Are you planning to upgrade to Microsoft Vista?

[cmcquistion]

My quote from another thread:

Originally Posted by cmcquistion

...

I will be upgrading to Vista as soon as Snapstream introduces Cable Card support. ATI is building and shipping these cards, right now.

Check it out:

http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html

Vista's MCE already supports this device. Another company is already shipping Vista PC's with these new ATI Cable Card tuners. If one of Snapstream's competitors introduces support for cable card, before Snapstream, I will jump ship, even though I have a deep investment in Beyond TV, Beyond Media, and several Link licenses.

[ZetaVu]

I will go to any hardware/software that allows recording of High Definition from Satellite, this under the assumption that I will be able to remove any drm applied to those recordings and convert to compressed format and/or burn on disks (DVD, DVD Dl, HD DVD or blueray). My guess is if you can record HD from cablecard on vista, they will rig it so you cannot strip the drm (unless of course you used a second computer with xp or linux or something and a third party app to convert it). Such is the cat and mouse game.

[cmcquistion]

People have figured out how to strip DVR-MS to MPEG-2, so I imagine the same thing will happen with content-protected HD content at some point, too.

[ZetaVu]

Saw this link today: http://www.itpro.co.uk/applications/...rade-path.html

Any word on your upgrade Craig?

[cncb]

Originally Posted by ZetaVu

Any word on your upgrade Craig?

I am really regretting going this route especially since you can now buy OEM Vista for the same price without the headaches and I am only able to get the 32-bit upgrade. Also, reading the fine print after I placed my upgrade order says that it won't be shipped for 6-8 weeks after the release! My order seemed to go through ok and I just mailed in my software purchase receipt as I was instructed. So, I think I am just waiting for it to be shipped (but there is no way of telling on the crappy upgrade website). If these upgrades don't go through NewEgg is going to have a lot of irate customers that they will owe a refund...

[merrypig]

Have you seen the comments on how to install upgrades? You're meant to have a working OS activated and running first and then run the upgrade from within it. Thus if you want to install it again later, you need to find the original OS disk.

There's a work around using the trial mode, but you still have to install the trial - then reinstall again for the upgrade key to take. And it's probably just a matter of time before MS close that loophole.

I was so sure I was going to buy the upgrade to ultimate then use the family discount to update my two other boxes to home premium or some such. But having to install twice is just not worth the effort for me.

Plus, I hear that only that you only get the 32 and 64 bit versions if you buy retail boxed products - not sure if that's true but I recall seeing the 64 bit dvd image as larger than the 32 bit so it might make sense if they're trying to limit the downloads?

So I think I'll just buy a full retail box when I really need it... Thankfully this kinda crap cured my curiosity somewhat.

But for those who are still interested, bestbuy have promotions running (today I think might be the last day?) where you can get a piece of free hardware and $100 off various accessories _if you buy a retail box.

Not a bad deal really since the extra $100 take you to a full installation and you're getting $100 of stuff "free".

No association etc..

Glad I didn't go newegg's route though...

[ZetaVu]

For the upgrade, you get both 64 and 32 bit I believe. It's the oem that is either 32 or 64. Also, I strongly suggest anyone doing an upgrade with clean install use the workaround (install as trial then reinstall), because if you upgrade a previous xp, IT DEACTIVATES YOUR KEY!!! DO the dual pass install and then ghost your system, (assuming you can ghost vista, haven't tried, don't plan to for a long time)

Seriously, m$ and their pricing/security practices are out of control. I refuse to condone their practice by spending another penny on them, no matter how bright or shiny they make things. I encourage others to do the same, complain everywhere, maybe they'll see flat sales and adjust their policy.

Hell, look at what's going on with the flop known as Zune...

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by ZetaVu

Any word on your upgrade Craig?

That must only apply to the 'free upgrade' vouchers that have been going out with new PC's for the last six months. I had no problem upgrading an OEM XP MCE machine to a student upgrade ($75) of Home Premium.

[jnaranjo]

Hope this is not off topic but I installed Vista onto a client machine and wow... I really dislike the MCE interface. Maybe I'm too used to BTV but I think it is the classier and more intuitive interface. As soon as I tested it for a while I decided no way I would make that my main Media Center software. Sorry MS but MCE is just not doing it for me....

[Zandor]

yes i will and have upgraded to windows vista i like it i just wish beyond tv would come out with 4.6 soon windows medra center is ok but i would much rather use Beyond TV

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by Zandor

yes i will and have upgraded to windows vista i like it i just wish beyond tv would come out with 4.6 soon windows medra center is ok but i would much rather use Beyond TV

Go signup for the public beta program and you can use 4.6 now.

[cmcquistion]

4.6 is in RC3, so it should be available pretty soon.

[AVman]

Yes as soon as BTV has 64 bit drivers for the HD capture/tuner card. I've built a Vista ready machine and have been waiting for months to get it now I'm only waiting for 64 bit drivers. Please Hurry!

[MarcP]

Unless you're planning to have more than 4GB RAM, I don't see the point of supporting Vista 64bit.

[hi-def]

Originally Posted by rakeshagrawal

We are particularly looking forward to adding support for Vista Porn Edition

Seriously though, support for different versions shouldn't be so bad since they are all built around the same core -- Vista MCE and Vista non-MCE are probably the only two different configurations that we'll need to do different things for.

you could have Hardcore (HC) and the Softcore (SC) editions.