I'm getting ready to do a fresh install of Gutsy, I want to play some downloaded animes and DVDs, not so much MythTV because I don't have cable or TV.

I have a BIOSTAR 7050 motherboard and intend to use the HDMI and probably SPDIF output. I intend to use a variety of tools to rip DVD ISOs and possibly compress TV episodes form DVDs to video files. Is there any hardware or software compatibility reason not to install the 64bit Gutsy?

I have a 2.8GHz AMD dual core (what's that a 5400?) and 2 gigs of ram, but I was going to get another 2 gigs for VirtualBox. I also run DVDshrink with Wine right now because I don't know of any other way to shrink DVDs easily (k9 copy never worked for me).

Short answer- use the 32bit i386 version.

There is no reason to use 64bit yet, and you'll only have driver problems and software install issues.

Longer answer, see

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=995281&highlight=public+service

Hardy just went beta a couple of days ago and the final release is due at the end of April. So you might want to consider going with Hardy instead of Gutsy. Especially since Hardy is a Long Term Support release.

Yeah, go Hardy, it's been pretty stable other than a few little problems here or there that get re-fixed quickly.
-Trouble

Well, I don't want to run into trouble...if I install Hardy now, will I like, have to reinstall when the official release happens, or do all changes happen through like apt and so on?

Nope, when the release arrives, it will tell you when it is time to upgrade to it via the update manager. No need to reinstall.
-Trouble

I installed Gutsy on my HP laptop and it boots a lot slower than than Feisty, but does a better job of recognizing the hardware. It also has exhibited some glitches (with using Firefox - occasionally it just shuts it down - but, thankfully, it does recover nicely).

If Hardy is going to be a long term version, then it's definitely the way to go. Thanks Troubleshooter, I'll download the beta version.

nevermind. problem fixed by not being idiot.

nevermind.

how's hardy treating you? I've had it running for the last few months with constant stream of updates making it better and better.