Windows Vista Rules!

[Mizicke5273]

Vista has come a good bit since its release. Service Pack 1 has helped out a lot. Ive played with it a bit at home since the RTM release. But Im thinking about making the switch to it as my main OS on my gaming rig to see how it does before I buy it.

The only thing I dont like about vista is that as it is, it dosent really offer anything over xp. Now if it was released in its original form with everything that it was supposed to have, then it would be something to upgrade to. But maybe theyll be in the next windows.

[Corvin]

Vista has come a good bit since its release. Service Pack 1 has helped out a lot. Ive played with it a bit at home since the RTM release. But Im thinking about making the switch to it as my main OS on my gaming rig to see how it does before I buy it.

The only thing I dont like about vista is that as it is, it dosent really offer anything over xp. Now if it was released in its original form with everything that it was supposed to have, then it would be something to upgrade to. But maybe theyll be in the next windows.

Windows 7 is going to be what Vista was supposed to be. At least, that's what my buddy over at the MS campus in Toronto has said, he's been playing with some early alpha releases and keeping tabs on the ms research lab docs on it.

[sammis]

[QUOTE=Mizicke5273;108634]Vista has come a good bit since its release. Service Pack 1 has helped out a lot. Ive played with it a bit at home since the RTM release. But Im thinking about making the switch to it as my main OS on my gaming rig to see how it does before I buy it.

QUOTE]

Hi Mizickie

Before you do the update on your gaming rig, you might want to check out the gaming tech forums.

Vista is horrible for games, mainly due to the load a game puts on a system. Vista itself puts such a load on a PC that most games suffer in the performance area badly. Then you get into Admin rights, etc... not a pretty sight.

I participate in at least one game beta a year and the comments from the Vista group are pretty bad.

sammis

[Mizicke5273]

[QUOTE=sammis;108679]

Vista has come a good bit since its release. Service Pack 1 has helped out a lot. Ive played with it a bit at home since the RTM release. But Im thinking about making the switch to it as my main OS on my gaming rig to see how it does before I buy it.

QUOTE]

Hi Mizickie

Before you do the update on your gaming rig, you might want to check out the gaming tech forums.

Vista is horrible for games, mainly due to the load a game puts on a system. Vista itself puts such a load on a PC that most games suffer in the performance area badly. Then you get into Admin rights, etc... not a pretty sight.

I participate in at least one game beta a year and the comments from the Vista group are pretty bad.

sammis

If you have a dual core or better, 4GB RAM, and an 8800 nvidia /3870 ati series video card, any game out besides crysis wont even begin to really tax a system like this. Unless you play at insane resolutions with max settings. Basicaly as long as you have the video card and ram to support the game, you have nothing to worry about. Vista's biggest problem in the begging was drivers. This has been worked out for a while now. Gaming performance is on par with XP now. The only way you will really suffer a performance hit with games is if you are using a low end system. If you are ,then yes XP is better to game on.

Ive been following Vista since its release and with SP1 Vista has finally been brought up to speed with XP. It was the same when XP was released. It wasnt worth the move for everyday users until SP1 hit that fixed alot of bugs and drivers got mature enough.

Most bugs and driver issues have been worked out by now, thus why I am migrating over. I need to get some experience with it before I have to support it.

As for Windows7, I havent really been worried about it, as Server 08 is taking up most of my "time to wait for a new OS" time. Ive been thinking about switching my 03 server to it recently. But before I do I think ill set up a virtual machine before I do, or at least install it on a test rig to mess with it. Ive talked to a few guys at work about and it seems to be pretty decent so far.

[MarkD60]

Going back is the only out of a dead end.

[Kenyth]

For those of you who enjoy the freedom to purchase the hardware and software you want, and want the freedom to put multimedia content you buy on any number of devices, Vista is the first step towards the end. Vista implements OS technology that prevents "Copyright Infringement". In laymans terms, it prevents you from using your purchased content in any other form besides the way you bought it. Any hardware capable of copying protected content will be unable to play it. This is accomplished through the driver signing requirement Vista has. Everything from the disk drive to the monitor will have to comply. You will have to buy certified hardware and software to play Blu-Ray and other "Premium" content. You can bet that this technology will not stop there.

Stopping piracy wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't impact my ability to make MP3's and MP4/DIVX files to play on my portable devices and car stereo. Also, the software with items like the IPOD and Sony Mp3 players require you to destroy all your hard work if you change PC's. I think that's complete BS. I spent my 24 hours of work ripping my music collection to a collection of MP3's I can fit on two DVD-R's. I don't feel like doing it every couple of years to make life harder on the music swappers. I may be looking to play with Linux soon. XP appears to be the last MS product I'll be interested in.

[cigar no baka]

For those of you who enjoy the freedom to purchase the hardware and software you want, and want the freedom to put multimedia content you buy on any number of devices, Vista is the first step towards the end. Vista implements OS technology that prevents "Copyright Infringement". In laymans terms, it prevents you from using your purchased content in any other form besides the way you bought it. Any hardware capable of copying protected content will be unable to play it. This is accomplished through the driver signing requirement Vista has. Everything from the disk drive to the monitor will have to comply. You will have to buy certified hardware and software to play Blu-Ray and other "Premium" content. You can bet that this technology will not stop there.

