Perhaps you’ve bought or been given an Xbox 360 for Christmas. If so, welcome to the party.
On the other hand, you might have been sniping Grunts in Halo 3 for quite a while. Either way, chances are you don’t know everything that your console of choice is capable of.
With the recent addition of the NXE, we’ve opened up the hood of the Xbox 360 to show you what tricks your machine can perform (well, we didn’t actually open up the hood at all. We didn’t really open anything up. We just sat at our desks and typed up this guide.)
Stream music from your iPod
Download the ‘Optional Media Device’ from the Game Add-ons section of Xbox Live Marketplace. Now jack in your iPod into any of the three USB ports on the console and select it as your music device from the new Dashboard to start instantly streaming songs, albums or your own playlists. You can even replace your game’s soundtrack by selecting the Music Player during play – just hit the Guide button and select your music.
Chill out with four-player Neon
Tapping Y on the Music Player will call up a full-screen visualiser called Neon. Created by gaming legend Jeff Minter, it’s a fully interactive game in its own right according to its creator. It’s most fun with three other friends manipulating the light show in time to the music. Check out Jeff’s detailed instructions here.
Charge your MP3 player (and other USB devices)
If you’ve got a USB device that charges via the mains, such as your iPod, you can plug it into one of the three USB slots on the Xbox 360 and transform your gaming machine into one big charging unit. The iPod will charge even as you’re streaming music from it.
Delete embarrassing gaming stains
A nice addition to the NXE means that you can clean up those embarrassing games that you tried out and immediately hated and are soiling your Gamercard. As long as you’ve got no Achievements on them, simply go to the Game Library option on the new Dashboard by tapping the Guide Button, select the game and press Y to delete it.
Create your own Themes
You don’t have to use the themes available on Xbox Live. Stick a few choice images onto a USB stick and insert it in the Xbox 360, then go to Picture Library to view them and you’ll be given the choice to upload them as your background theme. Make sure they’re resized to fit the screen, though – the image will be stretched to fit the Dashboard not matter what shape it normally is.
Vid-Chat for Free
You can use the Vision Camera to map your face onto an in-game character in titles with ‘face in game’ technology such as Rainbow Six Vegas, but it’s got other, money-saving benefits in these credit-crunchy times. Save yourself a hefty phone bill by using it to video chat over Live – just select who you want to talk to from your Friends List and choose Video Chat.
MSN Live
You’ll need a Hotmail account to sign up to Xbox Live, but it’s also useful because your Xbox 360 will aggregate your Friends List and your MSN Messenger contacts into your Dashboard options, letting you talk to all your Friends from the comfort of your Xbox 360. You can change the on-screen keyboard to a QWERTY set-up by going into the System Settings and Languages and choosing ‘English (QWERTY)’.
Two ways to Play
Missing the old Dashboard blades? They still exist in a slightly redone form. Tap the Guide button to call up a shortcut menu that allows you to access Friends Lists, Music Player and Settings to name but three. You’ll need to access the new Photo Party mode from here, letting you show Friends images across Xbox Live.
Homestead Blockbuster
Forget your local Blockbuster, Xbox Video Marketplace gives you a range of movies to download in both Standard and High Definition – with a preview trailer and brief synopsis in each film’s sub-menu. Prices vary, but at least you don’t have to wait for the film to download – you can watch it immediately after purchase as the film streams for your viewing pleasure.
Video Setting Reset
A useful little trick if you’ve taken your Xbox 360 over to a friend’s house and can’t get a picture because they’ve got different video set-ups between the console and TV. Hold Y on the joypad as you turn the system on to reset the video settings back to default.
Lazy Boy’s Power-Up
Press the Guide button on your Xbox 360 joypad to turn your console’s power on. Saves you having to get up off the sofa, or even walk across the room and bend down slightly.
DVD playback
Don’t worry about interrupting your DVD marathon to nip out to the shops. When you turn on your Xbox 360 the DVD will start playing at the point where you turned the machine off.
Game HD Installation
Reading all that awesome information off your Gear of War 2 disc can be noisy as your Xbox 360 pumps its fan to keep cool. One of the best additions to the NXE is the ability to install the game to your console’s hard drive. Insert the disc and chose ‘Install to HD’ (making sure you have the space). You have to have the disc in the console to start the game (due to authentication issues), but now your Xbox 360 will be super-quiet.
Play Xbox 360 on two screens at once
Setting up a LAN event and need an extra screen so an audience can watch? Just use the component cables you received with the Xbox 360. Flick the cable switch to Standard Definition and connect the yellow composite cable into one TV screen and the red, green and blue component cable to the other.
Play your Xbox Originals
You should be able to pick up some cheap Xbox Original games second-hand. But you don’t need the old Microsoft console – a lot of the games you can play on your Xbox 360. Head to xbox.com to see the list of games Microsoft have released a patch for so you can play them on your Xbox 360. If so, it’ll automatically download the patch from Xbox Live when you insert the disc.
Play Media Files through your Xbox 360
First connect your Xbox 360 to your home PC through a local network (check out the System Settings to for a set-up walkthrough), then download free application Tversity at http://tversity.com/ onto your PC. It’ll replace the standard network file-sharing system but importantly it’ll convert unsupported video files. Locate the PC folder from your Xbox 360 and start watching!
Welcome to the Photo Party
Download Photo Party from the Game Add-ons portion of Marketplace and activate it from the Dashboard shortcut menu opened by pressing the Guide button. You can now flick through any images or photos saved on your Xbox 360 (or on a connected USB stick) with Friends over Xbox Live. You can’t transfer them across yet, but it’s a cool way to show off that awesome Banjo vehicle you’ve built.
Stay Hidden
You’re online and trying to grab those last few Jiggies but keep being interrupted by Friends wanting you to join a Left 4 Dead session. Jump into the shortcut Dashboard and go to Prviacy settings – you can put your profile to Busy or better yet, offline, so you can complete Banjo in peace.
Parental Controls
As stated for films, if you’re bringing a new gamer into the world you can restrict their access by going to the Parental Settings on the very right of the Dashboard shortcut. Set up parental locks and passwords to stop younger gamers going online unsupervised.
Deleted but not forgotten
If you delete paid-for Marketplace content you can download it again for free as long as you use the same Gamer Profile.
Changing your Gamertag
You can change your Gamertag, but it’ll cost you 800MP to go so. Click on your Profile in the Dashboard and chose “Edit Gamer Profile”.
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Filed under: Xbox 360s
