[mokura]

I am in the process of building my new HTPC. I am stuck in a dilemma: Should I buy Windows Vista or stick with XP for now until Windows 7 comes out?


I am sure many are facing a similar issue...


Any advice?

 

[Suntan]

The other option would be: Just stick with XP and not worry about either Vista or 7.


Ask yourself, what can Vista do that XP can't? What will 7 do that Vista (or XP) can't?


-Suntan

 

[sotti]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Suntan /forum/post/15507356


The other option would be: Just stick with XP and not worry about either Vista or 7.


Ask yourself, what can Vista do that XP can't? What will 7 do that Vista (or XP) can't?


-Suntan

Well Win7 supports DVB-S2 H.264 free sat if you're in europe. Also vista has a higher quality audio subsystem than XP so if music sound quality is important but you don't have the coin for an AISO card.


Not to mention Vista has much better security than XP and Win7 only improves on that.


You could, just run the win7 beta, win7 Release canidate until win7 is released then make your decision then.

 

[CountryBumkin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Suntan /forum/post/15507356


The other option would be: Just stick with XP and not worry about either Vista or 7.


Ask yourself, what can Vista do that XP can't? What will 7 do that Vista (or XP) can't?


-Suntan

XP can't read GPT volumes (nice for storage arrays that exceed 2TB). Unless you have XP x64.

 

[Tinker]

stick with XP and wait for Win7

 

[umdivx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Suntan /forum/post/15507356


The other option would be: Just stick with XP and not worry about either Vista or 7.


Ask yourself, what can Vista do that XP can't? What will 7 do that Vista (or XP) can't?


-Suntan

ummm better interface, better plugins, native QAM support, EVR, you name it.


Also with Windows 7 it adds more codec support for extenders, like m2ts and mpeg4 for example.


I'd say get Vista now, you can get OEM builder license for vista for $100 and then you can get a upgrade license for windows 7 down the road.


I've been running vista as my main HTPC for almost 2 years now and its stable as hell and looks great.


- Josh

 

[Trojita]

Why don't you just download the Windows 7 Beta today and then pay for it when it gets released? It seems like a pretty win win situation to me.

 

[DJ79]

Another vote for Vista (32 bit) now. Win7 beta could be interesting for experimentation, but expect beta issues.

 

[Dusan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ79 /forum/post/15508738


Another vote for Vista (32 bit) now. Win7 beta could be interesting for experimentation, but expect beta issues.

No,no. He should expect alpha issues, beta issues is what end users will be facing after the official release. Don't forget this is Microsoft we're talking about.

 

[sotti]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Dusan /forum/post/15508943


No,no. He should expect alpha issues, beta issues is what end users will be facing after the official release. Don't forget this is Microsoft we're talking about.

So what does apple do then? If you really follow Mac OS, pretty much every .1 release comes with a whole host of issues and software incompatibilities.


Software is software, and win7 is very good since it's jut a .1 rev on vista.

 

[mr007]

wait for windows7

 

[Mevlock]

With Vista you also get EVR, which is IMHO a much better renderer than the ones that come with xp, ie. vmr9 etc.

 

[JoeWPgh]

If you have a copy of XP laying around, go ahead and use it. If it's question of buying a copy of either XP or Vista, go with Vista - hands down. It's perfectly stable with contemporary hardware. (as perfect as any OS, that is) While both systems run onto an occasional crash, Vista seems to recover from them more gracefully than I remember from XP - Either that, or they have vastly improved XP in the last 2 years. I haven't seen a BSOD in well over a year and a half on any of my 5 installs.

 

[SteelWill]

Dropping the $100 or so for Vista now is a bad decision IMO.

 

[jrwalte]



Quote:
Originally Posted by umdivx /forum/post/15507865


ummm better interface, better plugins, native QAM support, EVR, you name it.

Agreed. I just upgraded to Vista Home Premium x64 for $90 from MCE2005 mainly for those reasons. I also wanted to make use of the 8GB of RAM I have.


Vista also makes use of SuperFetch so it'll pre-load VMC (if you use it alot) into your RAM and it should respond better than the XP MCE.


I'll be waiting for at least a year after Win7 comes out before I'd upgrade anyway, when the OS would be more dependable. I never like using an OS when it first comes out.

 

[mslide]

Stick with XP until you have a reason to upgrade to something else. I think everyone here listed the big selling points of vista. If those don't matter to you, then just stick with XP.


This is assuming you have a legit copy of XP to use. If I had to buy an OS today, then I'd just get vista.

 

[Java Jack]

Win 7 is at least a year away. Therefore, how long are you willing to wait?


IMO, Vista is way better than XP for HTPC use. May not be for other things, but MCE in Vista is better than MCE for XP. Adding Fiji TV pack is an improvement over VMC. Win 7 looks to be even better still.


Therefore, it really depends on what is important to you.


There are also some advantages going a linux route.


Options are plentiful for HTPC.

 

[rkgriffin]

It really depends on how much $100 means to you. To me it would be well worth the $100 to run Vista until Win7 is ready for HTPCs. To others $100 is just way too much to spend. Even on something like AnyDVD.

 

[contractk]

No brainer, stick with XP and let Windows 7 mature. Just look how long it took Vista to start to work right, mind you 7 is kind of like a Vista. XP is solid, it works with everything, whats wrong that you should switch. I can just imagine all the driver problem threads when 7 hits. LOL

 

[chrislynch]

Another vote for Vista. 32-bit or 64-bit. Do know that there are some 64-bit codec issues out there (ffdshow for instance, and the lack of a proper and stable 64-bit Haali Media Spliiter for MKV playback.) I have been testing Windows 7 ever since the PDC release. The Beta is solid, but in no way would I use it for my primary HTPC. So far, there are some minor issues: TMT's MCE plugin crashes (it doesn't on my Vista Ultimate x64 systems), and most MCE plugins will not work properly.


The beta for Windows 7 expires in August. I am almost certain that Microsoft is trying to hit a release date of July this year. Plus, most of the ISV's will not take full advantage of what Win7 will provide in terms of Protected Media Path/Protected Audio Path for bitstreaming HD audio.


@contractk/et al:


Windows 7 is based on Vista. The driver model has not changed. Hardware that works in Vista will work with Windows 7.