To Vista or not to Vista... that is the question (1 Viewer)

[timwiththebo]

Hi All,

I've been lurking in this forum for a while but this is my first post.

I'm planning on dedicating my current desktop PC to run the MediaPortal TV-Engine 0.3 with the MediaPortal client as well as running an additional client in the bedroom.

The specs for my desktop PC are as follows:

Windows Version: $million question
CPU Type: AMD Opteron 146
HDD: Samsung 40GB and Western Digital 250GB
Memory: 2x 512Mb OC DDR SDRAM PC3200 Gold Edition GX XTC
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI moederbord
Motherboard Chipset: nVidia NForce4
Motherboard Bios: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ACPI BIOS Revision 1005
Video Card: (Saphire) ATI Radeon X800 GTO(2)
Video Card Driver: ?
Sound Card: On Board
Sound Card AC3: ?
Sound Card Driver: ?
1. TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1300 (in the post)
1. TV Card Type: Hybrid
1. TV Card Driver: ?
MPEG2 Video Codec: ?
MPEG2 Audio Codec: ?
Satelite/CableTV Provider: n/a
HTPC Case: Cooler Master CM Stacker 810
Cooling: [/B Thermalright
Power Supply: Seasonic SS-500T (500W)
Remote: Hauppage
TV: Toshiba 42inch Rear Projection

I'm about to format my windows dedicated hard drive and want to know whether it's worth installing Vista or not? I have both XP Pro and Vista Premium but not sure whether it's worth installing Vista with the potential driver issues. Also I know that some of the plugins etc. do not support Vista yet.

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

Would be much appreciated if you guys could give me some advice in this area.

Cheers,

Timbo

 

[FlipGer]

Hi,

my very personal opinion (haven't tested Vista, yet):

Why using Vista? It has lack of driver support. It has lack of program support. Its reported to be slower than XP.

Its on the market for 2 months now. I would wait at least 1 year, before considering to use it. Then you will have better driver support and hopefully the first bugfixes...

XP Pro SP2 is a well supported, tested and running system.

Flip.

 

[geocas1]

Vista on mac minis

i have vista ultimate running on two mac mini's dual core ones with 1.2 gb ram with media portal as main purpose. it works great actually the wmp and mediaportal (for me mind you) worked better with the vista then with the xp.

 

[wertzui]

im using vista ultimate x64 since it came out.
and i dont have any problems, everything just runs fine.

and i think, vista would be good because it supports sideshow wich might be an interesting thing for mediacenters.

 

[mPod]

i have vista ultimate running on two mac mini's dual core ones with 1.2 gb ram with media portal as main purpose. it works great actually the wmp and mediaportal (for me mind you) worked better with the vista then with the xp.

Same here for my MacBook Pro. It just runs way better with Vista than with XP (drivers? be creative & all is perfect - if not having 10 year old isa cards or something ).

I'm even doing all MP development on Vista already. I can't say much about how MP runs on Vista in all modules (e.g. using the TV server instead of the internal TV module - laptop... ), but what I'm doing with it while developing & testing, I'm more than satisfied at the moment.

 

[infinite.loop]

Vista = no go here for a "live system"

My experience with my new workstation (core2duo E6600 + ATI X1950XT)

• drivers = extremely bad
• applications = well we have the first "Vista proof" Antivirus applications now available. The rest is not that good working (until you work with full admin rights and UAC turned off again)
• The support for PC Games is extremely bad if you do not turn off UAC and work as "real" admin
• Aero UI = every task takes longer to accomplish

Until now there is absolutely no reason to move to Vista. Simply because to use the new features of Vista, you need "Vista compatible" applications (and drivers).
If you turn off all the new features (i.e. UAC) to be able to use your games and applications, then you do not need Vista.
I am sure that after SP1 is released it will become much better (same happened with WinXP )

If you get it along with your new PC -> okay
But do not buy it yet

 

[mPod]

I guess it heavily depends on what hardware you're going to use and how old these pieces are. Using the latest big MacBook Pro I'm just lucky. Can only say again: At the moment I wouldn't go back to XP on the laptop.

But for an MP production system I'd rather suggest an XPSP2 or an MCE2005. If you are into new things, like to help to improve stability etc. for Vista and are not afraid of problems that eventually come up, go for the new OS.

 

[Inker]

I have to say I've been using x64 ultimate for a couple of weeks now and wouldn't want to go back. And yes, I bought it. That is for my workstation, the htpc still runs xp SP2 as there really is no reason whatsoever to switch.

I don't think the driver situation is so bad, all my hardware worked out of the box or had drivers in windows update. And Aero does not make anything slower, if anything it speeds things up as the cpu no longer has to draw the gui. They only thing I wish was better is games compatibility (and those that do work are generally 10% slower or so).

 

[mPod]

The games problem was the same when XP came out. So don't worry, it will normalise over time again.

 

[infinite.loop]

And Aero does not make anything slower, if anything it speeds things up as the cpu no longer has to draw the gui.

i was not refering to the cpu utilisation. i mean the workflow -->see<--

They only thing I wish was better is games compatibility (and those that do work are generally 10% slower or so).

I would like to see punkbuster working without issues under Vista.......
and EAX without that bloddy openAL hack/workaround

But even more i would like to see Vista proof Products from Adobe (they do not consider an update yet)
-->news<--