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

ps2cho

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Joined

Oct 13, 2004

• Aug 26, 2009

• #1

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

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Joined

Nov 20, 2007

Location

Fburg, VA

• Aug 26, 2009

• #2

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.

 

B

BlueMax

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Joined

Jul 26, 2009

• Aug 26, 2009

• #3

Yes. Media Center and better looks

 

turbohans

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Joined

Dec 20, 2008

Location

n43, w86

• Aug 26, 2009

• #4

BlueMax said:

Yes. Media Center and better looks

Click to expand...

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

 

OP

ps2cho

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Joined

Oct 13, 2004

• Aug 27, 2009

• Thread Starter
• #5

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.

 

D

DeviantV1ral

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Joined

Jul 31, 2005

• Sep 17, 2009

• #6

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

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Joined

Oct 11, 2005

Location

Tau'ri

• Sep 17, 2009

• #7

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

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Joined

Jun 12, 2001

Location

INDY

• Sep 17, 2009

• #8

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

 

glorp

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Joined

Apr 25, 2009

• Sep 17, 2009

• #9

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

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Aug 13, 2001

Location

Deep Blue Sea (Maryland)

• Sep 18, 2009

• #10

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.