Second significant update for Xbox One rolling out ahead of Titanfall launch

[Shawn Knight]

Microsoft’s second significant update for Xbox One is rolling out to gamers as we speak. It delivers a number of features across the board ahead of next week’s launch of Titanfall, the highly anticipated multiplayer first-person shooter.

In a blog post on the matter, Microsoft said they’ve received a ton of feedback since the launch of the console last November. The update addresses much of this feedback including the ability to get to your friends list faster, enabling party chat by default and making it easier to invite friends to multiplayer games.

Elsewhere, gamers will now be able to enjoy Dolby Digital 5.1 support via optical out and Dolby Digital surround sound over HDMI. Players will now have access to a recently played with list which will make it easier to stay in touch with others and make new friends while those that have had issues with watching live TV on Xbox One should see improvements with support for 50Hz output.

Without a doubt, the biggest new feature included in the update is the addition of Twitch live streaming. Well, let me rephrases that – the update lays the groundwork for Twitch. The actual app won’t be released until March 11, the same day that Titanfall drops.

Microsoft also outlined some other updates coming later this month including the ability to make it easier to adjust the volume on the console, new ways to stay connected with SmartGlass, support for new accessories and browser improvements, just to name a few.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55903-second-significant-update-for-xbox-one-rolling-out-ahead-of-titanfall-launch.html

 

[Adhmuz]

"Elsewhere, gamers will now be able to enjoy Dolby Digital 5.1 support via optical out" Wasn't aware you couldn't do that out of the box, kinda weird considering its 10+ years old technology that is still pretty common place.

"fixing the frame rate issues some users in Europe have been experiencing while watching live TV on Xbox One." Typical American company forgetting they aren't alone in the world and other standards exist...

Glad to see Microsoft addressing so many issues in one update, hopefully it doesn't cause problems elsewhere in the consoles ecosystem. Time for the boys over at Sony to do the same, like reducing the number of useless screens to accept friend requests, and making it so PS3 users and PS4 users can interact, let alone see online activity, truly the most disappointing thing ever.

 

[Sweed007]

Significant?
really. The first one just allowed us to push a button so see how low our batteries were in the controller.

 

[Guest]

@Adhmuz
It supported DTS 5.1 out of the box. Remember those technologies need to be licensed, so it's not always a matter of technology but a matter of legality. From what I've heard they weren't able to renew the Dolby license in time for the X1 launch so they postponed it.

You're right about the 50Hz problem. The problem is that this pattern of having a fixed refresh rate should die - it was necessary in a time where we had CRT TV's but all LCD screens now can support any color format and refresh rate and just emulate it to support legacy TV shows.

So it was a bad move from MS, but my hope is that if enough "bad moves" start to surface we might see a new standard with variable refresh rates. Will be even better for games because we won't need vsync anymore.