XrossMediaBar

The PS3's XMB interface
A logo featured on devices with the XrossMediaBar

The XrossMediaBar (pronounced "cross-media bar" and officially abbreviated as XMB) is a graphical user interface developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Navigation moves the icons, instead of a cursor. These icons are used as categories to organize the options available to the user. When an icon is selected on the horizontal bar, several more appear vertically, above and below it. They, in turn, are selectable by the up and down directions on a directional pad.

Originally used on the PSX (a PlayStation 2 with an integrated digital video recorder), the XMB is used as the default interface on both the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. Since 2006, it has also been used in high-end WEGA TVs,[1] the Bravia starting with the 3000 (only in S-series and above), the Sony XEL-1 OLED TV, HDTV set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, some Sony Cyber-shot cameras and the high-end AV receivers. The Sony Ericsson K850, W595, W760, W910 and Aino feature a version of the XMB as their media menu. The XMB was also the menu system in the 2007 generation of Sony's Bravia TVs.[2][3] Sony also added the XMB to its Vaio laptops.[4]

The interface won the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for "Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Best Use of Personal Media Display and Presentation Technology" in 2006.[5]

The XMB has been phased out starting with the PlayStation Vita, which adopted a new touch-based user interface called LiveArea. On February 20, 2013, the PlayStation 4 was announced, and a new, non-XMB, user interface was shown. Sony Bravia smart televisions continued to use it until 2014, when both an unnamed interface with Smart TV functionality and Android TV were phased in.

  1. ^ (in Japanese) Sony Wega | 体験！Xmb Archived November 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Sony's 'energy saving' TV". Reg Hardware. March 31, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
  3. ^ "Sony releases nine new Bravia LCDs with XMB and Internet Video Link". Engadget. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  4. ^ "Sony Puts X Media Bar in new Vaio". Tech Radar. July 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
  5. ^ "58th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards". Emmy Online. January 8, 2007. Archived from the original on 2009-02-01. Retrieved 2008-11-12.