The Xbox 360 firmware sees two major updates a year—in the Spring and the Fall. This year's Fall update is just about upon us. On Tuesday December 4th, Microsoft will unleash a flurry of new features and small tweaks to the way the Xbox 360 operates. Here are the highlights.

AVI Support—The Xbox 360 can now play files in an AVI container (or .divx container) that uses the MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple & Advanced Simple Profile. The max bitrate for these files is 5 Mbps with resolutions up to 1280x720 up to 30fps. Audio in AVI files must be either Dolby Digital 2 or 5.1 channel or MP3. In layman's terms—most of the DivX or Xvid files users have should fit under these conditions and play back. Hurray! DivX support (mostly)!

Parental Timer—You've always been able to lock out games of a certain rating on a "child account" on the Xbox 360, and limit who they can speak to and hear in online chat. Now you can limit play time as well.

Xbox Originals—A game download store to download original Xbox 1 games, sort of like you download Xbox Live Arcade titles. The first ones available will be Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Halo, Fable, Fuzion Frenzy, and Psychonauts. Each costs 1200 MS Points ($15 in the U.S.). More will be added over time. If you don't have Psychonauts, now is the time.

XBLA Greatest Hits—This is sort of like the Platinum games in retail…they're best-selling Xbox Live Arcade games that will be singled out for permanent discount. The list will start off with Bankshot Billiards and Lumines Live (800 points), as well as Marble Blast Ultra, Small Arms, and Zuma Deluxe (400 points). Lumines is a steal at $10.

Read more at ExtremeTech