Vista Beta 2... Good enough to replace MCE 2005?

[Noozer]

From what I've seen of the MCE interface on Vista, it seems like an
improvement over MCE 2005. I'd like to try replacing my MCE 2005 with Vista
Beta 2. Before I do, I thought I'd ask here what kind of stability and
functionality folks were experiencing.

I don't use the "Online Spotlight". I rarely watch "Live TV" due to the
thrashing MCE 2005 does, even after I hit STOP. I do play MP3, DVD's,
Timeshift TV and occasionally listen to radio.

I have a Motorola 6412 dual tuner HD PVR cablebox, which I can control via
MCE 2005 with an "unsupported" plugin, although I currently do not use this
box with MCE.

For reference, my hardware is as follows:
- Asus P4C800E-Dlx mainboard, with:
- Intel gigabit LAN (internal LAN file sharing, backup internet
connection)
- Firewire 400
- USB2
- Intel ICH Sata & Promise SATA.
- 2.6Ghz Northwood P4 (@ 3.15Ghz)
- 512meg of DDR533 memory @ 1:1 to the CPU
- Sapphire ATI Theatre Pro 500 PCI TV tuner, connected directly to analog
cable.
- 256meg 8x AGP nVidia 6800GS video card, connected to a 57" Hitachi CRT
rear projector TV via DVI -> HDMI.
- Auzentech Xplosion PCI soundcard (DTS and DDL realtime encoding) connected
via SPDIF to a 5.1 surround reciever
- Realtech 8139 PCI 10/100 network card, connected directly to internet via
cable internet, protected by Windows firewall.
- AOpen 56k PCI voice/fax modem (mostly for caller ID, some faxing)
- BenQ LS DW1655 16x DVDRW
- 40 gig PATA WD Raptor drive (holds the OS + swap file)
- 250 gig Seagate SATA drive, holds recorded TV, movies, MP3's
- 300 gig Seagate SATA drive, holds our backups, downloads and files wishing
to be archived, etc.
- USB 2 connected media card reader (SD, MMC, Memory stick, CF, etc.)
- HP 1115 Photosmart printer, connected via LAN + JetDirect print server.

.... I think that's plenty of detail...

Do you think I'd regret installing Beta 2? Is there anything that doesn't
work that I might miss? If it works well, we definately will be installing
the release version when it's available- definately via a clean install.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Don't. Beta 2 is not finished enough to do that. In any case, it is
timebombed and a clean install likely will be necessary one the final
version releases.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

*one = once

Don't. Beta 2 is not finished enough to do that. In any case, it is
timebombed and a clean install likely will be necessary one the final
version releases.

 

[Guest]

Rule number 2! you never replace final os with beta!

(rule number 1, you never talk about the fight club)

 

[Christopher L. Estep]

Rule number 2! you never replace final os with beta!

(rule number 1, you never talk about the fight club)

If you have enough drive space, *dual boot* and run alongside (as opposed to
instead of) MCE 2005. I have that sort of setup with similar hardware
(except for smaller hard drives, different printer, different TV tuner card,
no cable box, and more RAM). The only quibble is with the EPG in VMC; it
refuses to update! Every attempt leads to a rather ugly message: "A
critical component of Media Center has failed, etc. with Error Code 3"
followed immediately by error code 21 (Guide data mismatch). It lists two
different cable TV providers (but I *am* selecting* the correct provider);
which leads to several different possibilities (I have posted this as a bug,
but haven't heard from Microsoft yet).

Christopher L. Estep