What is the Best OS for an HTPC

steague

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I have spent many hours reading the forums here and there are differing opinions on the best OS..
(was creating a poll but you only have two minutes and it timed out)


First 32 bit or 64 bit?
Vista Home Premium
Vista Ultimate
Windows XP
Other?
 
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Using Vista Home Premium. Perfect so far. The only niggle is constantly being asked permission to run apps.
 
I'm using 32 bit Windows XP. Just couldn't get on with Vista and didn't need any of its new fuctionality. Also found 64bit to be more of a hindrance (what advantage does it bring to a HTPC?) than a help.

32bit will bring you far less problems IMO
 
Using Vista Home Premium. Perfect so far. The only niggle is constantly being asked permission to run apps.

Timbow if it's annoying you the UAC i mean then just turn it off, goto User accounts and family - User accounts and look at the bottom option "Turn user account control on or off" hope this helps
 
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Vistax86

VMC + MadFlac + MyMovies + Deamon tools.
(Not yet configured for Blu-Ray or HD)
 
Vista 64bit :)

Don't forget to enable the DVD hack if you go down this route, so you can see your library of ripped DVD's in MC :)

Google or search this forum for info.
 
Im running Ultimate 32bit on my server and 3 of my vista clients.....running vista 64bit on the 4th client.

From my experiences, 32bit is the way to go. Vista 64bit codecs are in their infancy, and mymovies ( if you are going to use it ) has a few bugs on 64bit.

If you want to avoid little niggles and headaches like ive had to work through , i'd go 32bit everytime. 64bit will allow you to have >3gb memory , but an HTPC doesnt need that much anyway.
 
I've had no issues with getting codecs for 64-bit Vista :confused:

CoreAVC works a treat for instance. Media Player codecs also work as they should, as does DivX/XviD.

I've also got Corel WinDVD working lovely.

I try to follow the 'less is more' rule with codecs and only install what's essential as and when it's needed and I've not experienced any trouble.
 
It depends what you want to do... if you want to run Vista Media Centre, then you need Vista Home Premium or Ultimate... if you're planning on using MediaPortal as many folk are, you actually only XP as a minimum... or any other Vista flavour!
 
I've had no issues with getting codecs for 64-bit Vista :confused:

CoreAVC works a treat for instance. Media Player codecs also work as they should, as does DivX/XviD.

I've also got Corel WinDVD working lovely.

I try to follow the 'less is more' rule with codecs and only install what's essential as and when it's needed and I've not experienced any trouble.


I have had a few niggles with Vista64 and codecs, for example ffshow64 does not work with my Vista64, but ffdsow 32bit does fine.

But i have to stress the niggles are just that, niggles; very small issues that can be easily resolved.

I dont know how much better 64bit OS works with a 64bit capable CPU though...anyone?
 
I have had a few niggles with Vista64 and codecs, for example ffshow64 does not work with my Vista64, but ffdsow 32bit does fine.

But i have to stress the niggles are just that, niggles; very small issues that can be easily resolved.

I dont know how much better 64bit OS works with a 64bit capable CPU though...anyone?

I'd be tempted to say you're more than likely looking at conflicts with other software or codecs rather than a 64-bit specific problem, as otherwise all 64-bit users would have it.

With regards to whether it works better, it depends on your hardware. If you have 4GB RAM + Graphics cards + the rest of your hardware then it's well worth going 64-bit. But if you're only using a total of 4GB then there is little performance benefit, due to the extra overhead of the 64-bit architecture negating the benefit of the 0.5GB RAM you'd get over 32-bit. What it does allow though is easy expansion of RAM and other hardware without having to re-install.
 
I've been very impressed with the Win7 beta. I might stick with it until RTM.
 

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