I bought Vista for a living room PC I built specifically to play online content (mainly Netflix Watch Instantly) on my TV - a single-core low-power Athlon64, 2 GB RAM, basic onboard video.
Seems good - the Aero Glass interface looks slick, and it plays Netflix fine from Firefox. However, when I play Netflix vids from the MyNetflix plugin within Vista Media Center, it stutters quite badly. So the Media Center console uses a significant amount of overhead, which is a bummer, becuase it’s kind of nice.
Also, when I play any kind of mid-to-high res video (I’ve got a digital camera that shoots 480P widescreen at 30FPS) it drops frames, while a similarly spec’ed PC my kids use plays the video fine in XP. Which leads me to believe that Vista is significantly more resource intensive than XP, despite what MSFT claims.
Overall, I guess it’s been adequate. I’ve had very few issues getting it installed and keeping it running and updated, but then again, I’m not doing a lot of browsing, and I’m not installing/uninstalling apps on it very often.
I do plan on upgrading from the 2.2 Ghz low-power single-core to a 2.5 Ghz dual-core, since I’m upgrading my main PC which will free up the latter processor. I’ll probably also get a cheap Radeon HD video card to accelerate video playback, and another 2 GB of RAM. If I get this done while this thread’s still live, I’ll post back the results.
the problem is likely your GPU. Are using an integrated solution, or is it a discreet card? Usually HD video will stutter on integrated video solutions on anything but a very powerful CPU or on lower resolutions.
The ATI card will likely solve your problems.
The GUI on vista should not be putting much stress on your system. There is no difference in game performance for example, between vista and XP, and there should be none while playing video either.
BTW, try the VMCNetflix plugin for media center, it supports the new Silverlight player the netflix is starting to roll out.
Hmmm. . . I wonder if the MyNetflix doesn’t fully support Silverlight? Cause I did opt-in to the Netflix Silverlight beta. Although after reviewing the VMCNetflix plug-in page, I am reminded why I didn’t go with that plug-in - it doesn’t fully support Firefox, which I prefer.
As regards the video playback - what’s odd is that both my system and the kids’ system are spec’ed out with similar (but not identical hardware) - I have an ATI 690G motherboard, and the kids have an GeForce 6100 (not a 6150, which does better video playback), but the RAM and CPU are the same. From reviews I’ve read and personal experience, graphics-wise the 690G is superior to the 6100.
Plus the kids’ PC is hooked up to a 1280 X 1024 monitor, while I have the PC running in 720P mode (1280X720). While I can’t do any kind of formal benchmarking comparison, logic tells me that the 690G pc should perform better, but under Vista, video file playback is not so good. It may be that the 6100 accelerates MP4 in some way, but I don’t think so.
Either way, I’ll have a spare CPU anyway, so that along with a $40 HD 4350 video card should seal the deal on improving video playback.
I haven’t played with it much, but my SO is finding the biggest problem is an inability to run a lot of older games on it. We love our older games and get a lot of replay value out of them.
It’s not just the User Interface upgrade. There’s security stuff and other changes going on in the background too.
The original plan for UAC was to have it be, uh, un-turnoff-able. When this was announced it caused a minor riot among expert and casual users alike on the grounds that 1. it’s a pain in the ass and 2. we should be allowed to do whatever we want with our computers. Microsoft relented by providing a means to disable it because 1. It really was a major pain in the ass and 2. ignorant users who would be protected by the thing are also the sort to carry one because they don’t know why they can’t get something to work. So what the hell. But it’s on by default and Microsoft gets “Hey - we tried!” points.
It’s still a smart idea to create an everyday user account with UAC enabled as your main log in and only pop into the admin account when there’s something you really want to install. Almost nobody does it but it’s a much better practice. The point of UAC, after all, is to prevent virus and stuff you don’t intend to install to install themselves without your awareness. It’s a good addition for someone who doesn’t change their software much.
I was afraid of that – I too have a collection of old favorites I still like to play. If I do end up with a Vista system, I may keep my current laptop just as a game computer.
Hmmm… You are an It guy (as am I) and when you find an OS that does work on one machine and not on another you blame the OS? Interesting.
