Vista vs. XP - please post your pros/cons (2 Viewers)

[NLS]

Will probably dual-boot at first.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Will probably dual-boot at first.

Good idea, then you will find out for yourself which OS you prefer.

 

[limpwhizkid]

I would actually recommend running VISTA SP1 now.. directx 10.1 seems to work perfectly with EVR option in Mediaportal .. never had a better looking screen then now

 

[NLS]

Well it seems that indeed Vista SP1 is the way to go.
I most probably will not be looking back.

I also run Vista SP1 on my office computer and on my gaming PC and even Server 2008 on my home server (have some issues there to sort out).

The only PC not running Vista (and in fact Windows) is my own-built unRAID (if someone is looking for a NAS - LOOK THERE).

Only issue now with my HTPC is that Vista seems to be more resource hungry and I do see stuttering issues and lip syncing problems (RC1). Will have more info before I report something.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Make sure you have EVR selected rather than VMR9.

 

[NLS]

I did from (New Age) Day 1.

Anyway, will check details out when I have the time and report properly.

 

[Dougie085]

If setup correctly Vista SP1 actually seems faster to me. For Media Portal use just disable all effects and what not make a black background and put it to the classic start menu bar. What I'm doing for my HTPC.

 

[Heather]

Sorry for the late reply but the only advantage in Vista over XP that I can think of, is the supposedly only way to make MP handle the volume 'in program' (as in internally).

 

[grubi]

I switched from WinXP SP3 to Vista SP1 a few days ago and here is what I have found so far:

There is no difference in boot speed (maybe Vista is a tick faster).

IMHO it is a good idea to disable superfetch cause it sucks that Vista is accessing you HD endless after boot slowing down other apps meanwhile.

The whole MP GUI seems to be a bit more sluggish on Vista compared to XP.

I did endless tests to compare PQ. With the latest Catalyst I would say there is no difference. Others report that EVR is much superior thatn VMR but sorry I'm still not able to see it here on a 50" plasma. Maybe the screen is to small.

I like the Startmenu on Vista much more than on XP but who cares on a HTPC.

Standby seems to be much more stable on Vista than on XP at least on my machine.

On Vista I do not need to restart MP after suspend. On XP I had to because after suspend MP was always stuttering.

On Vista I'm not longer able to play back HD content from my NAS without occasional stuttering (SD is ok so far). On XP this is no problem. Also browsing through the network folders via MP GUI is more smooth on XP than on Vista.
I did not find a solution for the HD playback problem. This is not a bandwidth problem as filetransfer from NAS to HTPC is on similar speed on XP and Vista and more than sufficient. This seems more like a latency issue but I was not able to fix it. Even switching NICs, switch, cable did not change the situation.

Remote management is difficult on Vista as realVNC Free Edition does not work on Vista. I also tried Personal Edition and ultrVNC but they all suck when Aero Glass is enabled. Don't try to install mirror drivers. After that Aero works but playback stutters even if no remote connection is active.



Currently I have one XP and one Vista image for this HTPC cause I did not make a final decision.

Regards
grubi.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

I switched from WinXP SP3 to Vista SP1 a few days ago and here is what I have found so far:

There is no difference in boot speed (maybe Vista is a tick faster).

IMHO it is a good idea to disable superfetch cause it sucks that Vista is accessing you HD endless after boot slowing down other apps meanwhile.

The whole MP GUI seems to be a bit more sluggish on Vista compared to XP.
grubi.

I think superfetch is something good, as its store frequently used files in a seperate quickly accessible virtual drive, it does NOT scan your harddrive all the time.. that is Windows search.

To get rid of that endlessly swapping on your harddrive, turn o search (if you know your system, you wont use search anyways, so you dont need it, beside that searching still works, but will be slower when used without the search service turned on (before SP1 it was called Windows Indexing sevice))

Well you know how to turn on/off services so Turn off Windows Search! and turn on Superfetch again.

Superfetch will make Mediaportal quicker after been used a few times, you may have noticed that the first time it started up, it took a while but each time thereafter it started quicker, right?

This could also solve you HD playback over the network (with me it works fine) because it isnt trying to index the NAS at the same time you watch a movie.

If you have a 4 or 8GB USB stick laying around, stick it in an empty USB2.0 slot, format it and see if it can be used for Readyboost, this allso will speed up your system a bit (not all USB sticks are readyboost capable, if you right click on the removable harddrive, properties, the readyboost tab should be there)

I hope this helps,

Lots

If setup correctly Vista SP1 actually seems faster to me. For Media Portal use just disable all effects and what not make a black background and put it to the classic start menu bar. What I'm doing for my HTPC.

I am not sure but wasnt Aero a requirement for certain advanced video thingies to be working?.. I am sure I read it somewhere, but cant find it right now.

Lots