Is there any benefit to vista for a media center PC?

[ybrew]

I'm running sage server on an xp pro machine (e6600, 2 gig ram, headless so onboard video)

I've also got a 'media center pc' in my theater. E6750, 2 gig ram, 8800GTS. Decent gaming rig, but also a great theater PC. I will mostly use it to watch TV, DVD & HDTV, all through sage.

I initially installed vista on this box but am seriously considering putting XP Pro on it for a couple of reasons.

First, the box is a zalman HD160. There are only beta vista drivers for the VFD in the case and I personally haven't gotten them to work. I'm not overly concerned with that, but still...

Second, I use a streamzap remote and there aren't any streamzap drivers for vista yet.

I don't have any games that require directx 10 yet, and honestly only plan to be an occasional gamer.
Getting a remote to work with sage is more important. I don't think I'm really too concerned with which remote - either the streamzap or the media center remote. As long as one of them work, I don't care. And I think the streamzap might be better just cause it'll probably be easier to setup.
Yeah, I could get another usbuirt (have one on my server) but I also think XP Pro might be more than sufficient. Aero is cool, but I can always play with it on my laptop if I really need an aero fix.

Is there any reason I should stick with vista? My gut says I'll probably downgrade tonight.

[Polypro]

I found that SD quality with an 8600GT on Vista was way better than a 7950GT on XP. I'm sticking with Vista, but I don't have your hardware related problems.

P

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by Polypro

I found that SD quality with an 8600GT on Vista was way better than a 7950GT on XP. I'm sticking with Vista, but I don't have your hardware related problems.

P

But did you try the 8600GT on XP?
I'm curious how my 8800GTS on XP will fare.

Another issue I'm facing - and I really think it's a cabling issue - is getting my PC (any PC) to recognize my projector as a digital display. I'm able to get my 8800GTS to work with my projector via the included component cable but DVI-HDMI is not working. I think I need to get a DVI-HDMI adapter and run a single HDMI cable. - but component is working so I'll stick with that for now.

Tonight I plan to downgrade to XP and test away.

[ybrew]

Ok...
Maybe I can't find a true benefit (might be more stable than XP?) but I did fail to see any true detriment.

The Snapstream drivers 2.9.6 are not vista drivers, but they work just fine in vista.

So I've got my remote working (actually using a harmony instead of the snapstream).

That was the only real reason to downgrade. Everything else is fine, so sticking with vista for now.

[CollinR]

Not right now, more overhead and more bugs in Vista. XP has been pretty well figured out at this point, everyone already knows it's flaws and fixes.

For me though, it's the system overhead that means Vista will never be used in a headless server.

[Polypro]

I've been running Vista on the HTPC since Jan, and haven't had one problem yet. Granted, all I use it for is HTPC stuff (Sage, Web Browsing, Ripping/Burning, Podcast DL'ng, etc...), but I have other boxes if I need to do other stuff. I did just install F.E.A.R. on the HTPC though (Runs great). The SD quality is awesome, and not having to deal with FSE is nice. For Touchscreen cases, *not* using FSE is almost a must.

P

[ybrew]

I've got a few games loaded, my remote is working, sage is purring along nicely (remember this is just a client pc).
I would've been upset if I had to fight my remote to get it working, but it was painless.
so far now, I'm sticking with vista.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by ybrew

Is there any reason I should stick with vista? My gut says I'll probably downgrade tonight.

On my Vista Utlimate machine, it is using about 650MB of RAM without anything extra loaded. Seems like an aweful lot of memory being used. XP Home on the same machine uses 100MB of RAM. Vista seems to be the biggest memory hog ever.

[Polypro]

Memory management in Vista is different.

P

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by steingra

On my Vista Utlimate machine, it is using about 650MB of RAM without anything extra loaded. Seems like an aweful lot of memory being used. XP Home on the same machine uses 100MB of RAM. Vista seems to be the biggest memory hog ever.

Between the RAM and video RAM my SageTV server doesn't even have 650MB total and runs just fine.

[KrisAcker]

Originally Posted by steingra

On my Vista Utlimate machine, it is using about 650MB of RAM without anything extra loaded. Seems like an aweful lot of memory being used. XP Home on the same machine uses 100MB of RAM. Vista seems to be the biggest memory hog ever.

Vista will always use all the physical memory in the machine. Memory is released to programs by the OS when they need it. I believe you can tell wich part of the memory is being used by programs in the taskmanager, but I don't have access to a Vista machine now.

[Shield]

I ran Vista on a box for a while, then switched back to XP. I have an 8600GT and I think the SD looks great. I got sick of the lack of mature drivers; for example I couldn't output analog and digital simultaneously because the audio portion of Vista was entirely rewritten. I had trouble getting RAID 1 to be bootable from an onboard SATA Raid controller. Directx9 games are faster in XP.

Ultimately, I hated how the search feature was implemented enough in Vista that I switched back to XP. It seems better now, and all of my hardware has mature drivers. Until there's a true need, I won't upgrade.