Vista or XP

[osburnfamily]

Hey all. I just bought some new components (mobo & cpu) for an upgrade & will be reloading my OS.
Any thoughts on which is better with Sage? By better, I mean that I'd like to be able to watch/recorded two HD qam signals & one SD signal at once.

I have an Nvidia 8500GT video card, a gigabyte P35-DS3R mobo, core2duo e6750 (2.66ghz), 2 gigs ddr2 memory, 1 320 sataii hd, 1 500 sataii hd, two HVR-1600's, a directtv sat receiver, comcast qam signals, and hooked up to a 42" plasma hdtv via dvi-to-hdmi.

Thoughts?

thanks!

[carlgar]

I would avoid VISTA, I do not believe is it ready for prime time yet. While the SP1 RC1 has made a lot of improvements, I still encounter TCP stack problems using the HD extender. If you have no plans to use the HD extender then VISTA is probably OK. However, if you do plan to use it then expect to encounter a hang every couple of days or so. I have never gone a full week without a TCP Stack type hang. Sage support thinks it is specific to my system. If anyone is running VISTA and the HD extender without hangs I would like to hear about it. I have not seen any of these hangs with the MVP since updating to SP1 RC1.

[mikesm]

XP. You don't need the grief from vista and driver support, with nothing positive to show for it, esp. on the server.

[osburnfamily]

How about mpeg2 decoder settings? nvidia or cyberlink? I'm trying to avoid studdering during playback of hd video while recording another hd source.

[GTwannabe]

If you want smooth, stutter-free HD playback, you need Vista with the Aero desktop enabled (Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions)

[mayamaniac]

Vista is better for watching shows because of the new display driver (WDDM). XP is better for server since it's lighter on the resource than Vista if all the machine does is recording and storing files, also there's little to no advantage to go with Vista. Since you're doing both, you are better off with Vista. Just check to see if all your hardware has Vista drivers, things like motherboard LAN/Audio/Ethernet, video, tuner, printers/scanners, camera, webcam, etc..

[osburnfamily]

That's a perfect run-down of the two options. I really appreciate the opinions. I think I'll go the Vista road. (don't have any hd extenders yet)

[Kimper]

You can avoid alot of headaches by skipping vista. I went back to XP after trying vista for nearly a month. Too many things don't work right or act just plain weird. How bout it randomly wiping your Sage settings every now and then because of some weird way it creates a temporary file? Or maybe you'd like a little HD stutter at random times that you cant figure out? Or even better, trying to get vista with its whole new way of handeling sound to output 5.1 sound to your amp for various formats (ac3, dts, etc).

If you like reading for hours on forums and trying to figure stuff out then Vista is just what the doctor ordered. If you just want to use your HTPC put XP back on it.

Whole thread I started a while back asking this exact question is here.

[JParedis]

I'm running Vista with a dual-core, came from XP, and Vista does seem to better use the dual-core capabilities. When I for instance remove adds (rewriting mpg without them), performance increase against XP is great.

I did have serious issues with the TCP stack, until I installed SP1 (beta). Since than it runs without any issues. But am not running any HD extender, so can't say if those still have an issue.

I went to Vista as my new PC had it included, else would probably have stayed with XP. There are the issues with hardware drivers, and the famous increase security in Vista (making it a interesting to search for those Sage files).

All-in-all, I'm currently pleased with my Vista - got more trouble in retraining myself with that new Office .

Jan

[nebulink]

I have been running vista for over a year without issue.

I think some people just don't like change.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by carlgar

I would avoid VISTA, I do not believe is it ready for prime time yet. While the SP1 RC1 has made a lot of improvements, I still encounter TCP stack problems using the HD extender. If you have no plans to use the HD extender then VISTA is probably OK. However, if you do plan to use it then expect to encounter a hang every couple of days or so. I have never gone a full week without a TCP Stack type hang. Sage support thinks it is specific to my system. If anyone is running VISTA and the HD extender without hangs I would like to hear about it. I have not seen any of these hangs with the MVP since updating to SP1 RC1.

I'm running Vista with a HD Extender and have no troubles (with the HD Extender at any rate). I'm having a bit of trouble with Sage scanning my m780 in QAM mode (not picking up some of the channels that my HDHR does), but even that works in QAM mode. I've not had any issues with the Vista since moving from my old XP server to this one, everything seems to be working ok.

Now if I could just get Sage to detect my PVR2000 encoders as hardware instead of software encoders, I'd be in great shape, lol.

Would I go back to XP on my HTPC server? Probably not. Everything seems to run much smoother on this box than my old one, although I did upgrade it from a 2.8ghz Dual Xeon to a 4.6ghz AMD x2, not sure if that had any affect or not tho . (The Xeon is now a storage-only server, way overkill, but at least I'm still using it).

[osburnfamily]

So if my objective is to watch/record two simultaneous HD-QAM shows, and I have Vista, and I have enough "horse-power", which decoder should I go with? Nvidia, PowerDVD, Intervideo, Sage?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by osburnfamily

So if my objective is to watch/record two simultaneous HD-QAM shows, and I have Vista, and I have enough "horse-power", which decoder should I go with? Nvidia, PowerDVD, Intervideo, Sage?

I can't say anything about Intervideo, but I've had the best luck with PowerDVD. Purevideo worked for me, but it was a little buggy if I remember correctly. Its not officially supported under Vista, but it does work.

[davephan]

If you use Vista, make sure you have a disk image of the system before applying service pack 1. Applying service pack 1 to Vista can cause the system to reboot continuously.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,10...1/article.html

Dave

[Polypro]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,14...n/article.html