Ideal installation for Media portal & tv server (1 Viewer)

[dermotos]

Hi.

I currently have a machine with vista business installed and ive been playing around with media portal. This machine is going under the tv and is going to be used soley as a media centre machine. Ive decided to re-install windows soon before i set it up for good, as it shoiuldnt take THAT long, vista is fairly fast at installing, and i only want to install media portal, required codecs and a few other wares.

Anyone recommend the stuff, in particular the codecs/codec packs i should install when going from scratch? I want to cover everything (Avi, wmv,mkv with x264 encoding and AC-3 5.1 surround etc etc...)

 

[ShortyMan]

I would recommend latest ffdshow tryout, Haali media splitter, AC3filter and maybe CoreAVC if you are going to watch HD x264

 

[ThaClown]

I agree, I use the same exept for CoreAVC I use PowerDVD (for my HD2400 Pro card)

 

[dermotos]

thanks lads. I wanna play around with configurations, tv tuning, codecs, skins etc first, then once i know what works, ill clear it all down, re-install windows & only what i need, and create a ghost/image of it so i can always go back to it if things start growing legs...

 

[robyf]

By the way there are rumors picture quality is better under vista with EVR in comparison with windows XP VMR9. Is this true? Do I have to migrate to vista too?