Win 8.1.1 vs Win 7 with MP 1.8 (1 Viewer)

[Walzing]

Hi,

my HTPC is currently runnig with Win 7. Because the Installation is very old, I think it is time Tod reinstall.
What do you recommend - win 8.1.1 or win 7.

Cu

 

[Walzing]

It seem - there is no IMON Manager for Windows 8.1.1
I use IMON Manager for my remote. The original IMON Remote was replaced by Logitech 605.
So maybe it's not good to go to Windows 8.1.1

 

[rich76]

I'd personally stick with windows 7. I see far too many problems on here with windows 8 and 8.1 to risk upgrading mine. Plus if its a dedicated HTPC once its loaded which version of windows your running is irrelevant.

Just because something is newer it doesn't make it better!

Rich

 

[kszabo]

This one interest me too. I must disagree rich76. Win 8.1 is not better than win7 because it is newer but because it has definitely a better kernel. Once loaded, os irrelevant? I do not think so. We could go back to XP then.

Any experience regarding this question?

 

[rich76]

I guess its a matter of personal opinion and system specs. I was talking more of cosmetics and unless you have a very up to date system a lot of the advantages of windows 8 wouldn't make much or any difference. Sure I can't see any problems using XP its been tried and tested for years. But ofcourse no longer supported by ms or MP. I have tried both win 7 and 8 on my system but went back to windows 7.

Rich

 

[kiwijunglist]

IMHO both should be fine. I'd recommend you stick with Win7 as you are currently familiar with it and not having any issues with it. There could be potential unknown issues with win8 depending on your peripherals and their win8 compatability. However, if you don't mind having a tinker go for it.

 

[4Fred]

Just upgraded (clean install of everything) my two Intel Nuc computers from Win7 x64 to Win8.1 x64.
In this upgrade I also updated MePo and all my plugins to the the latest version as well as all the drivers.
MePo feel a bit snappier and boot-up is a bit faster, but everything feels and works more or less just like before.

Since there is (from my point of view) at this stage not much difference between the two and MePo runs fine on both I'd go with Win8.1.
The OS is newer and new apps devices and solutions is probably developed to run on this OS and Win 7 will be added for compatibility, if not now so in a not to distant future. That's why I went for Win 8.1.

 

[Joutungwu]

In Windows 8 the Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoders are not available for other Video Player Software than Windows Media Player or Windows Mediacenter. At least with the Professional or Ultimate Edition of Windows 7 it can be used with Mediaportal or other Software. The MS Decoders are able to use an appropiate GPU very well (DXVA 2.0), which could make a difference for older (weak) CPUs like mine. Have a look at the system informations on the left. I made a comparison between MS Decoders and LAV Video Decoder for h.264 decoding. The CPU usage with the MS Decoders was about 3-8 %. Setting the LAV Video Decoder for h.264 decoding makes the CPU usage rise to about 30-38 %. That's why i wouldn't install Win 8.x on my system.

 

[Joutungwu]

I have to correct my previous comparison because i found out that Hardware Acceleration could be used with the LAV Filters as well. Running Software during the testing were: Common Windows services, MS Security Essentials, SmartDVB. SmartDVB is a great DVB-Applikation for desktop usage and makes comparisons like these easier for me. So here are the cpu usage results during h.264 decoding of BBC One HD (1920x1080) for different decoder settings with Enhanced Video Renderer:

• Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder (v.12.0.9200.16426); HW Acceleration on: 1 to 5 %
• LAV Video Decoder (v.0.62.0); HW Acceleration on; HW Decoder NVIDIA CUVID: 3 to 8 %
• LAV Video Decoder (v.0.62.0); HW Acceleration on; HW Decoder NVIDIA CUVID with "Adaptive HW Deinterlacing" (50p/60p) and "High Quality Processing" on: 6 to 12 %
• LAV Video Decoder (v.0.62.0); HW Acceleration off: 30 to 40 %

Now it seems that the LAV Filters could be a good alternative for the unavailable MS Decoders in Windows 8.x. The HW Acceleration for the LAV Video Decoder is turned off by default, so i recommend to turn it on if it is available. My (human) eyes can't see a video quality difference between "Adaptive HW Deinterlacing" turned on or off. In conclusion the unavailable MS Decoders could be replaced by LAV Filters after changing from Windows 7 to Windows 8.x.

 

[kszabo]

I made the jump to win8.1 64bit from win7 32bit (mainly because of good reviews about performance of win8 even on weak hardware and all my other PCs already run on 8.1)

I went back to win7 very fast as I could not solve the problem of audio output over HDMI with 8.1: I had problems with the GUI sound effects (reported on other threads here also, AMD Radeon HD5470, latest Catalyst).

Win 8.1 behaves itself completely different on the same hardware and same driver as Win7. It deactivates the audio output every time after a sound event (AVR shows "decoder off") and switches on back every time if e.g. a skin GUI sound comes (AVR shows "PCM"). As this has a lag, it misses the first few milliseconds and short sounds (like the GUI clicks) become a cracking noise I tried older drivers too and all possible configuration settings without success.