Move to Win 8 ?

[pdean]

I have a dedicated media pc in my living room that is only used for the windows media center or anything accessible from the media center. It is about 7 years old and mainly running fine with an Intel DG965WH motherboard and MSI Radeon HD 4550 video card using DVI. I am in the process of having to replace an audio receiver because it died and because of my HDTV being blocked by Comcast since last fall I plan on moving to a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime from a HD HomeRun Dual. I have not been paying for HDTV.

I am wondering if I were to purchase a new motherboard setup should I use Win 8.1 instead of the Win 7 it has ran for years. The media center pc only stores recorded tv and for years I have also had a pc as a headless server that stores all other data in a closet on my wired network which originally ran WHS for two versions and for a year has been running Win 8. Because of all these thoughts I am even debating using my media center pc as the server. Mainly only my living room pc is used for media center but every so often a Linksys extender in another room is used and I read it does not work with Win 8 but Xbox 360 does.

Is it still overall better to use Win 7 for a media center only pc or what would Win 8.1 give me. The shortened boot up time for Win 8 is not important since it is rarely manually rebooted and what about a combo media center and server on the same pc.

[mdavej]

I ran 8 for a while and saw more issues than benefits, so I reverted back to 7. You also aren't limited to just Xbox extenders. Save your money and stick with what works IMO.

[slowbiscuit]

Hell no, not with WMC.

[Cyterio]

I also "upgraded" to Windows 8 for a few months and saw no benefits for a HTPC. I reverted back to Windows 7 and couldn't be happier.

[milli260876]

If you use extenders no, if you don't or use xbox its completely personal preference i use w8 as my htpc (uk user) and i love it.
Everything works as it did in w7 but a bit quicker and there is the added bonus of "metro" apps with my touchpad.
Try it you MIGHT like it....

[makryger]

From a developer standpoint, Windows 8 was not good for working on MCL. I eventually got it working, but the experience is still more buggy than Windows 7

[Beerman]

I've got 2 WMC machines tied to Xbox's and 8.1 and 1 is using Ceton Infinitv 4 and the other the ETH 6.....both running fine. I really can't tell the difference between 7 & 8. But, I see no reason to upgrade if you like what you have in 7.

[curtis]

To pile on, if it is a dedicated, no. You only lose some functionality as mentioned above, and you gain nothing.
Story is different if it is a machine you are using for other purposes as the other win 8 functionality/features would come into play (all my systems are on 8.1)

[3rob3]

I built a new HTPC and decided to try out 8.1. I like it quite a bit. If you have a wireless keyboard handy the "Metro" apps are really nice, particularly Netflix and Crackle. Unless you have legacy extenders I see no reason to use Win7 anymore.

[ewtaylo]

Pdean-

I have used WMC on windows 7 and windows 8.1. There are issues on 8.1 that can rear up depending on how you utilize your system. The problem that 3rob3 and I just got a handle on has to do with leaving your WMC interface up and turning off your TV. If you are using the internal HD 4XXX graphics from an Intel chip a memory leak in the video driver will show up.

I moved from windows 7 to windows 8 in order to try and combat the "network issue" popups that I had while using xbox 360 extenders. For me the new transport mechanism that was implemented for windows 8 made no difference in how the extenders work.

My suggestion is to stay at 7 or if you go to 8, do not go to 8.1 until some of the issues are worked out. Besides the issue I mention above there are sleep issues with 8.1 that seem hard to get handled. My 8.1 system will only sleep for 16 seconds if I have my USB 3.0 ports enabled in the BIOS.

[kingwr]

Unless you have legacy extenders I see no reason to use Win7 anymore.

I wonder if Ceton has come to refer to the Echo as a "legacy" extender?

[3rob3]

Sorry, non-360 extenders.

[Sprinx]

My main reason for moving to 8 was for the Windows 8 metro Netflix app, which uses the newer video formats, has more HD options, and has Dolby Digital Plus encoding on most newer TV shows and movies.

Unlike the built-in WMC Netflix, which has been all but abandoned by them and uses Silverlight. And, it only has stereo.

About a year ago I was watching Breaking Bad on my HTPC, and then one Saturday I took it offline to take it apart. I booted up my PS3 which had the Dolby Digital encoding option in Netflix. I was astonished at how noticeably clearer the audio and dialog was, opposed to the stereo mix. Once I heard the Win 8 app had this also, I was sold on upgrading.

For me, it was not a big deal as I had no extenders. But a few months back they had some Ceton Echos on sale on Newegg, and I thought it might be nice to get one for my bedroom, instead of using an old laptop with WMC. Fortunately I realized before I bought them that they are note compatible with Win 8.

I don't use 360s as I do PC gaming mainly, and I don't feel the need to buy an XBox gold subscription so I can use the Netflix subscription I pay for already on the high-speed internet service that I pay for.

[mdavej]

While I like having the new Netflix app on my Win 8 laptop, it's still useless on my HTPC since it doesn't work with a remote. I think it's still best to stick with Win 7 if you need to run WMC, and use some other streaming device for Netflix. That way you get the best of all worlds, SuperHD, DD+, remote control, legacy extender compatiblity and no extra fees.