Xbox 360 HD DVD Player update today (UPDATED)

The audio problems with the 360 HD DVD player are finally being put to rest (about time). Coming out sometime today (5/15), the update will fix some bugs, and add some features such as the much anticipated DTS output.

Has the Dolby Digital audio on your HD DVDs sounded flat and quiet? Turns out, it has been stuck on “night mode.” That has been corrected, and you now have the option to enable or disable this (default is off).

ANY audio track that HD DVD supports, including DD+, TrueHD, and DTS, can now be scaled and outputted in Dolby Digital, WMAPro, or 1.5 Mbps DTS. Unfortunately, straight TrueHD and other high bandwidth output are limited by the optical on the 360. 1.5 Mbps DTS is the best you can get out of the optical port. It should be a pretty big improvement over the (currently gimped) Dolby Digital, which is only 640Kbps.

Its unclear whether these new audio options are restricted to the HD DVD player, or if DTS will be added as a universal option in the 360 dashboard audio menu. My guess (hope) is the latter. Currently there are only options for DD and WMAPro. Either way, I’m psyched. That damn DTS logo of the face of my receiver has been taunting me, and I will finally get some use out of it.

Also fixed are some disc compatibility errors.

Update: It’s out. Sign into Live, and launch a HD DVD and you should be prompted to update. Unfortunately, DTS is limited to HD DVD (duh, I guess). Maybe with the next Dash update we will be able to choose it as a universal output? Well, since I don’t think any games have a DTS of DD+ track, I guess it wouldn’t make much of a difference.