Vista 64bit overkill on HTPC?

Butters · 27 Dec 2007 at 11:57

I was planning on running 64 bit Vista OS in a media PC i'm about to build.

I dont think drivers are an issue as no printers or things will be attached.

The only reason i'm thinking 64bit is for the ability to rip my DVD collection to HD with minimal effort.

Thats all really. Would 64b have any other benefits in such an application?

badbob · 27 Dec 2007 at 12:00

Does Media Portal work under V64? I'd say the choice of HTPC front ends is more important than the OS 32/64 bit. Tried Vista, too basic.

Butters · 27 Dec 2007 at 12:02

Media Portal just keeps dying on me. Especially when trying to go full screen. I don;t know why.

badbob · 27 Dec 2007 at 12:04

No problem here, onboard Nvidia 6150, ATI X300 and ATI X1800XT. Do you have net installed?

Butters · 27 Dec 2007 at 12:08

Yeah, I was running it on a laptop though (to test). That has 1Gb DDR and ATi Mobility Radeon. Thing is, MCE2005 flys in comparison so I dont understand it really.

So I could stick with XP Pro on a decent rig and fire up MP. Might give it another shot sometime this year. MP just seems slow progress though.

badbob · 27 Dec 2007 at 12:14

Yeah XP/Vista MCE is faster, but it's just too basic. MP has features like resume, variable fast forward and rewind, and flac/ogg built-in, can use external players/settings easier, plugins etc. My Music works, unlike MCE which just creates a mess and misses flac/ogg files (have flac/ogg Media Player plugin too)

There's a public build of MP II.

Tony Williams · 27 Dec 2007 at 15:52

MCE fondles more balls than a lottery machine, I'd personally go for XP/2000 as the foundation O/S as they are smaller in footprint and you don't really care about aero, fancy nacy and redesigned interfeces.