Whats the general concensus for best GBPVR OS?

[teookie]

I'm thinking of doing a reload of the OS on my GBPVR machine just due to some general weirdness going on with the system (it's been trucking along just fine for probably two years or so now).

I have copies of XP-pro and Vista Business in both 32bit and 64bit flavors. If you were to reload your system, what OS would you pick? Vista has all that weird administrator crap in it, but it does have EVR. XP is like an old reliable vehicle. Might not look as flashy but sure works well. Are the (supposed?) superior media handling capabilities of Vista worth the annoyances?

Just looking for some opinions here, thanks!

[whurlston]

My preferences in order would be:

1. Windows 7
   
2. Vista (with SP1)
   
3. XP
   

The Vista/Win7 multimedia stack is very much improved over XP. There is also no reason to use the 32 bit Vista/Win7 if you have 64 bit keys.

[collin]

Functionally I think Windows 7 is best because of EVR, however when I have to rebuild my system I may go back to XP Pro because it allows me to turn off all the pretty startup stuff so it looks less like a PC and more like a professional DVR product. And I don't use EVR anyway because GBPVR's toggling between live tv/live tv and menu/live tv and listings via the menu button doesn't work with it. Both OS's are equally as stable IMO.

[nitrogen_widget]

My preferences in order would be:

1. Windows 7
   
2. Vista (with SP1)
   
3. XP
   

The Vista/Win7 multimedia stack is very much improved over XP. There is also no reason to use the 32 bit Vista/Win7 if you have 64 bit keys.

Should I always use 64 bit?
I've got a 3ghz dual core P4 & 2 GB of ram.

will I see an improvement under 64 bit?

[martint123]

My gbpvr machine is a server for PC clients and PCH's.

Running Nlited XP on all PC's - very cheap licences from scrapped PC's.

[pBS]

i find even the 32 bit vers extremely hard to crash, and i haven't noticed any improvements with 64bit, but as always, ymmv...
and while it has gotten much better lately, 64 bit drivers still give the occasional pain..
[like not having any, or not as stable as 32bit vers]

still, i'd say you won't go wrong either way...win7 is excellent, both flavors...
i'm still not happy with all the pseudo-security annoyances like vista has, but it's easy to get rid of most of it..

the dxva1 shim works better in 7 than XP's even, which was xp's strong suit..
and you gain dxva2 ability..
so all the acceleration available in xp is equally available in 7...using same codecs..
and a tiny bit more efficient...

but i won't touch vista with a 10-ft pole, even tho it's much better now, it still has brain farts that will drive you mad...but most stuff has drivers for it....many vista drivers work well in 7 too tho..

if you had a higher end processor id say go with 64bit to maximize leverage..
but with that setup i don't think you'll notice a difference either way..[32/64]
and i'd diverge a bit on the order..
Win7
XP
Vista

[mvallevand]

I've been much happier with Vista and GBPVR then I ever was on XP since the day I put it on and I have no regrets and would never go back. (2GB and 32 bit). I tried the public Win 7 and it's not worth spending a cent on over Vista performance wise, at least as it relates to GBPVR. 7mc is better than previous Microsoft offerings. As for Vista Business, I'd check to see what it offers for media playback. I seem to remember it didn't support mpeg-2 out of the box.

Martin

[observer_11]

I would avoid Vista.

[whurlston]

Should I always use 64 bit?
I've got a 3ghz dual core P4 & 2 GB of ram.

will I see an improvement under 64 bit?

There is no real difference between 32 and 64 bit. I only recommend 64 in case you ever want to put more than 3GB of ram in it (in which case there is a difference). Win 7 will also be the last OS for 32 bit.

I would avoid Vista.

I disagree 100%. Vista had some issues at release (less than XP did at release actually) but the first service pack fixed them. Vista SP1 is a MUCH better OS than XP especially in regards to multimedia. Also, if you ever want to bitstream Blu-ray audio, XP is not an option. Win 7 is virtually the same as Vista SP1 so there is really not much need to purchase a copy of Win7 if you have Vista (as Martin said), but if you are purchasing an OS now, Win 7 is it.

[pcostanza]

I'm happily running GBPVR on 2 W7 x64 Ultimate systems with no troubles. Don't spend the extra on Ultimate and Premium does just fine.
I rarely boot into XP or Vista now and only keep those for testing purposes.