Windows Xp vs Windows 7 for HTPC?

[Syringer]

I was going to install Mediaportal onto my new built HTPC but I'm not sure which OS I should go for. Any pros/cons for either OS?

 

[Nothinman]

Why would you even consider a 9yr old OS that's about to be EOL'd soon?

 

[Binky]

Even if you're going to install and use MediaPortal, Win7 includes a pretty good media center which could be useful. The older MCE2005 was not great. You may be talking about plain XP, which does not include any media center component at all.

However you look at it, XP loses unless you already own XP. Even then, I'd go for Win7.

 

[her209]

I recently switched over to Win 7 from Win XP on my HTPC. Yes, it looks nicer, but I don't really see any benefit from it other than not having to load the SATA drivers during installation. I use XBMC and do some light web surfing.

 

[Attic]

Windows 7 hands down.

Look into WMC, Media Browser, Media Center Master.

WMC is a great media hub when configured to your liking. I've used Media Portal and a few others, finally settled on WMC... much better WAF and I like the layout.

Win 7 gets you clearQAM (HD) televesion stations in WMC if you want to add a tv tuner card. It also behaves as a great PVR and guide. I'm unclear if XP supports this, HD stations, even with other programs besides WMC.

 

[Emulex]

win7 media center is the best. tivo doesn't even come close. esp at the price point. comes with every pc these days.

7mc supports high def. the old versions do 720p or less only

 

[Attic]

win7 media center is the best. tivo doesn't even come close. esp at the price point. comes with every pc these days.

7mc supports high def. the old versions do 720p or less only

Ok, yes. This.

How about 7mc extenders, you used any you like? I'm thinking of maybe just getting an xbox360. I have not found any good alternatives for 200. I don't need the game capability though, so it feels like too much.

To OP. Extenders are a great way to stream the media from your win7 equiped pc to any other (up to 5) tv in your house. Your media layout in 7mc can be streamed to the extenders, this includeds movies, music, livetv, recordedtv, everything. It is really cool if you want to go that route in your home. I'm a bit miffed at why this didn't generate more traction among 3rd party manufactures or the enthusiast community. I have not read a ton about it, and I don't see a lot of extenders out there that are worthwhile. If you have a large media library, extenders are a really effective way to throw that around your home.

 

[Emulex]

you do realize 7mc is end of the road. it's all going embedded like google tv in the next windows

we must protest! go to the green button and get a petition started.

(only folks of AT skills can figure out 7mc sadly)

 

[Attic]

Yikes, that is shocking to me. Last I heard was that googletv was having lots of issues with content rights and i'm generally not a fan of app driven content as the forefront of my experience.

The way we have it now is Blu-Ray Players with apps for everything, tvs with apps for everything, with DLNA this would be great, but it still gets very redundant. All we really need is an extender functionality on these devices to grab what they need from a users collection on the home network. I was thinking DLNA would advance this further. Netfilix has been able to get on all these devices, wheres my access to 7MC?, after all that's where all my pictures and music, vids, movies would be if I had a desire to stream them.

For some of us a TV with a built in extender would be perfect. But MS hasn't done that great a job of getting out the word on how easy 7mc has made it to get media to any living space in a home.

Content providers want to monetarize every television (viewing device) in a person's home, I can see where this could have the effect of knocking the wind out extenders.

With a cloud based identity I figure apps make more sense than media driven from a users home network. But I don't think we are there yet with bandwith for a lot of enthusiasts desires for content availability/quality.

 

[notposting]

I use two of the Linksys DMA-2200's as extenders. HTPC is in the living room, they are in the bedrooms. All HDTV setups. They work fine, though no internet tv, hulu, etc. But I do get live TV and movies off the server just fine (using MyMovies to transcode on the fly on the HTPC).

 

[Auric]

XP is incapable of HD audio. /thread

 

[VirtualLarry]

I had one heck of a time trying to get XP to play back 1080P MKV BR rips on my 780G chipset. I installed Win7, ATI drivers, and DXVA magically just worked.

 

[GullyFoyle]

I have an HTPC running a Hauppage HVR1600 capture card, with Sage TV software.

I tried installing Win7 Pro, but could never get the QAM tuner to work under Win7. Sage TV, Media center, or anything.

Somewhere in my quest to get it all working, I installed something from Microsoft that was preventing my from Analog captures from working on certain TV shows because I was using an SVideo out, and it flagged it as a content protection violation.

Eventually, I swapped hard drives and have it back running under XP. I'll try again later.

 

[evident]

I recently switched over to Win 7 from Win XP on my HTPC. Yes, it looks nicer, but I don't really see any benefit from it other than not having to load the SATA drivers during installation. I use XBMC and do some light web surfing.

good lord man, you didnt have to install 10000 drivers for windows xp? that should be the difference right there. that and having to massage every single little setting to get it to play back movies right.

