32 vs 64? 7 vs xp pro?

[skyking]

Hello all!
I had a xp32 bit GB-PVR install that I used for a while, and I think I was plagued by some flaky hardware. It became unusable. I want to go at it again.
I am leaning toward win7 over the old OS. Any reason not to?
What about 32 vs 64 in this application?
Thanks

[pcostanza]

I've had very few problems with W7 x64 and I've got it on 4 desktops and 2 laptops. I have 2 desktops running NPVR and while there was some growing pains, it's running very well.
If you plan on using more than 3 GB of RAM, go with x64. If you have less, it does you no good really to have x64. Just the jump to W7 should be enough to make you happy.

[skyking]

Thanks Paul.
I have 2 gig of ram, a white box 2250, a pvr-350 and a hdhomerun to play with.
I suppose I should go raid the old setup for plugins and things, like the comskip. Anything else of use over on the GB-PVR installation?

[pcostanza]

I still have GBPVR installed on 1 of my systems but haven't used it at all in the last 4 months. The few problems I've had have been strange and most likely, of my making. I beta test lots of software on one of my systems and the installs, uninstalls and tweaking could very well cause some of my problems but they've been minor and not a deal buster. I've carried nothing over from GBPVR but the community has already added lots of goodies to work with NPVR.

[smajor]

The only reason to definitely not go with 64bit is if you plan to do channel changing via Firewire (1394). The old Tim Moore/ExDeus STB drivers are 32bit only. They do, however, still work great with Windows 7 32bit.

[imilne]

Another reason to avoid 64bit is if you want to use HIP with an MCE remote.

[systemshark]

Also the Red Rat IR Blaster is Windows 7 32 Bit only..... I'm having to rebuild from 64bit back to 32bit because of this.....

[mvallevand]

For me staying 32bit with the Timmmore firewire driver is worth any shortcomings of limited RAM. I have had only one failed recording in the last year because of tuning and that was because the STB firmware must have changed since I had to change the command line option.

Martin

[imilne]

Yeah, I dithered over it for a while, but 4GB (3.3ish usable) should be more than enough for an HTPC for years yet. I also like HIP, know it works (in 32bit), and don't have the energy to learn something new (eg IRSS) for 64bit. The only other sticking point for the near-future I can think of is 2TB+ hard drives that supposedly need a 64bit OS, but custom drivers seem to be on the way for older systems, and I assume you could always partition anyway.

Oh, and codecs. A world of pain at the best of time, never mind bringing 32/64bit into the equation

[jksmurf]

I thought this was interesting http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/informati...sta-vs-7/#
Multi-media =>W7, as for the other results, well, maybe it is just the way the tests are written :-). Vista seems to be least liked...