Vista vs. XP - please post your pros/cons (3 Viewers)

[Lotsofjazz]

Hi LotsofJazz,

To disable MCE in vista:
How to Disable (Uninstall and Remove) Windows Media Center in Vista My Digital Life

I used this codec guide:
MEDIAPORTAL - free MediaCenter HTPC Software - simple mediaportal codec guide

I use CoreAVC for x264 HD stuff, and Dscaler for Mpeg stuff. To be quite honest I never even bothered to set merits or check if Windows uses the codecs I want, because I simply use MP for this. In MP you set for each media type which codec it should use.

Hope this helps.

Thanks about the tips for getting rid of MCE

I have read that codec guide as well, and I set it pretty close to what is said there. BUT, dont be surprized that what you set in Mediaportal is NOT what you get! It happend to me with the audiosettings, Dscaler audio codec was used all the time, where i needed AC3 filer..foundout that the merits of dscaler were way too high and overuled the settings of mediaportal.

Or look at what happens right now, I set Cyberlink Mpeg2 decoder, but it wont play.. I am pretty sure it is because something interferes with it.

My problem turned out to be a Hardware problem.. a very stupid one.. the COAX cable that runs 15 meters from the utility cupboard to the TV and HTPC was very bad!! I replaced the cable with a quality Hirschmann coax cable and all problems are gone.. 100% signal strength 100% signal quality now.. 100% of all channels found (250 or something)

:sorry:

Lots

 

[SpudR]

Moving 27Gb = 15 days, better go on holiday then, hmm terminal 5 Heathrow, na i'll wait.

Probably quicker to wait for SP2

Vista also changes the folder views from time to time i.e. I like to use the 'details' view mostly, but Vista randomly changes to icon views - and as for 'group by'...
This is sooooo annoying!

 

[Lotsofjazz]

you can change this in the folder manager, and apply to all folders.. Just a matter of knowing your operating system

 

[SpudR]

Lol - I do know the OS
Try changing it - I'll be amazed if your folders stay that way... Mine NEVER do.
Even setting the 'Remember settings' option doesn't help

How I love big Billy G

 

[iosub]

Moving 27Gb = 15 days, better go on holiday then, hmm terminal 5 Heathrow, na i'll wait.

jajajajajaj, this is good one!! jajajaja

 

[Luke Roberts]

After some hesitation, I updated my Vista system to SP1 this week.

After the update I had a driver problem with the USB driver for my Zalman HD160XT (rev 1) case, zo the m.play zini softare (which sucks anyway) would not start. The USB driver in the software package (v2.0) on the Zalmanusa.com site did the trick.

I also had to set the MCE remote's registry enabledebounce value back to 0, because my Universal Remote started behaving funny again in MP (MCE Universal remote uses look here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/post/61973.aspx).

Anyway, the conclusion so far is that I have a rockstable Media Portal system with a fairly stable TVE server running on Vista SP1. Looking at all the positive reactions on Build 18513, I think I will upgrade tonight.

Keep up the good work guys!

 

[Shivian]

Unfortunately Vista still has teething issues. I use Vista Business at work (forced to!) and have spent a lot of time fiddling with it to get the most out of it.

Advantages
SuperFetch - this can be a blessing and a curse. If it speculatively caches at the wrong time, it can cause performance problems. For a media centre this isn't necessarily a problem but for large games it can be!
Sleep mode - instant power up! I know this allows people to bypass a few drive encryption schemes but instant power-on is a wonderful thing.

Disadvantages
Performance - it is layered with a lot of on-by-default eye candy that really bogs it down. Aero I found to be useless because some older programs I needed to use would force windows to disable it.
Needless organisational changes - seems to be a lot of things that were changed for the sake of it. Windows Explorer has the breadcrumbs which is a great thing I believe but when a window is too small, navigating up directories takes more than a single mouse click. Also the folder display settings are retarded. It "intelligently" senses the type of folder and categorises it rather than allowing each folder to be customised individually. I include explorer here because if you do any sort of file management the media centre software is probably not ideal for that and you'll need to use Explorer. Overall, XP's really is just less frustrating to use.
Drivers - I still get video driver and firewall related bluescreens on odd occasion in Vista. Obviously the drivers and some programs just aren't mature enough yet.

XP has had a long time to iron out those sorts of bugs. People are very experienced working with it. It's hard to justify the cost of the upgrade because there really isn't that much that you gain.

 

[limpwhizkid]

A pain in the #$# to get the IR remote working on XP (non MCE).. and on vista all of them are working out of the box..

 

[NLS]

So... since I am refreshing my HTPC and I have licenses for:

XP SP2 Pro
XP MCE 2005 RU2
Vista Home Premium
(used my Ultimate license on another PC)

...for a machine that is: Asus mobo with Core2 6400, 2GB RAM, HD3450 PCI-E, Hauppauge PVR350 + HVR1300 + SkyStar 2...

WHICH OS should I choose?

Because I can't really conclude myself reading the thread.

 

[flokel]

Considering your pretty new hardware I'd go for Vista (SP1).