Over at Eurogamer, they have a fairly detailed look at just how different one screenshot from the old Dashboard is when compared to the new one. It almost seems like the amount of detail put into the videos has been decreased, perhaps since it’s a less popular section to devote RAM to.

Still, this isn’t going to be a major problem for most gamers, but it is something that Microsoft should absolutely be looking into.

In fact, during the preview event for the Xbox Dashboard update, Microsoft’s attention was brought to this very issue, but their response was that they are aware but cannot promise a fix at this time. It almost defeats the purpose of a preview event if the end product is inferior to its predecessor.

The Dashboard might not have succeeded in a few areas, but overall the new style inspired by Microsoft’s Metro OS and support for cloud saves is pretty great. But if you were going to be paying a yearly subscription, you’d hope not to receive an inferior product.

Have you noticed the poor quality of videos with the new Dashboard update? What have been some of your other major gripes concerning changes made to the Dashboard?

Source: Eurogamer