Which Win 7 Version (1 Viewer)

[robbo100]

Hi there,

I am considering upgrading from XP to Win7 and want to make sure it is fully MP compatible (for now and the future when MP2 is released).

Which version of Win 7 should I buy (there are so many options, but I don't know if there is a minimum spec that MP requires) - i.e. Home/Professional Ultimate/Premium/Starter

Would this version work: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Licence and media.. | Ebuyer.com ?

Thanks

Robbo100

 

[revs]

I am pretty confident that Win 7 Home Premium would be fine. 32Bit is most compatible - some W7 boxes come with both 64bit and 32bit versions.

I just upgraded from XP to W7 32Bit Home Premium, and other than some bugs that are specific to my machine, its so much better than XP for video - much smoother and the MS codecs handle everything with hardware de interlacing - perfect BBC HD channels too. Wish id upgraded from XP to W7 a lot earlier!

(If you know a teacher or someone in education (son/daughter), then you can get W7 upgrades for less than £40 - Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student Software UK Download | Software4Students.co.uk)

 

[robbo100]

I never thought of the teacher route! My wife is a teacher!

Who would have thought it, my wife is of some use to me (I never said that - alright! )

 

[revs]

And I was very close to not bothering to post that! Good thing I did.

 

[robbo100]

They don't have Win 7 Home Premium, one Professional, which I am assuming will be equally compatible?

Thanks for the advice.

Robbo100

 

[revs]

Yeah I think Professional is Home Premium + extra features (business stuff). That will be fine

 

[robbo100]

Just to feedback (in case anyone else is looking to upgrade from XP to Win 7).

I installed Win 7 Pro last night and all went well. Win 7 detected my drivers and configured my system with far less problems than I have ever experianced - I was fairly startled to be honest! I only needed to install ATI Catalyst and the IMon software as everything else was dealt with by the OS.

The way that Win 7 deals with HDMI (in particular the audio over HDMI) is far superior to XP. I would say it took about an hour of fiddling with XP to get the audio setting right (connected to an AV Amp), but I sorted it in Win 7 in about 10 mins (including the time it took to find my way around the unfamiliar menus etc).

So far (fingers crossed it stays like this) the system seems more stable, especially on recovery from standby (where with XP I often had no sound and the IMon VFD didn't recover).

Also, I was astounded by the speed it recovers from standby (MP displayed on screen in 2 seconds, with remote working after 5 seconds, compared with XP which was about 7 seconds and 15 seconds respectively).

Installation was simple enought that I was able to go from a blank hard drive to fully installed (including SP1 and all other updates) with PDVD and MP installed and working with the remote control within 2.5 hours, which would probably take twice as long with XP.

Thanks again to revs for the help

Robbo100

 

[revs]

I can agree with the above! Then again, it is about 10yrs newer than XP!

I was happy to find out that in Win 7 I didn't need any codec packs either, only have Haali spltter, the MS DTV codecs handle all my other files.

 

[robbo100]

I was happy to find out that in Win 7 I didn't need any codec packs either

All my media is playing "out of the box", however when I watch TV the sound comes through in stereo rather than up-mixing to dolby prologic (which is annoying). Do you know how to change this?

I may just install FFDShow for the prologic function (with Haali of course)

Rob

 

[revs]

My sound is all done via SPDIF -> Receiver. And the receiver does the upmixing of stereo to PLII for me, so i'm lucky that I dont need any more software installed.