Media Center Stuff
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Vista is Microsoft's newest version of Windows, and was released at the end of January 2007. I have been running since before Christmas, using an xBox 360 as an Extender. I recently purchased a Vista laptop - further information is farther down on this page.
Hardware:
After an easy install and a pass by Windows Update, Vista saw all of my hardware and installed drivers for it, including the tuners and motherboard sound and networking. It enabled the Aero Glass features and all I had to do was switch the resolution up to my normal 1600x1200. Unlike 2005, Vista includes an MPEG decoder. It may be possible to use others, but I haven't tried.
The Media Center setup was similarly a no-brainer and a bit easier than in 2005. I was able to tell the Library Setup where to find my photos, videos, and music on the server's shared drives, and the shared recorded TV drive on my Media Center 2005 PC.
After a few weeks, I connected the new xBox 360 to the Vista box. I had to run a network cable from the first floor living room TV to the router in the basement, but a couple of strategically-placed vents and ducts made that fairly easy. I powered on the 360 and was able to reach the Internet, create xBox Live accounts, and receive software updates. I then told the 360 to look for a Media Center PC and eventually it gave me an 8-digit code.
When I went to the basement, the Vista PC had already noticed the xBox and was asking for that code. A few minutes later I was able to view live and recorded TV with no problems.
For the most part, everything works well. I have noticed no stuttering in video or audio, on either the Vista box or the xBox. I have played with fast-forward/rewind, the skip ahead/back, and still seen no video or audio problems.
I have found one issue - I can see and play recorded TV that is resident on the MCE 2005 PC, but cannot see or play music and photos that are shared from my Server 2003 PC. I can sort of get around this by putting the photos and music on the Windows Home Server system, but that won't be released until September 2007 or so.
One Year Later
I recently converted my Media Center 2005 PC into a Vista Ultimate Media Center. I did this by replacing the pair of 512Mb RAM sticks with two 1Gb ones, adding a 500Gb disk drive, and upgrading its graphics adapter to an ATI 2600Pro. Despite having a single-core CPU, this machine gets respectable scores on the performance benchmark. At some point I may see if it can use a dual-core AMD CPU and if so, what the price on that chip is. I did add a Pinnacle USB HD tuner but I'm currently only using the analog portion, which works fine in Media Center.
Laptop
After carrying my 15" laptop around Europe for two weeks last summer, I was looking to replace it with something smaller and lighter. I used various open wifi points for sporadic Internet access, but I could have arranged to use mobile broadband if I had know about it. Figuring the best way to learn Vista was to use it on a daily basis, it was a logical choice for a new laptop. I did quite a lot of shopping around and settled on two models that fit my requirements. Those models were the Toshiba U205-S5067 and the just-released HP Pavillion tx1119us. My requirements were fairly simple, I thought:
The Toshiba added a FireWire port and a magnesium case, while the HP added a LightScribe drive and a swivel screen. The main difference was price - the Toshiba was running at $1,599 while the HP was $1,349. I tracked these prices daily using a variety of methods. The HP was only available at Circuit City and from HP itself, while the Toshiba was available at many stores, both real and online. The problem was - no one offered any sales on the Toshiba. I found a number of places or people that claimed to sell them for under $1,000, but they all wanted my money first via a Western Union Money Gram. I'm not going to fall for that scam, certainly. Finally, the HP went on sale for $1,149, so I bought it.
It came with Vista Home Premium, so after burning a set of recovery DVDs, I upgraded it to Vista Ultimate. I then set about uninstalling all of the software that HP thoughtfully included. I thought I removed it all, but started getting an obnoxious popup trying to sell me Internet service. I searched for a way to make this one go away but was unsuccessful. Finally, after my first-ever Vista blue screen, I had had enough. I backed up the laptop's data drive to my server, nuked the hard drive, and reinstalled everything from scratch. All of the hardware drivers were available on HP's web site, so a mere 24 hours later I had a lean mean laptop with full functionality.
First Impressions
So how is it? So far so good. The touchpad is too sensitive, and the software doesn't let me adjust its features, like turning off the double-tap feature. However, there is a little switch so I can turn it off entirely. The display is great, although I don't think I'll use the swivel feature too much. I still need to do more tweaks to get the best possible performance. It certainly is small and light, and should be a nice tool for future adventures.
The verdict is still out on Vista. It has a lot more annoyances than XP, but I have hopes I can get it tuned good enough so it will match XP in speed. The User Account Control is certainly annoying but I haven't disabled it yet. Most of my older software runs fine, although I do have to start a few with the Run As Administrator option to get them to function correctly.
I found that, while the HP web site has the drivers for all the hardware, it doesn't have the applications. So, for instance, Vista's Device Manager sees the fingerprint reader, touch pad, and webcam, but I have no software to actually use them. I contacted HP's support, after a few days it was supposedly escalated to a supervisor. Unfortunately, the supervisor wasn't any help. HP finally put software on their web site for the fingerprint reader and I can use it to login and sign into web sites. Windows Live Messenger can access the camera so I can use it if necessary. Now all I need is for the touchpad drivers to let me adjust it, and they're supposed to but for some reason they do not have that option on my HP. Still working on that issue.
One Year Later
OK, it's now been one year. HP eventually got all the right drivers posted and this laptop is 100% functional under 32-bit Vista. I have Vista running in fine form with lots of application software. I've been able to do decent video and photo processing thanks to the dual-core CPU, 2Gb of RAM, and a fast 2Gb SD card set up as a ReadyBoost drive. I found a hard disk for $129, a 250Gb 7200rpm SATA drive. Laptop drives are normally 5400rpm, so this was a major boost in speed as well as capacity (my existing drive is 160Gb). Since the initial Vista reinstall, I have not had a blue screen.
Copyright © 2009 by Dana Cline
Last Updated On 2/18/2009
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