Are you upgrading your HTPC to Win 7?

As the title states, anyone?

Already did...Win 7 x64...So far, so good

My only complaint is the poor performance of streaming TV from my DVICO card using Windows Media Encoder x64. I cannot get anything resembling smooth playback, when on XP x86 it was perfect using DVD settings and my Wireless b/g laptop. Now even the low quality low res settings are terrible. But I don't use it too often, hopefully they will fix it. I believe it is the 64 bit WME that sucks.

trying to get in touch with my niece who is in college to get a copy cheap...looking forward to trying out media center with clear qam...

I've been running W7x64 on my HTPC since it came out. I just do the homegroup thing with my daily machine and every thing transfers back and forth nice and easy.
No complaints so far, but I run a very basic HTPC (ie: no TV tuner).

Nope. My HTPC is at my sister's and I do not have time to run over there to work on it because XXXXX does not work in Mojave.

Running Vista Home Premium 32 bit on it, and everything works flawlessly, from the codecs, the recording, file sharing and the universal Anyware remote control...

My first dive into HTPC was with W7 RC1 just a few weeks ago - and so far so good. It has a very "TiVo Like" appearance and is fairly snappy on a e6420 @ 2.8GHz. I have 2 cards for 4 tuners (Happauge 2250), and it handles season passes w/o a hitch. I don't use any "extender" type devices - the HTPC is directly connected to the A/V system via HDMI, and is controlled from a Harmony One remote.

I have run into a few small bugs and/or complaints I'd like some feedback on:

Sometimes if you cange channels and attempt to switch to a channel that is already being recorded in the Guide, it will tune this channel to an available Tuner, and the "live buffer" starts at that point of the show - opposed to tuning in the tuner that's ALREADY RECORDING that channel. Otherwords, sometimes if I want to change a channel, and then go back to a show that is being recorded and rewind what I missed, I'll have to find the Program in the "Recorded TV" section if I want to rewind it. Pretty annoying at times - and this does not always happen (seems to happen more often the further into a recording you get).

Second - If I try to rewind a clip all the way to the start of the clip, my display goes black, and I have to re-start Media Center to get any video going. This seems to happen anytime I try to rewind to the first 30 seconds of a clip off the Live Buffer (or a clip that is currently being recorded). Using the mouse and manually dragging the Progress Bar to the beginning of the clip usualy works fine, but sometimes that methood will also cause my display to go black until I re-launch Media Center. It seems that I can never get the Live Buffer (or a show currently being recorded) to get the the very beginning of the clip - it seems to jump to 30 seconds into the clip - or causes the video to go black if you get within the first 30-seconds. There seems to be some issue with File Creation and the first 30 seconds of the clips - but if you play a clip from the "Recorded TV" section, it will play from the beginning of the clip just fine (I'm not 100% sure if playing pack pre-recorded clips still has the same issue with rewinding - but I know the Live Buffer has issues with rewinding to the start).

Lastly, if I let the Media Center Screen Saver come up (like if the HTPC is "Paused" for a few minutes), and try to jump right back into "Play", I get a 2-3 second Audio Loop that repeats endlessly (replaces the correct audio) until I close and re-open Media Center.

I have been through 3 different Audio and Video Drivers, and the same behaviour has been observed with all 3 drivers and even observed across 2 fairly different PC's. I'm running W7 RC1 32-Bit (build 7100 IIRC). Does anyone else have these issues? I'm hoping W7 RTM plus some driver updates will iron out these oddities, but overall I like W7 as a Media Center...

See my thread... I have been running win7 x64 and just got the ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 tonight and THERE ARE NO WINDOWS 7 drivers yet!! I am peeeeesd off!!!!! (other than that my onboard via hd is good, no issues running VLC media player in win7) Now I just gotta get an actual blu ray drive for my rig lol

i've been running Win 7 HP x86 for over a month now. i like the new guide, though there are a few bugs (like zoom settings for individual channels not sticking). you might want to take a look at thegreenbutton for more reviews, too.

kovboi said:

you might want to take a look at thegreenbutton for more reviews, too.

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Checking it out now - Thanks!

I've upgraded two of my HTPCs to Win7 and despite a few quirks and differences, I am happy. Both are x86, although my primary system is x64 and I do some intermediate developing for Media Center on it. I do think Vista still works a little better (as long as it doesn't include the buggy cumulative updates or SP2), but Id' tell anyone going for an HTPC for the first time to go ahead with Win7.

Hack7MC is the end all for 7MC info. I will also shamelessly plug my little blog for some general Media Center info (linked in sig). TGB is a good site and I visit there frequently.

jstutman said:

As the title states, anyone?

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If it aint broke, I don't plan on fixin' it.

I have 2 HTPCs that work just fine with Vista and I don't have to worry about that "Play Ready" BS so I will be leaving them as they are

will be keeping xp pro on my 4 HTPC's

i'm running win7 on my htpc. All good. One problem though.... win 7 media center does not support netflix. Hopefully this is changed once 7 is released.

mattgmann said:

i'm running win7 on my htpc. All good. One problem though.... win 7 media center does not support netflix. Hopefully this is changed once 7 is released.

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There is a native Netflix plugin coming very soon. It's patterned after the same one offered up with Vista, but will have a few additional features. As far as I know it still will not support extenders.

I have as of yet updated it to Win 7. I have the Keys if I wanted too. I just recall when I last updated Vista, I put the RTM on it and it had several issues. The biggest issue was drivers involving the on board video card and the hdmi handshake. You see, with all Yammy recievers, the handshake is not as nice as it is say directly to the TV. The Reciever is a must, cause I need my 7.1 PCM

i might but honestly the amount of time i use my htpc i cant really justify it as its workin perfect on win xp pro...

pro with mediaportal is so kick ***.

I as well use MP and moving picture plug in. I stayed with Vista cause I could not get HVA to work with subtitles in Win 7. However after visiting the site, I am seeing a LOT of updates I have not applied and this very well could be the fix. Stay tuned....I may end up upgrading tonight may as well try Win 7 again while I am doing it.

not until one day I want to move to 7MC; otherwise, I'm sticking with Vista. hey, my bedroom htpc client is still running XP Pro SP3!