After using Windows 7 media center on my HTPC exclusively for the last month, I have decided to return to Vista for the time being. Windows 7 beta Media Center just is not stable enough for me yet. Here are some of the problems that forced my hand.
1) 50% of scheduled recording failed. I have a Hauppauge HVR 1800 that doesn’t seem to have drivers to allow it to function properly in Windows 7 64bit Media Center yet. 2) Music and Picture library are SLOW – they have to search for each and every file every time I reboot or even just leave the music library. Very frustrating. 3) Sometimes, the programming guide causes media center to crash. 4) I can’t get the machine to wake from sleep in media center mode reliably. 5) VISTA MCE JUST WORKS!
I know this is a beta and I will return to it from time to time to see if the performance returns. I also know that some of these are known problems that may have solutions if I looked hard enough, but I’m not willing to let it use up my time right now.
UPDATE: I almost forgot my frustrations with the Movie Library. I love that they’re adding it to the standard start menu, but I find it less than stable.
1) Stopping a DVD (in a video_ts) folder locks up media center. 2) Movies will not stream to my extender. Apparently this is by design, but what a strange limitation!
10 thoughts on “Going Back to Vista Media Center for the Time Being”
Which build of 7 were you using? I’ve honestly not had one single crash since I started using it. I’ve had plug-ins hang (media browser for example), but they are also early beta’s so I cant complain.
Also haven’t had any issues with recordings. I dont use the dvd library as I much prefer media browser, and hear what you’re saying about re-indexing the music library, but that only happens to be every time the machine boots, not when i leave the library.
Stability wise, I have found the 7MC beta better than vista!
My experience is similar to TheChief’s. The only real issue I have is with MC coming up blank on resume from sleep sometimes. Closing and reopening MC fixes this.
I’ve not had any show stopping problems with 7MC thus far after a few months of use. Vista MCE’s lack of key features like ClearQAM and a native movie library prevented me from even using it full time in the first place, instead relying on Media Portal.
As for sleep mode, my htpc is doing double duty as a medi aserver atm so I don’t use it. Honesty though this reads more like a forum post than a blog post.
Thanks for the feedback folks. I’ll answer one at a time.
1) I am using the official Windows 7 beta build 7000. I have heard that other builds have leaked onto torrents and such, but I’m not messing with those.
2) I am approaching Windows 7 as an enthusiast user, but want to get the actual user experience. In that spirit, I’m not really ‘hacking’ it in any ways, just installing released drivers and evaluating performance. On my machine, media center is unstable.
3) MHealy – You are correct in detecting the ‘forum post’ nature of this entry as it stared out that way on the Green Button. I was encouraged to start posting blog entries on TDL and am fairly new at this. I will try to put a little more effort into making my posts blog-worthy. Please be patient with me.
I can’t wait to use Win 7 full time again on my HTPC. I use it daily on my netbook and office PC so I am not bashing the OS as a whole. Media Center is unstalbe for ME and from the boards on the Green Button, it seems that I am not alone. I will go back in a heartbeat when it’s ready. For now, I’m back to Vista.
It’s a fine start but, for example, expand on your points a little more. Instead of simply pointing out your hardware problems refference hardware troubles others are having as well. Turn the points on music, video and dvd library into a paragraph fromat then do the same with the bugs/crashes. Then you’ll be all set 😉 Just some friendly tips.
Setup ‘My Movies’ for your dvd playback archiving and it will work in 7 fine. Also if you have a home server you can setup the my movies install for that and it will push all your data over the network to all/any extenders for dvd/iso/divx playback (at least on the 360).
Can we have a straw pole of which tuner(s) those in this discussion are using? I had to stop using W7 due to my dual Terratec 2400idt not functioning individually correctly. I’d like to know which dual tuner setup is getting stable, predicable results.
I have a Hauppauge HVR 1800 which does not appear to be natively supported in Windows 7 64bit. (Or Vista for that matter – you have to get drivers from their site that aren’t included in AutoUpdate). Seems like a lot of people have this card and Hauppauge is SLOW at releasing drivers for their products.
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Which build of 7 were you using? I’ve honestly not had one single crash since I started using it. I’ve had plug-ins hang (media browser for example), but they are also early beta’s so I cant complain.
Also haven’t had any issues with recordings. I dont use the dvd library as I much prefer media browser, and hear what you’re saying about re-indexing the music library, but that only happens to be every time the machine boots, not when i leave the library.
Stability wise, I have found the 7MC beta better than vista!
My experience is similar to TheChief’s. The only real issue I have is with MC coming up blank on resume from sleep sometimes. Closing and reopening MC fixes this.
I’ve not had any show stopping problems with 7MC thus far after a few months of use. Vista MCE’s lack of key features like ClearQAM and a native movie library prevented me from even using it full time in the first place, instead relying on Media Portal.
As for sleep mode, my htpc is doing double duty as a medi aserver atm so I don’t use it. Honesty though this reads more like a forum post than a blog post.
Thanks for the feedback folks. I’ll answer one at a time.
1) I am using the official Windows 7 beta build 7000. I have heard that other builds have leaked onto torrents and such, but I’m not messing with those.
2) I am approaching Windows 7 as an enthusiast user, but want to get the actual user experience. In that spirit, I’m not really ‘hacking’ it in any ways, just installing released drivers and evaluating performance. On my machine, media center is unstable.
3) MHealy – You are correct in detecting the ‘forum post’ nature of this entry as it stared out that way on the Green Button. I was encouraged to start posting blog entries on TDL and am fairly new at this. I will try to put a little more effort into making my posts blog-worthy. Please be patient with me.
I can’t wait to use Win 7 full time again on my HTPC. I use it daily on my netbook and office PC so I am not bashing the OS as a whole. Media Center is unstalbe for ME and from the boards on the Green Button, it seems that I am not alone. I will go back in a heartbeat when it’s ready. For now, I’m back to Vista.
It’s a fine start but, for example, expand on your points a little more. Instead of simply pointing out your hardware problems refference hardware troubles others are having as well. Turn the points on music, video and dvd library into a paragraph fromat then do the same with the bugs/crashes. Then you’ll be all set 😉 Just some friendly tips.
I switched back to Vista for very similar reasons. Can’t wait for the final cut ov Windows 7 Media center though.
Setup ‘My Movies’ for your dvd playback archiving and it will work in 7 fine. Also if you have a home server you can setup the my movies install for that and it will push all your data over the network to all/any extenders for dvd/iso/divx playback (at least on the 360).
Griffon – Yeah, My Movies is great, isn’t it? I just wish that media center would support this feature natively.
Can we have a straw pole of which tuner(s) those in this discussion are using? I had to stop using W7 due to my dual Terratec 2400idt not functioning individually correctly. I’d like to know which dual tuner setup is getting stable, predicable results.
I have a Hauppauge HVR 1800 which does not appear to be natively supported in Windows 7 64bit. (Or Vista for that matter – you have to get drivers from their site that aren’t included in AutoUpdate). Seems like a lot of people have this card and Hauppauge is SLOW at releasing drivers for their products.