Q.1 64 or 32 bit?

[2Loose]

I've got Vista on the media pc, what have you noticed about W7 that is better as far as the media interface goes? I had a quick look through the media center interface on the laptop install - looks the same on the surface but interested if you think it's worth an upgrade on the media part alone.

Not so much the interface, but the capability. DVB-S (not just T), Interactive Freeview, Freesat and better HD support for a quick starter.

 

[rh100]

Not so much the interface, but the capability. DVB-S (not just T), Interactive Freeview, Freesat and better HD support for a quick starter.

Thanks 2loose, I'll take a closer look.

I get problems with the resolution and aspect ratio on my standard def widescreen tv through SVHS, the video is generally ok (but some dvd's are a bit hit and miss). I'm planning to upgrade to a hdtv next year - do you find the aspect ratio's are fine on that? I'm presuming you just set the desktop to match the HDTV screen resolution, same as you would for a normal PC monitor?

 

[tmcd35]

Most modern hardware should have 64bit Vista/7 drivers. Now is the time to move to 64bit. For some reason we've been hanging back in a 32bit world for longer than we really should. 3Gb usable RAM is the limit for Windows 32bit. With new machines coming with 4Gb+ and multicore processors allowing us to run several apps at once without slow down problems 64bit really is the way forward.

If you're worrid about backward compatibilty with the rare piece of 16bit or 32bit software that won't run on 64bit then look into XP Compaibility Mode in Window 7. This gives you a 32bit Windows XP virtual machine to run the older software in.