I need advice!

[radio1]

Hi-

I am building a new PVR box- I was set at first with just using KnoppMyth and MythTV; I've always had success. But I did to try GBPVR.

The specs of the box will be:
3000+ Semperon, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, PVR150, DVD-Burner and Gigabyte mobo with Realtek 8-channel sound (optical SPDIF out) and DVI+HDMI output.

Question 1:
Which OS? Vista or XP?
I like Vista simply because I could get free listings (32-bit Ultimate) for GBPVR, unlike having to pay or use a scraper like for Yahoo! if I use XP (32-bit Pro).
Would there be a great performance hit? I've read up on trying to make Vista 'lite' install, but I do not know if it would be worth the effort.

Question 2:
How is the overall media experience? Movies, pictures and music? I do own a copy of BeyondTV and it is great for TV, but not good on anything else. I have tried Mediaportal but I find it too buggy.

Thanks! Any insights would be most welcome.

[radio1]

Well, listings are a non-issue.

I just bought a 3 month subscription to SD...! I though about it and they really deserve my support.

[cosmocat]

For the OS go with XP. The extra overhead of Vi$ta on a semperon 3000 wouldn't be a problem but there is better driver support for XP, and a more experienced userbase.
As for overall media experience, I've been using GBPVR for 18months and its great!. Music / movies / DVDs / photos / weather reports / e-mails ... all work well and its easy to live with. Much better than WinMCE.

[radio1]

Thanks for the op!

I do really like GBPVR; I have used it a lot of my main machine. I was thinking about MythTV just for the extra mileage I'd get out of my hardware. But I hate the fiddle factor...