preferred OS for GB-PVR?

[ilovejedd]

im sick of people saying XP isnt reliable
or vista is more reliable my latest Xp machine has never crashed it is capible of running vista but i see no need to change
XP is reliable if you have the right hardware and the right idiot sitting in front of it
get the wrong idiot that buys cheap hardware (or anything asus) uses flaky software and hello it will crash
ahh i feel better now

It's called PEBKAC. The only times I've actually seen XP unreliable is either because of:

• third-party driver issues
  
• viruses, spyware and other forms of malware that were installed on the computer because people just had to open email from their secret admirer or they just had to download that cute wallpaper/screensaver/picture of naked girl
  

As for the original question, I prefer Windows XP. It can easily run on lower-end hardware and uses less sytem resources. There's also no UAC which kinda interferes when playing around with GB-PVR. With Vista, I have to open Windows Explorer in administrator mode every time I want to add icons and channel logos to the GB-PVR folder.

[Dava]

But if the remote will be able to put it to sleep even during a recording, I may have to give up on sleep altogether. Fortunately my system uses only about 40 watts while idle, but zero would be much better.

I wonder if that's something sub could fix? ....you know, as long as he has nothiing else to do

My understanding is that MS decided that due to all of the standby issues caused by 3rd party software, they removed the ability to deny the request in the OS. I think it will only be fixable with an MS / OS policy change.

However, if it is only the remote you are worried about, you could catch the button press by running a "standy script" on that command which checks for recordings and then passes a sleep on to the OS if none. AutoIt is fantastic for this kind of thing.

[ktalley]

Well, after reading about the improvements of EVR in Vista, I decided to load up Vista Home Premium on a boot drive (I use one of those little removable hard disk trays for my boot drive -- lets me play around occasionally with MythTV, etc. without having to take the cover off). Whoa!! Now my viewing experience has suddenly gone into the toilet!! S-Video input from PVR-150 is very dull & non-sharp, and HD (from OTA/ATSC using HVR-950) is more stuttery than ever (where it was reasonably smooth under XP). I use NVidia's PureVideo decoder in XP, but that isn't an option under Vista, so I've tried (1) Intervideo NonCSS Video Decoder bundled w/Hauppauge, (2) Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder from fairly recent PowerDVD install, and (3) Microsoft MPEG-2 Decoder -- all yield about the same results (Cyberlink is probably best of the three).

Since I have an NVidia card, could losing PureVideo decoder have caused such a backslide in video quality?

Furthur, am I to understand correctly that if one IS NOT going to use EVR under Vista, then there's really no reason to move from XP?

If there are any suggestions as to something else I might need to adjust/check under Vista (& EVR), please pass it along....

Thanks!

[mmatheny]

My understanding is that MS decided that due to all of the standby issues caused by 3rd party software, they removed the ability to deny the request in the OS. I think it will only be fixable with an MS / OS policy change.

However, if it is only the remote you are worried about, you could catch the button press by running a "standy script" on that command which checks for recordings and then passes a sleep on to the OS if none. AutoIt is fantastic for this kind of thing.

If you're talking about modifying the system behavor when you press the power button on the remote, that seemingly can't be done - the OS traps it way before it gets handed to any IR software for modifications - I WISH this weren't true, as I'd like to assign the power button to GBPVR - I will tinker around this weekend and see what happens.

[johnsonx42]

I started this whole thread, and wish to report I'm going to format my Vista drive and start over with XP. I ended up not being able to use EVR anyway (purdy though it was), and keep having all manner of problems that I just can't resolve. I don't know how much of my problems can be blamed on Vista (or things related to Vista like driver issues, etc.), but I'll soon find out if I can get a better experience with XP.

[zehd]

I started this whole thread, and wish to report I'm going to format my Vista drive and start over with XP. I ended up not being able to use EVR anyway (purdy though it was), and keep having all manner of problems that I just can't resolve. I don't know how much of my problems can be blamed on Vista (or things related to Vista like driver issues, etc.), but I'll soon find out if I can get a better experience with XP.

Of course you will. And it will give you more time to have a life...

[zehd]

If you're talking about modifying the system behavor when you press the power button on the remote, that seemingly can't be done - the OS traps it way before it gets handed to any IR software for modifications - I WISH this weren't true, as I'd like to assign the power button to GBPVR - I will tinker around this weekend and see what happens.

You can modify reg settings that will disable XP/Vista from responding to every button on the remote. Then you can use other IR software to assign whatever to your buttons

[mmatheny]

Do you have a link to this info? So, you say disable the OS from even receiving IR signals, and use the 3rd party IR software - I think that the power button behavior is embedded in the IR receiver driver, which you need. But, give me some info and I will be glad to try.

[Captcol]

Of course you will. And it will give you more time to have a life...

funny how ppl have different experiences my vista install took less time to get a nice picture than my xp installs did, and everything like hibernate worked straight away

[zehd]

Do you have a link to this info? So, you say disable the OS from even receiving IR signals, and use the 3rd party IR software - I think that the power button behavior is embedded in the IR receiver driver, which you need. But, give me some info and I will be glad to try.

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mce-re...ete-29024/

There was work an a replacement driver. and that became obsolete with this reg hack