Windows 7 for new HTPC?

RobK

RobK

RobK

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I'm building a new HTPC today and I'm wondering whether to put the Windows 7 beta on it or stick with Vista (or XP??). Is it functional and stable enough, and do Vista 64 bit codecs etc work ok?
 
It is functional enough, and Vista x64 drivers work fine, but you most likely will come across problems, quirks, or oddities.

I have no idea why this forum has an obsession with running "7" beta as a day-to-day OS, no-one did the same with Vista Beta.

At least wait until the Release Candidate (supposed mid April).
 
I've recently changed my HTPC from Vista 32 to Windows 7 Beta. The only thing our HTPC gets used for is videos and the videos screen has a much better layout, you can actually see a screen and the title rather than just the screenshot and having to scroll onto it to find the title of the film. I also find the main menu much clear and nicer to look out, it's just as stable as vista as it was basically built from it. And support for hardware is fine.

And yes the Vista 64bit codecs are likely to work with it as the 32 ones did for mine, so I don't see why they shouldn't.
 
Pulse said:
I've recently changed my HTPC from Vista 32 to Windows 7 Beta. The only thing our HTPC gets used for is videos and the videos screen has a much better layout, you can actually see a screen and the title rather than just the screenshot and having to scroll onto it to find the title of the film. I also find the main menu much clear and nicer to look out, it's just as stable as vista as it was basically built from it. And support for hardware is fine.
Click to expand...
Fairly sure the videos screen is exactly the same, they've just changed the default view - you can get that view on Vista.

And yes the Vista 64bit codecs are likely to work with it as the 32 ones did for mine, so I don't see why they shouldn't.
Click to expand...
The ones posted above will work. Other codec packs will confuse it be removing/disabling the native MS codecs for XviD, 264 etc. Some people have had major problems with playback after installing things like K-lite.
 
Actually, you don't need win7 codecs at all. It comes with virtually every codec built in and I use FFDshow x64 and MPC-HC quite happily. I've been using it as an HTPC for sometime now and the MC front end is light years ahead of Vista. No useless menus, clean and simple.

Check out here,

here

and here

for its straight forward customisation and a few plugins which I've added which work fine.

Its very stable (Intel G45 Chipset), no crashes or BSODs yet so as long as you have your media kept on a seperate drive just in case I see no reason not to give it a whirl. After all, that is what BETA testing is all about no?

Good link to talk you through most things
here
 
Sounds good, thanks I'll give it a go. What are you using to play .mkv files? I have Windows 7 beta installed on a desktop PC and it wouldn't play them in WMP. Does MPC-HC play them natively?
 
I was going to do the same, try Win7 on my HTPC until it expires, but unfortunately it has isses with dual tuners, specially the Nova T 500.

But if you dont have one of those, then Win7 will be a great HTPC, and you wont encounter that many problems.
 
I use it stand-a-lone but there is a way to get MC to use ffsdhow (or whatever filters, codecs you require) via a reg hack. HWAC, I've spent ages on this topic and can only assume that whatever settings i've changed are using HWAC as playing a BR rip uses about 10-15% CPU
 
Thanks, I've read about 50 threads on codecs, splitters, players etc and was fairly baffled but you've given me hope!
 
paradigm said:
I have no idea why this forum has an obsession with running "7" beta as a day-to-day OS, no-one did the same with Vista Beta.
Click to expand...

Well for one thing, it's free! At least until September anyway. I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2 beta on my server box too, so it will be interesting to see how they work together.
 
I'm using Win7 as my HTPC OS and have had no problems what so ever yet. I'm really liking it so far.. the music wall looks pretty awesome. Not sure if Vista had that as I upgraded from XP 2005 MCE.
 
Had to do a reinstall of my media pc recently, so thought i'd try windows 7, really liking it so far on my media pc

seems snappier in everyday windows use than my main pc which is a lot higher spec, running vista 64

I begrudge using it on my main pc though after i paid so much for vista ultimate 64, getting my monies worth out of it
 
I've been using the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and have got most things working nicely, but I think I should probably have gone for the 32 bit version instead. Just seems like everything would have been simpler! Also I would like to have .Flac tags work in WMP but the WMP Tag Support Extender doesn't work in x64.

Can I face reinstalling everything though...?
 
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