Stopping piracy wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't impact my ability to make MP3's and MP4/DIVX files to play on my portable devices and car stereo. Also, the software with items like the IPOD and Sony Mp3 players require you to destroy all your hard work if you change PC's. I think that's complete BS. I spent my 24 hours of work ripping my music collection to a collection of MP3's I can fit on two DVD-R's. I don't feel like doing it every couple of years to make life harder on the music swappers. I may be looking to play with Linux soon. XP appears to be the last MS product I'll be interested in.

A-MEN brother!!! I'm going to have to consider a separate PC for all things media related and use a different OS because it looks like Microsoft has kowtowed to the media conglomerates. They're going to punish everyone for the actions of the pirates!

[Kenyth]

I hope whatever compensation they're getting from the media makers will make up for the business they're going to lose. They're going to open up the door for a whole slew of other operating systems to become popular. The same goes for hardware manufacturers. Look what happened with Linux!

[Mizicke5273]

For those of you who enjoy the freedom to purchase the hardware and software you want, and want the freedom to put multimedia content you buy on any number of devices, Vista is the first step towards the end. Vista implements OS technology that prevents "Copyright Infringement". In laymans terms, it prevents you from using your purchased content in any other form besides the way you bought it. Any hardware capable of copying protected content will be unable to play it. This is accomplished through the driver signing requirement Vista has. Everything from the disk drive to the monitor will have to comply. You will have to buy certified hardware and software to play Blu-Ray and other "Premium" content. You can bet that this technology will not stop there.

Stopping piracy wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't impact my ability to make MP3's and MP4/DIVX files to play on my portable devices and car stereo. Also, the software with items like the IPOD and Sony Mp3 players require you to destroy all your hard work if you change PC's. I think that's complete BS. I spent my 24 hours of work ripping my music collection to a collection of MP3's I can fit on two DVD-R's. I don't feel like doing it every couple of years to make life harder on the music swappers. I may be looking to play with Linux soon. XP appears to be the last MS product I'll be interested in.

This has already been hacked.

And I think your talking about the HDCP or what ever it is. Where your video card and monitor have to be certified to play HD content on a HD drive. This is not Vista's falut as far as I remember, but the MPAA's, just like not being able to upconvert sd dvds through a component connection on a standalone dvd player. Your forced to use the HDMI connection.

This HDCP only applies to "retail" HD content. And there are ways around it. XP also has to comply to it, as it applies to hardware and software, not the OS.

[cigar no baka]

This is why I have a local computer store build me my own PC's from the ground up. The big PC manufacturers are part and parcel of the system, so they will kowtow to each other to keep the peace. To hell with them; you don't need Dell or HP to build you a PC.

[Kenyth]

This has already been hacked.

And I think your talking about the HDCP or what ever it is. Where your video card and monitor have to be certified to play HD content on a HD drive. This is not Vista's falut as far as I remember, but the MPAA's, just like not being able to upconvert sd dvds through a component connection on a standalone dvd player. Your forced to use the HDMI connection.

This HDCP only applies to "retail" HD content. And there are ways around it. XP also has to comply to it, as it applies to hardware and software, not the OS.

Hmmmm......

Does this mean the data stream remains encrypted until it hits the monitor? More likely, the "certification" means that the hardware and software by agreement won't allow the data to be diverted to anything but the monitor. The OS is required to report any uncertified hardware or software present to the drive, which then won't play?

From what I read, hacks involve modifying the OS reporting system for uncertified drivers to report that none are present. They seem to pursue hacks in this area pretty ruthlessly.

Does this mean Linux and other OS's without mechanisms for driver signing and reporting will be unable to play protected content? I assume such protections are built directly into the hardware drives or cable interface cards.

[Kenyth]

This is why I have a local computer store build me my own PC's from the ground up. The big PC manufacturers are part and parcel of the system, so they will kowtow to each other to keep the peace. To hell with them; you don't need Dell or HP to build you a PC.

From what I think I'm reading, protected content will simply not be able to be played on uncertified equipment and software. The OS is simply facilitating it's certification agreement for the legal ability to play the content on their systems.

I can see this is going to go the way of ham radio equipment, cell phones, and console gaming systems. There are going to be hardware hacks to "open up" your disc players.

[Mizicke5273]

You can simply decrypt the disc and get rid of HDCP if its a problem. However I really dont see why HDCP is a problem to begin with. Every new piece of hardware that has been sold in the last 2 years or at least the last year is certified. Basically the goal of HDCP is to force you into new technology, not to limit what you can do with the material.

Ive watched several HD movies that have been ripped from BD, and neither my monitor or video card are HDCP certified.

[Kenyth]

You can simply decrypt the disc and get rid of HDCP if its a problem. However I really dont see why HDCP is a problem to begin with. Every new piece of hardware that has been sold in the last 2 years or at least the last year is certified. Basically the goal of HDCP is to force you into new technology, not to limit what you can do with the material.

Ive watched several HD movies that have been ripped from BD, and neither my monitor or video card are HDCP certified.

Okay, now I'm confused. If you can decrypt the disk with Vista, then how in the hell does any of this technology protect against piracy? I thought the whole point of this kind of technology was anti-piracy at the hardware and OS level? Or am I falling for some kind of hype?