looking for advice

[imilne]

I think XP is just not up to handling HD video.

Couldn't disagree more strongly with this comment. I've been using XP with HD video for the last two years and it's been great.

On another Windows 7 topic, can anyone confirm that GBPVR events (EPG updates, recordings, etc) will wake Windows 7 from sleep? Because mine currently won't; again an issue that just wasn't there with XP

Edit: and typically, right after posting this, my latest test *has* woken the system up. So it will do it, I just need to figure out why it's not working 100% of the time.

[mikeh49]

After some tweaking, Win7 works great for me, awakening and sleeping as desired. For me, standby works better than hibernate, especially on the ASUS MB (the previous Gigabyte 780G worked fine with Hibernate). The Win7 control panel for these features is much more complicated than XP, and it is strongly oriented to Standby; Hibernate is buried deep in the options. IIRC, I had to do some research to get things set like I wanted. I originally went for Hibernate because that worked in XP where Standby didn't. Turns out, Standby works fine, and, of course, is much faster to startup when requested by the MCE remote.

[psycik]

Actuallu I've got a half built nPVR W7 system dual booted on my production system. The main difference I notice when I swap is the video is a little software on the W7 as it's using the W7 decoders. My main XP gbpvr system is using Cyberlink.

I'm sure I'd stop noticing after a while, but I certainly notice it after swapping.

As for XP not up to HD, I have no issue with NZ HD, or bluray decoding with my Nvidia 8600GT video card and AMD 3600+ CPU.

[BigMoose]

My nPVR on win7 x64 works perfectly with standby. I resisted sorting any kind of sleeping for ages thinking it would be a nightmare, but it just works. Wakes for EPG updates, recordings, is dead quick to start up.

[mikeh49]

OK, I'll stop bashing XP without some qualifications - in my case, I did not use it with either a powerful CPU or a higher end video card. Most of the time was with a Sempron 2800 and 9600GT, the highest was a mid-range Athlon dual core and the 9500GT on the 780G MB. This worked OK in VMR9, but Win7 with MS decoders is decidedly better. I also never used the latest Cyberlink decoders; various versions that I tried did not work very well for me, similarly ffdshow (even with pBS guidance) and ATI decoders. The problem was always choppy video. MPC-HC was the best. I also had to use an old version of quartz.dll, and, IIRC, the FSE renderer.

I recognize that many folks get good performance from XP, it just wasn't my experience. Maybe it's related to USA TV, it seems that many of the happiest Win7 folks are in the US.

[stustunz]

hey psycik if you compared your video on xp and windows7 to the playback of the same video played back on the popcornhour (or anyone else with popcorn hour)

how do all three compare?
(reason i ask is the popcorn hour is a good benchmark )

[BigMoose]

Crap, that'll teach me to gloat that things are working fine. My W7 64 installation has taken it on itself not to sleep anymore. No idea why. All I've done is install Digiguide - but I've quit the app and even npvr and still the thing wont sleep. So something is keeping it awake and I have no idea what!

[imilne]

Do you have the MCE Standby Tool installed? It can tell you what "sleep blockers" are running.

[BigMoose]

I didn't go out of my way to either install or not parts of MCE - I'll have a look and see if I can find it. Thanks!

Actually, I'm running win7 64pro - does that even come with MCE?

[imilne]

It's not a part of MCE, it's a standalone tool someone wrote - originally to deal with standby problems caused by MCE - but it's equally valid (and useful) even if you don't run MCE.

http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml