Is Vista worth upgrading to from MCE 2005?

[WheresMyArtisan]

I haven't used any of the betas of Vista, mainly because our two MCE PCs are "mission-critical", i.e. they're used by the other half for watching soaps and other drivel.

I've just bought a new OEM copy of MCE, which came with a Vista upgrade voucher. I'd be very glad to hear the views of MCE 2005 users who have tried the betas. Is it worth the upgrade?

What extras do you get (e.g. proper freeview radio / digital teletext)?
Is it more stable (this can't be too hard, surely - but knowing MS...)?
Does it do standby/resume properly (I doubt it!)
Any other thoughts?

Looking forward to hearing any good or bad views!

[Mooky55]

Hey,

Not having seen vista (except for the Beta) I dont really know but from what I have seen and heard its certainly an improvment.

I have been contemplating building an HTPC using MCE 2005 and then using the upgrade voucher to update my gaming PC to Vista from XP Home.

Dont know if that would work though, be interested if there is any written limitation on the upgrade voucher or if its "any windows OS to Vista".

[Praxidike]

If they're that "mission-critical", people usually say to wait a year for updates to the OS before using it, let all the geeks sort out all the problems.

I used the beta for a while, it was pretty but annoying. Maybe they've fixed the annoyances.... it was stable enough though for the month or so I used it, and I guess the final version should only be more stable...

Hmmm that's very much a politician's answer there, probably not much help, I can't even make my own mind up!

[Perky]

I have been using Vista RTM (Final Version) since it became available in mid November (its a legit copy before anybody says - I am a Microsoft Systems Engineer so get access to all sorts of cool stuff )

Generally I have found the final version to be pretty stable - most hardware works out of the box for now, however Nvidia really should get their fingers out and get some decent Forceware / NForce drivers out!

Majority of software will run (you can always try running in XP compatibility mode if it wont) - generally Vista is a massive improvement when compared to XP at the same stage of its life cycle.

As for MCE, I love the new interface, much better than the GUI in MCE2005.

Havent tried Live TV as awaiting a new aerial today, so hopefully we will see improvements there too

[Gillykid]

I have used Vista MCE and it is a world better than MCE2005 (once you get used to the horizontal scrolling), however like most new things there are a few things to iron out:

NForce / Forceware support - forget it if you need any special res. Forceware X is "around the corner" tho

Problems with PureVideo - again not a problem if you don't use it

Lack of driver support - think 64 bit XP

My suggestion - definately upgrade, just wait a couple of months.

[andyr300]

i used the 64bit RC2 and wasnt happy,but that was more because it didnt support much of my hardware...so cldnt really test out the media centre part.

other than that seemed good,just annoyed me how it wouldnt let u do anything with out popping up numrous warnings.

[WheresMyArtisan]

Thanks for the responses.

Hmmm. So everyone agrees it's "good" or "better". But does it do anything that MCE 2005 can't do?

So is it just a tidied up and polished version of the same thing?

[danvitale]

I wouldnt touch Vista if you have anything less than a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo with less than 1gb of 800mhz Ram.

[andyr300]

^^ thats not true,i have an amd 3000+ with 1gb of not fast RAM,and it was fine,doesnt seem to take up much more than XP

[Whitey1977]

Originally Posted by WheresMyArtisan

Thanks for the responses.

Hmmm. So everyone agrees it's "good" or "better". But does it do anything that MCE 2005 can't do?

So is it just a tidied up and polished version of the same thing?

I was thinking the same. No signicant features have been added, no DVB-S or DVB-C, no softsled (software extender), DAB etc.

A little disappointing to me

Whitey

[Br0ken]

Originally Posted by andyr300

^^ thats not true,i have an amd 3000+ with 1gb of not fast RAM,and it was fine,doesnt seem to take up much more than XP

Agreed, ive run Vista on a 2.2ghz, 512mb ram, 128mb radeon 9200se (cheap card) and its run pretty well. Though i was only testing the media center and not much else.

Back on topic, simply, don't buy Vista just for the MCE! Vista IS better than XP in many respects but to buy it for just mce use is pointlessly spending money you dont need to. Stick with mce05 in my opinion.

[MyBigToe]

it was stable for me, but very bloated.
I would personally say to stay with MCE 2005 until a point you gain some addition benefits

[WheresMyArtisan]

Thanks all!

So it's a waste of time upgrading the living room telly then. A bit of a missed opportunity if you ask me - I guess their work has gone into the core OS, rather than the MCE app.

Very disappointing. We can only hope that MS find the time to add some further features via a free upgrade later.