What OS if im only assembling a HTPC

[plainman007]

Hi,

Im building a system with the main purpose to only playout videos of hd resolution (720p) thru the dvi port of my graphics card. This will be a dual monitor setup. Will the os make a difference in terms of sound and video quality played out. Im trying to decide XP Pro Vs XP Home. I need to know if there will be a quality difference in anyway considering the purpose im planning (more like a dedicated HTPC). Also is XP Pro more stable than XP Home ?

[Derrick_SA]

well then you should look at Windows Media Centre Edition. It's made to play media. (it's similar to XP Pro)

- Derrick

[Captain Pierce]

Technically, Media Center is more similar to XP Home, in that it lacks the business functionality (such as the ability to be joined to a domain) that distinguishes Pro from Home. (And I know that from experience--one of my company's salesmen bought a laptop with Media Center on it, and it caused nothing but problems.) I'm not sure that you can buy Media Center Edition on a disc, though--I thought it only came with the purchase of a PC.

[TwistedLincoln]

Well it wasn't one of the options you listed, but I went with GNU/Linux running MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/).

[Bob Hill]

Plainman,

You should be fine with XP Pro if you are just planning on DVD playback. If you are planning on doing BluRay playback I am not sure exactly what you need for that right now with the flagging of the data and what players support the format. As for sound the OS won't have any effect on your sound if you are passing via SPDIF to a tuner/decoder. Other things to check out are what DVD player software you want to use, the necessary ripping software/tools if you want to store your DVD collection on the computer, remote control of the system, etc. A good place to check this out is http://www.avsforum.com/
They have a solid section of their forum specifically dedicated to the HTPC.

[sinapps]

You'll need PowerDVD to play HD content. You'll also need AnyDVD HD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html) to remove protection from that dvd/blu-ray disc so that it can be displayed on non-hdmi (DVI) connection.

[plainman007]

Ive heard that media center edition isnt good. Has a lot of problems im told. The hd movies i will be playing are not commericial Bray dvds or Hd dvd material. They are my own footage only that i edit on my vegas system. I need this exclusvely as a preview player sorta thing and to use for HD presentations of my own. So the files will be as avi, wmv hd, or any similar formats whose codecs are being supported by windows. I dont need power dvd etc to play these files. I have a custom designed software that will play out an video file whoe codec is on the system. Having said that. My options are only Win XP Home, XP Pro. Cause i dont know if the playback software would run on linux. But plz tell me between XP pro & XP Home will there be a performance difference when it comes to video playback ? I mean does XP Pro run faster or smoother and handle video etc in a better way than XP Home ?

[plainman007]

In case you guys forgot. Plese tell me if win xp pro performs faster and more reliably than xp home ? That in essence would help me out here. I need ot decide what OS to buy for this machine.

[Captain Pierce]

According to my company's IT guy, there should be no difference between in Pro and Home in video playback. As far as reliability... well, neither of us has much experience with Home in that respect, but we'd expect it to be pretty similar. If it was me, I'd just get Pro, because I know what to expect from it.

[plainman007]

Then ill try and see if i can squeeze out the budget for Pro.

[plainman007]

But in pro is there a way to restric access to all programs except one. I mean. when i switch on the system instead of windows etc it should only land on the default program screen. I know how to get the video program to start. By puttin it in the windows startup folder. But i hope you get what i mean. Im trying to have this look like a one software machine. Is there a way to hide the task bar permanantly. I mean the video software that im talking about should fill the entire desktop edge to edge. I know the right click on the task bar and hide thing. But in that one if you brought the mouse close by the bottom edge of the screen the task bar again pops up. Im trying to get close to where i can switch on the machine and its my software window occupying the full screen. No windows start button, no task bar etc. You can only operate my software and when finished you could power down the system which would go into hibernate. Possible ?

[Captain Pierce]

I don't think that's possible with any version of Windows. If it was, I'd think that Pro would be the easiest to do it in, because I've seen Pro pretty locked down by paranoid IT guys :), but that's a pretty extreme scenario.