Media Center 32 or 64bit

PiKe · 21 Aug 2008 at 13:49

Are there any downsides to running the 64bit version of Media Center?

bledd · 21 Aug 2008 at 13:53

mkv's aren't 100% compatible, need haali to release a 64bit matroska splitter http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/ (dunno if he's working on it)

next time i format either 32hp or xpmce is going back on my media pc

Conrad11 · 21 Aug 2008 at 14:43

Bledd. - what isn't working about MKVs for you?

Working fine here.

jrwagh333 · 21 Aug 2008 at 14:53

if you do go 64bit vista i would not run less than 4GB's of RAM

sibeer · 21 Aug 2008 at 16:14

I'm gonna start playing with my new 64bit Vista as a Media Center over the weekend. Any advice as to what to install / use would be appreciated

1337z0r · 21 Aug 2008 at 16:54

My main PC doubles up as my media PC, got it plugged into my 42" plasma. I use Vista Codec Pack and the x64 components, along with Media Player Classic Home Cinema edition.

KMPlayer is another good player with its own codec pack, meaning you don't need to install any codecs your self. I've always found KMP to handle HD files very well plus you can get some nice skins for KMP. Good to keep on your system if ever you need to play some random file type but don't want to install a codec pack just for that file.

MPC is always my main player for .mkv's and .avi's ect..

PiKe · 22 Aug 2008 at 09:18

Why does using the 64bit version automatically mean you need 4gb of ram?

Conrad11 · 22 Aug 2008 at 09:42

PiKe said:
Why does using the 64bit version automatically mean you need 4gb of ram?

It doesn't - it just you see the advantages more with 4GB or more.

PiKe · 22 Aug 2008 at 10:06

Conrad11 said:
It doesn't - it just you see the advantages more with 4GB or more.

It's sole purpose is going to be a Media Center so I don't really thing more than 2GB is going to be required.

Burnsy2023 · 22 Aug 2008 at 10:12

jrwagh333 said:
if you do go 64bit vista i would not run less than 4GB's of RAM

I would run 64bit on any machine with 3GB or more of RAM, especially if you have heafty graphics.

Burnsy

lsg1r · 22 Aug 2008 at 15:53

Please note that I don't use anything other than wmp11 (usually 32bit) although I have the option of media center due to using vista ultimate x64.

I have had both success and failure with mkv on 64bit vista. The usual issue is that I can't have both 32bit and 64bit working together although I can get one or the other, its a tad annoying :rolleyes:

As to whether 64bit is right for you look at the codecs you are going to use, theres no real/qt alternative for 64bit yet but there are for 32bit (they run in wmp11 32bit). MKV, most avi etc run fine in my experience (in 64bit and 32bit) but I still feel that 32bit is the way to go at present for media center on vista.

I'll agree that media player home cinema is a nice bit of software but I still prefer wmp11 to it.

Snakedoctor · 22 Aug 2008 at 15:55

MKV's play fine with Vista codec pack and x64 gubbins for me in WMC.