Is the Vista DRM issue reason enough to use XP?

XP has all the same DRM plumbing.

Whatever you have read about DRM in Vista is most likely completely wrong. If you have specific concerns, I'd post them here so you can get a correct answer.

Basically, Vista provides a DRM framework that didn't exist in Windows XP. This provides the ability for applications in Vista to provide features that can't exist in Windows XP. It doesn't impact your right or ability to do anything you can do in Windows XP. It does add the ability to do things, but if you are building your own PC you can't gain access to these features anyway (CableCARD). Windows XP already had some of this, it is just that the media didn't overblow because it didn't impact the user (just like Vista).

Thus, from a user perspective the difference is minimal and doesn't impact anything you can rip, play, edit, etc on Windows XP.

Fiji is just a Media Center update for Vista, so unless you are using Vista Media Center it doesn't matter (not clear from your post if you are).

Chris

What happens is the broadcaster will set a flag which is embedded in their signal. This flag usually is translated by DRM-ready devices so that the recording can only be viewed on the initial device, may be hard to edit/transcode, etc. At least that's my limited understanding of this.

I know for a fact that the OnAir GT will record DRM'd material, which can then be edited, played back, etc. via VMC or WMP. But of course you have to use it's proprietary SW. I'm not up on other tuners, but there's probably others that can also do this, but again using their SW. There's also other devices that can strip out the DRM flag for analog signals, which will be moot in a few years when/if all signals are digital.

So I guess if the end-user only wants to PVR shows to view later, you will have no worries. But if you want to transcode said show to a PMP or similar device, it gets a little trickier and you have to jump through a few hoops...

Who knows, there are SW that defeat current DVD encryption, allowing free use (disclaimer: of legal owners, that is) - such as AnyDVD; we can only hope that a SW will be developed that allows free use of recordings (again, for those using such media in a perfectly legal manner).

Vista

Completely over bloated POS................ Needing a DVD to contain the O/S is nothing short of a joke.

2k was their best O/S. FP, er XP is barely tolerable.

Maybe we should pick an O/S that comes on floppy discs.

XP!

much faster and smoother than my vista machine

Maybe the 'powers that be' should split the forum to Vista and XP users (I'm in the Vista camp, works great for me).
Then again, it will just be a matter of time before XP dries up....for one thing, the video card makers (along with all the other makers of peripherals) will at some point stop updating drivers for XP.

Vista you don't have to buy NVidia's Purevideo, right? That's a big advantage.

so what? xp is dead, MS isn't going to bring it back, and as time goes on support will become non-existant.

Down the road, win7 will be closer to vista than xp... xp is dead. period. if you hate vista, then by a mac... or load up linux... there is no point in continuing the seance for xp.

further, vista is a damn fine improvement over xp in so many areas... unless you have an nVidia machine or you play a lot of games. get a clue, this ain't 1up.com, it's avs forum!

Actually, I believe the Vista DVD has all versions of the OS on it, it all comes down to your activation code.

If you are buying or building new it is usually best to go with what's most up to date.

Right now I'm happy with XP and don't have $4000 cash laying around to update all my hardware/software.

Vista does implement DXVA 2.0 but what will become of all these nifty features remains to be seen.

DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motion compensation, deinterlacing and color correction to be offloaded to the GPU. DXVA 2.0 allows more operations, including video capturing and processing operations, to be hardware accelerated as well.
DXVA works in conjunction with the video rendering model used by the video card. DXVA 1.0, which is available for Windows 2000 or later, can use either the overlay rendering mode or VMR 7/9.[1] DXVA 2.0, available only on Windows Vista and later OSs.

From what I've read Vista has Network transfer rate issues...streaming network content or transferring large files a problem for you Vista guys or does it work ok with hdHomeRun etc ?

As far as Broadcast Content Protection flags go that is usually built into the tuner cards and drivers...which is another good reason to keep XP running with my old ATI HDTV Wonder. (pre-broadcast flag vintage...great card)

March 2009 will be a good time to start looking around and see what's up for upgrading. Don't forget to read the reviews and remember it also needs to be compliant with your HDTV, switcher, receiver...........

All hail...AnyDVD HD !!!

Later, Conrad

All of the Hauppauge cards (to the best of my knowledge) will record anything using their own software or any third party software other than Media Center without regard to copy protection. Even their latest HVR1600 has no hardware or driver level restrictions. I don't personally know of any hardware capture devices other than the OCAP device that has any built-in restrictions, and it may have no restrictions, the DRM may exist only within the Cablecard (and Media Center) itself. If third party or native software existed/exists then recordings through that tuner might be unrestricted. (beyond my ability to test)