The Beast

[The Dude]

I downloaded the WHS trial and it looks like you can install GBPVR on it but it can't run VMR9 so you could use GBPVR to record and manage it through the web interface but you wouldn't be able to watch anything on that PC really. Not sure that I like that. I know I'm really look for a jack of all trades here so it's probably not going to happen. I may just go with Windows7 anyway. I do like some of the other features of WHS though.

[Miller]

But if it was me I wouldn't wait long on the WHS.

Why is that?

I just find life to be a lot more stress free when I think about my wife's 15000 pictures stored on her computer and the knowledge that I can restore/fix/access them anytime and as far back as 6 months ago. I think for the backups alone I would get on it and do it sooner rather than later. The rest of the features are just frosting on the cake.

[The Dude]

Yeah, that is nice. I am kind of torn between the two. I like the remote access site idea too even though I haven't been able to get it working yet.

This PC is going to sit in the office and it's not going to be used everyday for watching videos so it's not a huge factor that it can't do some of the things the other one can but I did purchase the 780G mobo for a reason and a nice new monitor to go with it because there will be instances where I am upstairs and don't feel like going down and watching something but want to be able to maybe have something on while I'm performing other tasks. I fully realize too that they stripped it down specifically because it is a server not a traditional OS so I understand them not putting mediacenter on it. I am thinking that maybe a RAID setup with Windows7 may be a better route though for what I'm trying to do. That's adding more expense though.

[Miller]

I'd say barebones it as much as possible and use the left over parts to build a WHS as well. You don't have any old motherboards/cpu/ram laying around?

[The Dude]

Not anymore. I used all the old parts I had laying around on this. Well I do have some old parts but they're really, really old and won't really be useful even for this.

[Miller]

Gotcha. Well I guess I would use it for a Win7 build then for what you want in the office. But then keep your eyes on Craigslist or friends old computers. I use an old P4 2.8 GHz for mine and it works great.

[The Dude]

I broke down and purchased Windows7 for this PC and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. It may be the simplest OS install I have ever done. One disc, put it in and a few clicks aside the install was done in a few minutes. So much easier than XP MCE 2005. MediaCenter too seems to run like a champ. It formated and setup those huge drives in no time too.

I'm still in the middle of backing up the other HTPC to these larger drives and that will take a while but I went ahead and installed netflix, hulu and have a few tv and movie folders setup. Sharing between this PC and the XP machine was sooo much easier too. I had to try and setup sharing for my roommates Vista machine and it was so convoluted it took a while to get it setup right but all I had to do with this was tell it what workgroup to look in and it found the other PC.

The picture quality is great and besides the ATI Avivo codecs that came with my ATI driver pack I didn't install any codecs (that I know of) and everything is playing even xvid. I have had a real problem with SD stuff looking bad on my XP machine but those files look amazing. I have a feeling that not having to install a million codec packs to get each different file type working helped a lot. I'm thinking I may install Windows7 on the PC in the living room too. I haven't tried out the TV recording yet. That will be the real test of whether this is something I want to upgrade all the PCs too but I'm pretty impressed and I'm not usually very easy to do that with.

[Miller]

I agree. Except for getting used to the new default locations for saving files I've really enjoyed Windows 7 so far. I have stuck with GBPVR (since I'm using a MediaMVP still) and that has also gone pretty well. I've had to mess with a few permission settings to get everything to talk together well, but other than that very painless.

[The Dude]

The codec thing is a major improvement. Even though I don't know if I like the consequences for all those other competing codec packs out there. It really makes the HTPC experience so much easier. I may still go with GBPVR as well but I have that running on the other HTPC so I think I'll try out mediacenter for now on this one just for comparison. It's not like I have to install anything. I haven't checked to see how it interacts with my Linux laptop yet either. That's another thing that I'll have to see.