No problems here either with my 13 puters at home or any clients. Hardware issues in the past but not anymore. With modern hardware it works just fine. A point of interest, years ago I had a $1800 scanner that worked with win95, when I went to Win98 I couldnt get drivers for it so i had to replace it. I DIDNT bitch and whine that the scanner manufacturer’s failure to build Win98 drivers was somehow the OS’s fault.
I have a little compaq c700 lappy that runs vista, only 1 gig ram so I disabled Aero. Runs great! From a IT point of view i also like UAC, keeps clients from doinf stupid things.
UAC could have worked if they made it more reserved. If it didn’t pop up every 5 seconds it would’ve been a useful, though still not immensely so, feature. I could see it being used to restrict some “oopsies” moments or even malicious changes an external entity was making (I’m not sure if it’d pop up on your screen if that was happening, but whatever). But the truth was it popped up so damn often you were conditioned to click “allow” at levels Pavlov would blush at, so by the time it would ever be of any use your conditioning made it useless.
I wouldn’t mind a revamped version of UAC in Windows 7, but they’d really have to scrap it and reconsider exactly WHAT should need permission, or at least give you a checkbox to allow the sysadmin to set what events the popup responds to.
If the clients do not have admin privilidges and do not have an admin password, then yes, it does keep them from doing stupid things.
UAC really doesn’t pop up often. The problem lies with software that wasn’t 100% vista compatible. Really the only time it should come up is when you are trying to install a program or drivers, that’s it.
Ok, I am not a clueless user and I am not using old software, and my machine is less than a year old. Vista is still painful in many ways. First, there is the way it begs for permission without always being very clear what you are granting permission for. Secondly, it is just slower on the same hardware than XP. Then there are the random application crashes and some applications just refuse to open at all seemingly at random. I am not talking about older applications, I an talking about IE and Office 2007. Oh, and the stupid muted color and blurry icons. Everything looks softer, and I keep thinking I need to clean my glasses.
I am sure some of the problems I have can be solved with more memory, but I doubt all of them can be. I have 1 GB, and in XP I could have 20 Outlook windows, 6 excel docs, 1 IE instance with 10 tabs, 5 of which are running thin clients of apps, 4 terminal service connections, 3 explorer windows, 4 word docs, and either Visio or PowerPoint, but not usually both. I can’t do even a third of that with Vista, and event so apps crash. It is kind like it took up the computer equivalent of smoking cigarettes and now gets out of breath when climbing up the stairs.
On top of that, they moved my cheese without giving me more cheese as far as I can tell. So far I have not found anything that Vista does better than XP. They moved stuff around quite drastically, and yet I am not finding any thing that actually works better. So far, I have found the features that I use, but in many cases I had to exhume them by specifically enabling menus.
I have heard that the next version is going to be less annoying; they have rethunk the continually asking permission thing. If I had my choice, I would skip Vista. I upgraded because I do have to support customers who are using Vista, and so I need to be familiar with it. I think those who have called it Windows ME2 have it right.
well over twenty years now but i hear you! LOL Like when the box pops up and says that they have a virus and do they want a scan. Everyone says “yes please, I really really want to be infected”
drives me crazy!
You bet, pretty much the more the better. But thats all the laptop came with and since all i do with it is to cruise the net and email so I didnt feel it necessary to add more. I shut down Aero and its running about the same as the Winxp install that i dual boot with. The other 10 laptops I bought for training all have 3 gigs ram though.
So, gee whiz–you paid a lot of money for a new product, and it is almost as good as what you had before, so you have no complaints.
Is there any other product on earth which people are happy to pay for, just because it almost works?
“look at this new car I just bought: It’s great,-- I managed to get to work and come home again, and so far nothing has exploded under the hood.” Yep, I’m a fully satisfied customer…
no need to be snarky. I like vista, i dont think its almost as good, it works just fine. It works just fine for me and my clients. I just dont say its horrible just because many others dont like it. If you dont like it thats fine with me, if you can point to something that you dont like thats also fine with me.
As far as paying a lot of money I bought the laptop I am typing on for $399, came with vista, works fine. what can I say. If I had my druthers I would get all my clients on Ubuntu but that aint gunna happen. They wont even use Open office.
I have a new Lenovo T-61 (one of the higher-rated laptops) with Vista business. Other than having to learn some new clicks and features, and dealing with the usual (minor) MS irritations, it seems to work just fine.