vista versus xp vs xp mce, any opinions?

[SirJYK]

I have an xp machine. I recently purchased an hvr1800 to go along with my PVR150. My PC is in need of a reformat, so I have been considering changing the setup. I can go with either vista, xp mce, or xp pro that I am familiar with. Can anyone give me their opinion?

Thanks guys!

[sub]

In the US, with MPEG2 based digital tv, I'd probably stick with XP. I find it easier to get a good smooth picture, and a lot less hassles with UAC etc. That said, Vista is ok if you want to use it.

[SirJYK]

Sub,

Thanks for the reply. I was considering Vista Ultimate with its media center built in. Also, I believe that the programming would be free as well. I have been away for a while and when I returned I found that Zap2it wasn't working anymore. With GBPVR, would I be able to get the Vista program guide integrated into it?... or is it not worth the hassle? I must say that I was extremely pleased with GVPVR in the XP environment before. Recently, though, I have upgraded to a Panasonic 50 inch plasma and am considering what would work the best with it. I have limited, if any, HD available where I have moved to, so the latter may be a moot point.

Thanks,

[Elmo Putney]

Well if I was doing it all again 6 Months down the line I would have gone for Vista instead of bog standard XP.
The only reason being to try to make it easier getting the enhanced video renderer to do hardware acceleration, and that really is only required if you have HD sources, SD without hardware acceleration can be left to the cpu without any issues.

[sub]

The only reason being to try to make it easier getting the enhanced video renderer to do hardware acceleration, and that really is only required if you have HD sources, SD without hardware acceleration can be left to the cpu without any issues.

This is a bigger consideration outside of north america, with H.264 channels starting to appear. In the US they use MPEG2, which has had pretty good acceleration for a long time and it works well in XP.

[sub]

Sub,

Thanks for the reply. I was considering Vista Ultimate with its media center built in. Also, I believe that the programming would be free as well. I have been away for a while and when I returned I found that Zap2it wasn't working anymore. With GBPVR, would I be able to get the Vista program guide integrated into it?... or is it not worth the hassle? I must say that I was extremely pleased with GVPVR in the XP environment before. Recently, though, I have upgraded to a Panasonic 50 inch plasma and am considering what would work the best with it. I have limited, if any, HD available where I have moved to, so the latter may be a moot point.

If you want to use Vista Ultimate, then use that. There is nothing build into GB-PVR for using its listings, but I'm fairly sure Whurlston posted a utility which can extract the MCE listings to XMLTV, which can then be feed into GB-PVR.

[whurlston]

I'm no longer supporting my utility for a couple of reasons:

1) I personally use Schedules Direct and only worked on Mce2XmlTv for the benefit of the community. (I started the project prior to the formation of Schedules Direct.)

2) There is new utility out (by another developer) called mc2xml (search the Dev forum) that does not require MCE so it can be used in XP. I tested it a couple of times and it works much faster than mine.

[frankmcg]

This is a bigger consideration outside of north america, with H.264 channels starting to appear. In the US they use MPEG2, which has had pretty good acceleration for a long time and it works well in XP.

What's wrong with VMR9 FSE for h.264 acceleration?

[sub]

What's wrong with VMR9 FSE for h.264 acceleration?

Nothing for a lot of people, but alot of other people say they require EVR to get a nice picture and you only get H.264 acceleration with EVR under Vista.

[dennit]

I'm no longer supporting my utility for a couple of reasons:

1) I personally use Schedules Direct and only worked on Mce2XmlTv for the benefit of the community. (I started the project prior to the formation of Schedules Direct.)

I'd like to say thanks for your efforts. I found GBPVR because I needed guide data for my TiVos before Schedules Direct was formed. I was told some guys over at GBPVR were developing scrapers and MCE EPG converters. I'd never even heard of GBPVR, and it was a year or two before I actually used it, but I've been using your guide data utility since the first release. I'm still using a customized early version and it works great.