Windows 7 for Audio or Video, yes - No?

Thanks a ton G... U D Man.

Now there's some food for thought!

I spent a few months optimising some PCs for audio use, trying out various players, including Cics Music Player. For each of XP, Vista and 7 it was beneficial to turn a lot of the services off. It was also beneficial to eliminate moving parts from the PC, not just because of mechanical noise but also electrical noise. Where I got to at the end of that was a preference for 7 over the other two. For streaming audio it seems to me to have the best of what XP and Vista have to offer. I am basing this just on listening tests and it is predicated on the configuration and player software I used.

Looks like this is the thread for me. I am contemplating reformating a core duo desktop I have to use as a media center and was thinking of windows 7 upgrade, maybe I'd just stream netflix flicks w/it and therefore not need all the HD bells and whistles. Probabably no real advantage w/ this box as is.
Now from looking at this post, I realize, that more likely than not the cost of upgrading piecemeal would be more than buying a new box or evn laptop that was blue ray and hd nice sound card built. I'll investigate further. My box is basic. My projector, however is HD though I dont have blue ray thus far, so it woud be nice to wake it up a bit.
Seems it would be silly to purcace a new PC w/o Seven, and cost prohibitive and potentially frustrating (driverwise) to just upgrade, at least in my sitch. I'm going to check into some of those deals mentioned. It'd be nice if we could more easily install the mac os--but thats another story.

Yeah with Windows 7 I don't personally see the need for OSX. Windows 7 is great all by itself. Yeah from your description you probably only need to upgrade your OS.

I use one of my HTPCs with a front projector/119 inch screen, 52 inch LCD TV and a 19 inch LCD monitor. I also have a Plasma in th bedroom connected to a media extender (XBox360). I stream movies from the same HTPC to the display in the bedroom as well.Skies the limit on what you can do with this OS if you put your mind to it.

Here's another new kid approaching the states Dell Inspirion Zino HD. It's already been released in Ireland. I call it the Mac Mini killer.

I'm sold on Windows 7 after using it for the last 5 months.....Linux has been my operating system of choice for the last 5 years.

Dave