Any advantage to upgrade Vista Ultimate over XP Pro for HTPC?

[ps2cho]

Just curious...

Are there any specific benefits to upgrading from XP Pro -> Vista Ultimate 64bit for a HTPC?

I may get Windows 7 for my main computer, which leaves my Vista Ultimate CD free to use....so I was wondering if its worth the hassle to put it on my HTPC or not.

Any thoughts?

[onefstsnake]

Vista is able to utilize more ram than XP. Also Vista Ultimate includes Windows Media Center which can be useful.

But other than that Im not sure it would be worth it.

[BlueMax]

Yes. Media Center and better looks :p

[turbohans]

Yes. Media Center and better looks :p

+1 media center is sweeeeeeeet,, got my tuner card hooked up and it download listings and records.

[ps2cho]

I am also having trouble with a few programs because of the services I removed for a streamlined install...

So basically I'll have to fresh install...so I figured why do XP Pro again if I go Vista Ultimate this time around.

[DeviantV1ral]

ion my htpc i have a bunch of flac files so sound quality is very important

in xp i had to use foobar and asio to bypas xp's kmixer

but now in 7 its all good, and messing around with foobar
just to use it as a passthrough to the external DAC

even with an external DAC the kmixer somehow manages to degrade the sound quality.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=52405

heres a good insight

[Neuromancer]

If you do run Vista MC, be sure to keep an eye out for the digital enhancements stuff.

I forget the name it allows ClearQAM and such to be used on the tuner in MC, and some other benefits as well (improved guide I think...)

[chaos]

I'm thinking about going with vista ultimate too for my hptc. Be nice to be able to use clearQam in it..

[glorp]

It's called TV Pack 2008. It has to be d/l-ed from sites like The Green Button and installed by the user. It's not a part of Vista Ultimate or any service packs and is not available through M$ except to hardware OEMs. The Clear QAM features are native to Win7 now.

You don't absolutely need it to do Clear QAM on Vista but it does add far better digital tuner integration.

[LandShark]

IF you are going to use WMC, then yes, it's well worth it. BUT if you are not going to use WMC, then I don't see much, if any, benefit moving from XP -> Vista. my bedroom HTPC client is still running XP Pro, and have no problem even w/ Bluray rip.