Windows Vista Pros?

phoneisbusy
phoneisbusy Posts: 867
edited August 2007 in The Clubhouse
We're at the point where we need a new computer soon. Many of the packaged systems have Vista preloaded.

I'm a bit reluctant to move over to Vista due to application and hardware concerns (ie driver and os compatibility issues). The one area that Vista has that is of interest is the integration of the media center functionality.

Can anyone offer their opinions and experiences of that area? Does the media center app record TV shows well? Are dvd's upcoverted to 720p or 1080p (I'm thinking of a 22"-24" monitor also).

From a budget point of view, I'm looking for spend 1200-1600 on the complete system. HP has some pavilon media desktops with screen in that range that look very compelling. My only concerns with them is the power supply, video card, and noise levels.

Any feedback appreciated.

Dave
Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately it kills all its students.
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Comments

  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited August 2007
    The Media Center part of Vista is what actually shines. Now driver and hardware compatibility may not be as great, but for a Media Center PC Vista works well. It's just a resource hog.

    My HTPC with Media Center 2005 is just as good as my Vista laptop's Media Center portion, though.
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  • Sami
    Sami Posts: 4,634
    edited August 2007
    DVD's are going to be converted to whatever the native resolution of your display. That happens with all digital monitors/TV's. The quality of the process is the crucial thing, and I don't know if Vista has had it optimized or if you need to do it yourself.

    Record TV shows, you need a TV capture card. Don't expect to record many HD shows as they are encoded and there are no capture cards available that will decode them.

    I'm taking the plunge to Vista on my main computer, it can't be much worse than the XP x64 I have now. I will however backup my OS so I can go back if I need to.

    My advice is to keep the old computer and run your peripherals like printer and scanner through it, to burn DVD's etc. If you set it up with VNCServer you can keep it around without a monitor and kb/m.
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  • Serendipity
    Serendipity Posts: 6,975
    edited August 2007
    As Sami said, DVDs will be scaled to the native resolution of the display.

    With a good graphics card, Vista Media Center does a wonderful job of scaling.

    Overall, it works well.
    polkaudio RT35 Bookshelves
    polkaudio 255c-RT Inwalls
    polkaudio DSWPro550WI
    polkaudio XRT12 XM Tuner
    polkaudio RM6750 5.1

    Front projection, 2 channel, car audio... life is good!
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  • howie777
    howie777 Posts: 357
    edited August 2007
    I'm not sure on quality (I think they are good) but www.alienware.com (now owned by Dell) still allows you to choose XP instead of Vista if that helps at all

    Howie
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  • carpenter
    carpenter Posts: 362
    edited August 2007
    I believe that copy protected DVDs would not get up converted with Vista Media Center. vista will play it in 480 res.
    (CableCARD DRM ?)
    I'm certain you can get around it if you use an alternative DVD playing software.
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