Upgrade to Vista; workable or too unstable still?

Gorlaz · **5th October 2006, 12:23 PM**

Hi guys,

It's been a while, but the baby (see sig below - or would it be pensioner?) has been stable as a rock, so haven't needed any help.

The missus said to me today "Do we really need my old PC (Athlon 1.6Ghz, 1GB ram, Gigabyte mobo) anymore - we could really use it as the media pc couldn't we?"

Sorta like waving a red rag at a bull....

Anyways, as divine fate would have it; Vista RC1 landed on my desk today also.

Hm...... tick tick tick!! *Ding!*

Why don't I rebuild using Vista Media Centre?

Next thought - is there enough driver support?

Any thoughts/advice much appreciated, going to start trolling the forums here as well.

Cheers guys,
Liam

Gorlaz · **5th October 2006, 12:24 PM**

Oh one other thought; box used exclusively for MCE only

ozbear · **5th October 2006, 12:38 PM**

What's the hurry?

I personally won't be upgrading to Vista until its first service pack comes out.

Oz

Gorlaz · **5th October 2006, 03:25 PM**

None in particular, just thought that if it was stable enough already I'd do it just to see what its like.

If it's going to be an aggro magnet and will keep crashing, the GAF will plummet.

So really just curious to see what is about.

JNRidgway15 · **5th October 2006, 04:15 PM**

I'd say Go For it but as ozbear said some people want to wait for service pack 1 codename Fiji but i like being up with the trends and i have been using vista as my main mce since 5475 with only small hickups

Gorlaz · **6th October 2006, 12:49 PM**

Bugger it; I'll do it anyways

Re drivers etc; general consensus seems to be use Vista if avail but XP works ok as well.

Any partic concerns? I'm mainly worried about Nvidia and PureVideo at the mo...

Cheers

rosco99 · **6th October 2006, 01:39 PM**

I would recommend you download and run the latest copy (oct2) of Vista upgrade advisor first, then take those steps before installing. I have made my HTPC ready and have just received the DVD form M/S singapore today. Looking forward to a weekend of play!!

Gorlaz · **6th October 2006, 09:48 PM**

Gday Rosco,

Yeh I'm looking forward to it too

Betchya I change my mind by Sun night though!

I'm going to backup the existing setup then nuke and pave I think rather than upgrade due to changing hardware at the same time; could get a bit messy doing a double shuffle.

rosco99 · **6th October 2006, 11:06 PM**

Well it has been 2 hrs. now and still only 70% (est. by green bar) along completing upgrade. Well waiting patiently.

rosco99 · **7th October 2006, 12:15 PM**

Complete upgrade took 2 1/2 hrs. Then a 74mb d/l for ATI Radeon video card. Still looking for drivers for an analogue and a digital video card.34mb d/l for Soundblaster----getting there!!

Gorlaz · **7th October 2006, 08:22 PM**

gday rosco,

My install went relatively quickly and got my nvidia going etc, but im stuck on the dvico unfort, and its crossbar and tuner/demod T7579+MT352 components saying it can't find the files. I've got 2 devices unfound which I'm assuming is these guys.

I'm going to try another set of drivers and then i'll have to go back to mce2005 unfort

Need the telly back!!). It'd be a shame cause Vista looks absolutely tops!!!

Gorlaz · **7th October 2006, 08:48 PM**

Dvico need to open their pipes more - 19k is killing me!!!

Gorlaz · **7th October 2006, 10:17 PM**

Righto, the web3 dvico's didn't work for me on vista rc1 b5600.

I had to uninstall all dvico device references, reboot, and follow these instructions (strictly);
http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/eng/Down...taSupport.aspx

Now it's working.

Issues still to sort out;
* Dvico remote isn't working 9big chunky black one), about to start fiddling on this one
* ABC1 & 2 aren't receiving via fusion or mce tv. Worked perfectly in mce2005. maybe a bug will look at that later
* test dvd functionality
* get the weather app on there - that looks sweet as

Thoughts;
* Channel changing is so sweet now!
* Looks really schmick
* Much more fluid than old mce on old spec (eg My Music loads instantaneously)

Round up;
* Incredibly easy install, main issue are 3rd party drivers which hopefully will be better closer to release. Considering the bad wrap vista has copped; I'm stoked at how it works and operates (as a consumer).

Gorlaz · **8th October 2006, 12:39 PM**

Update:

* DVD picture works, but no audio. I'm getting pops coming out the speakers, so I think I've got a codec issue. Will try ffdshow and see how it goes.

* TV picture is a bit funny. MCE2005 would autoscale to fit my telly screen (61cm CRT), but Vista is showing (depending on channel); 16:9 (with black bars), normal fullscreen, and 4:3 with a black border all round. Haven't looked at this too much yet as picture quality is fine with all of them.

* Remote still doens't work which is starting to get to me.

rosco99 · **9th October 2006, 08:09 AM**

I have given up on Vista at this stage. Even though the Advisor said that my system was compatible, and the few driver updates would be available online, the truth is there are still too many driver problems. Most importantly the ATI Radeon card's beta driver version will not install making it impossible to use anything other than 800x600. This is a 74mb download so it was very frustrating. My DVB-T card whilst it works perfectly with BDA drivers under XP and MCE will not be supported under Vista because it has been superseded.
There are some nice features on vista but I doubt now that i will upgrade to it before I have a computer upgrade.