 

[Modelworks]

HTPC is a dying concept. Replaced by the home media server that serves the content to some form of set top box. That is the way content providers want it. With a set top box they have total control over whether you can record the streamed content or not and that is what the MPAA wants. It is the reason there is no netflix for linux. Linux is too open and the system can't be locked down. With windows 7 it has protected content paths where the media can basically flip a switch and nobody can record the content.

I did a lot of research into the protected content paths and you wouldn't believe how detailed they went into the design. It is encrypted every step of the way from the moment it hits the network interface , through the ram , cpu and they even encrypt the data signals on the pci express bus as it passes from the memory on the board to the video card. You can't even attach a logic analyzer and grab the data off the physical board traces. This is what content providers want for the living room and set top boxes give it to them.

Spend the money on building a reliable file server for media and put a $100 set top box on each tv. It works reliably and you never have to mess with drivers or codecs.

 

[Attic]

I use two of the Linksys DMA-2200's as extenders. HTPC is in the living room, they are in the bedrooms. All HDTV setups. They work fine, though no internet tv, hulu, etc. But I do get live TV and movies off the server just fine (using MyMovies to transcode on the fly on the HTPC).

Is transcoding a neccesary step to achieve the end goal and what format are you transcoding to? A 1080P mkv rip would have to be transcoded for the extender to manage? Do extenders do a solid job of supporting file types, or is the transcode necesary to get the movie into a specific container for the extender and does this result in noticable quality loss?

Sorry for all the ?'s, I didn't know that transcoding was done in this scenario. Also are you using CPU or GPU to do the transcoding? Cuda supposedly is a no no to maintain quality.

 

[Attic]

HTPC is a dying concept. Replaced by the home media server that serves the content to some form of set top box. That is the way content providers want it. With a set top box they have total control over whether you can record the streamed content or not and that is what the MPAA wants. It is the reason there is no netflix for linux. Linux is too open and the system can't be locked down. With windows 7 it has protected content paths where the media can basically flip a switch and nobody can record the content.

I did a lot of research into the protected content paths and you wouldn't believe how detailed they went into the design. It is encrypted every step of the way from the moment it hits the network interface , through the ram , cpu and they even encrypt the data signals on the pci express bus as it passes from the memory on the board to the video card. You can't even attach a logic analyzer and grab the data off the physical board traces. This is what content providers want for the living room and set top boxes give it to them.

Spend the money on building a reliable file server for media and put a $100 set top box on each tv. It works reliably and you never have to mess with drivers or codecs.

Interesting, nice post.

Isn't the HTPC just going to evolve into a HTPC/media server? I guess if you didn't want to have a large device you could remove the HTPC from an entertainment cabinent and put it in a basement closet and relie excusively on extenders for viewing devices. I think gamers will stick with the HTPC aspect of this though.

If extenders are the future then why have the manufactures stopped releasing new versions? I think extenders are the right way to move media through a home, but think we may see a different future if content providers get there way. Basically what I see content providers blocking is the idea of why let one media server consolodate content playback when content providers and cable companies want a piece of action on every viewing device.

 

[Modelworks]

Interesting, nice post.

If extenders are the future then why have the manufactures stopped releasing new versions? I think extenders are the right way to move media through a home, but think we may see a different future if content providers get there way. Basically what I see content providers blocking is the idea of why let one media server consolodate content playback when content providers and cable companies want a piece of action on every viewing device.

I see more people asking about building file servers than HTPC now. The reason is it is cheaper and works well enough for most people. These boxes are not extenders that connect to windows media center like in the past. These boxes use the same processors a blu ray player does but in a box without the drive. so the output quality is the same. They use the network for content and will pull that content from any network attached storage be it windows, linux or mac. If a content provider wants to add their content to a device all they have to do is contact the manufacturer and it can be added at any time.

You can get a box for $50 to put it on each tv that can connect to the file server anywhere in the home and play whatever content you have stored. Each of those boxes use about 5-10 watts of power when playing content and are completely silent. No noise like with a console and no high power consumption. If I want to play back content from netflix the boxes cost more but not a lot, about $100 each. So for the cost of 1 ps3 or xbox 360 I can play back content in 3 different rooms. The newer players even support dvd and bluray menus from iso files.

Currently there is over 300 of them on the market. For a good listing of what is out you can see them all on a list here:
http://www.iboum.com/net-media-players.php

Also a lot of the blu ray players are now adding applications and network playing ability through dlna so it makes a lot of sense to build a file server. And unlike the HTPC there is never a problem with installing codecs or software conflicts. As long as the source adheres to the industry standards the content works. The biggest plus to HTPC is the ability to customize and the players are gaining in that area as well with many allowing user created applications.