Vista 64 as HTPC

[Synchro]

Anyone doing this without any problems?

[England2Canada]

I know this guy did, but with slight problems

http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37

[mikeaitch]

I've been using V64 for a few months now.

Threre are a few driver issues which have only just been solved but no way am I going back to XP!

[AMCross]

using a vista 64 rig myself

BUT MyMovies and Theatretek Both do NOT work so be careful

[mikeaitch]

Theatertek 2.4 works fine on my htpc, but not thhe latest 2.5 version..

[Synchro]

Originally Posted by AMCross

using a vista 64 rig myself

BUT MyMovies and Theatretek Both do NOT work so be careful

I have been a MyMovies fan since MCE2005. I am currently using it on Vista Ultimate 32. I'd be gutted if it didn't work on Vista 64

Why are you guys using Theatretek? What can it do that the Vista MC can't?

[kaygeebee]

been running Vista 64 HomePrem since launch...

had the odd problem with my Hauppague 500-T card, and a little annoyance from ATi catalyst failing, but it's all in all been great... certainly wouldn't go back to XP..

one word of warning tho, from experience make sure you have lotsa spare RAM... I only have 1gb in mine, PC2-6400, my system graph show's my dual cores mostly in the low 10% but RAM in the 80% region often... that's with a 4GB Readyboost USB stick in the back too....

note to self: BUY MORE RAM SOON !!

[tennant]

Originally Posted by kaygeebee

one word of warning tho, from experience make sure you have lotsa spare RAM... I only have 1gb in mine, PC2-6400, my system graph show's my dual cores mostly in the low 10% but RAM in the 80% region often... that's with a 4GB Readyboost USB stick in the back too....

Remember that Vista handles RAM differently. It always tries to fill your available RAm in anticipation of what you might do next (based on learning your usage patterns). Therefore if you add more RAM you'll probably find it's still 80% used. I'm not saying don't add more RAM, because it will definitely improve performance, just don't necessarily use available free RAM as a definitive guide.

Tennant

[AMCross]

"Why are you guys using Theatretek? What can it do that the Vista MC can't?""


It was the best program designed for the HTPC scene by a htpc fan

the graphics and customisation was second to none

HOWEVER with vista things seem to have slowed down with poor responces to questions on the forums they run

SO now we have MYMOVIES (NO plans to get vista 64 working) at the moment and Vista 64 not allowing Theatretek software to even instal

Wish i kept my mce2005 systems

[Synchro]

What graphics cards are people using?

[jakey]

If you plan on playing Blu-ray and HD DVD with PowerDVD then beware as it does not work properly with Vista64. When I had problems with freezing I posted a question to their support

I'm have Freezing problems when playing
HD DVD and Blu-ray discs using Vista64
Ultimate.

This problem usually occurs within the
first 10 minutes of playback. Sometimes
the audio continues but the picture
freezes, in this case after about a
minute the picture will recover and the
disc will play normally until the end
of the movie.

At other times the PC will lock and I
have to reset it.

As this problem occurs with both the
USB Xbox360 HDDVD drive and the ATA LG
GBW-H10N with the latest GL05 Vista
firmware I have ruled out any driver
problems.

Cyberlink Advisor gives me ALL green
lights for both Blu-ray and HDDVD.

HDDVD plays perfectly when copied to
the HDD and played from there.

I have also read on the Cyberlink forum
of others with the same problem using
Vista.

Please can you help with this problem.

Their reply

Thank you for contacting Cyberlink Online Customer Support.

In regard to your issue, we regret to say that PowerDVD Ultra is not yet tested on Windows 64 bit version and therefore might not work properly. The PowerDVD Ultra software is only tested and works fine with Windows 32 bit edition.

So therefore PowerDVD Ultra may or may not work with Windows 64 bit version of Vista.

We apologize for the inconvienience you have encountered so far.

Since then I changed to XP but wasn't happy with the PQ so I tried Vista 32 and everything works super and PQ is outstanding even though the nvidia drivers are still a mess.

My advice would be to stick with Vista32.