Windows 7

[Lindsay]

You didn't say what OS you are running now. I presume it must be Vista if you are talking of an upgrade. Is it 32 or 64 bit Vista?

If 32 bit, you really ought to seriously consider putting on win 7 64 bit (presume your hardware is 64 bit capable!) as 64 bit is becoming more prevalent now and will take over in the future. If you were to put 64 bit on over 32 bit you have to do a clean install. This is what I have done with the RC ver and all is working fine. In a couple of days I get the final release so that is another fresh install (groan!!).

I think the biggest problem with GBPVR is finding the right combination of codecs that may have taken a couple of years to sort I will find all the .ax files and back them up this time!

Good luck. But win 7 works fine for most people.

[Blue Racer]

Lindsay,
I am running Vista Home Premium right now. How do I know if my system can use the Win 7 64 bit version? I have a 2.67 ghz Intel Core 2 Quad CPU with 4 gigs of ram.

[Graham]

Does this help ...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...97c146af15

After it has run, you can select 32 bit and 64 bit reports at the top of the window.

[Blue Racer]

Yes, thanks Graham. It looks like I can use the 64 bit version of Win7.

[carpeVideo]

I'd still be careful on a 64bit implementation of windows 7 - while it would be nice because of the small performance gains for encoding and 64 bit is becoming more prevalent there are still driver availability issues especially in the homebrew world. For example there are no 64 bit STB firewire drivers available today.

You can always install 64 bit and test for the 30 days before registering the key. I just opted for 32 bit since the performance gains are small and the possible pain large.


CV

[Blue Racer]

carpeVideo,
I'll definitely take your suggestion and try it out before entering the registering key. The only software package I was worried about was GBPVR. My system is only about 3-4 months old. I ran the Win7 upgrade advisor and I received all green check marks. It did have the following message for my Hauppauge HVR-2250 tuner card: "Check windows update after installing windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work."
The main reason I am thinking about going for the 64 bit version was that I also use this computer for hi-def video editing which is processor intensive.

[pcostanza]

The 2250 worked just fine with the default W7 drivers as they were the same as the latest on Hauppauges site. However, some drivers from W7, such as Creative, worked fine but did not allow all the functions that the drivers on the Creative site did such as 'What U Hear'.
You may be using an older driver and got that message. Sometimes those advisors look at driver dates and just assume that because a few months have gone by, there might be a newer driver available.

[whurlston]

Yup, what Paul said. I'm running Win7 Ultimate with a 2250 and a VistaView Saber that are both using the default Win 7 drivers. The VistaView drivers were installed by a Windows Update.

[Blue Racer]

Thanks Paul for relieving my fears about the 2250.

[johnsonx42]

For my setup going to Windows 7 (RC for now) was a monumental improvement over XP in a variety of ways.

There are issues with GB-PVR playing back DVR-MS files created with Windows 7 though, so if you prefer DVR-MS search for my thread about that (just look for threads created by me, it's only a few weeks old). Essentially you have to set your playback decoders to System Default, otherwise DVR-MS files won't play. Sub said he'll be able to fix it, but it won't be a quick fix.

As to upgrading, I upgraded my Vista Business box (not the GB-PVR box) to Win7RC and the upgrade took awhile but was absolutely painless. I have a lot of stuff that would be difficult if not impossible to install directly in Windows 7, yet it all worked just fine after the upgrade. I'm just praying Microsoft hasn't broken the hacks required to upgrade from the RC to the final, else I'm going to be in for a lot of work. Yes, I do agree a clean install is better, but sometimes upgrading is worth it.