Windows 7 client - 32 or 64 bit???

[briands]

I plan to replace Win7 RC over the weekend with the release version.

For client only use in my home theater, any recommendation for 32 or 64 bit?

Lastly - what should we call this software in the forum so it can be a searchable term. My vote is Win7.

[briands]

Also, any thought on installing over the RC? Is it even possible?

[SWKerr]

Tried both and can't think of a reason not to go with Windows7 64. Only using 32 on a Atom based Netbook.

I read somewhere that you will need to do a reinstall of OS and applications.

Didn't realize the media would be out so soon. Thought it would still be a few weeks.

[briands]

I guess there is little harm in trying the 64 bit version. I'll do some driver research first... maybe that will be a showstopper.

I got my disks today, part of the Launch Party Kit... I know, what a dork, but it got me a free release of Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition.

[stevech]

of course, there's a bit of a dearth of 64 bit compatible device drivers, right?

[Fuzzy]

Not really, I've had pretty good luck lately in finding 64-bit drivers for pretty much every device I have. The only thing that was holding me back was my R-5000, and it now has 64-bit support. Not going to bother switching my server/client to 64-bit yet as I'm running with a whopping 2GB right now anyways, but it's nice to know I can when I need to upgrade.

Hardware manufacturers are being MUCH more supportive of Win7 than they were for Vista, and the fact that existing vista drivers all seem to be compatible in Win7 doesn't hurt.

[kingwr]

The feedback from general testers of Win7 (not folks in the Beta program, so calm down people) is that there is little performance improvement in 64-bit vs. 32-bit client, at least as it pertains to Windows 7 Media Center. Don't know if SageTV Client 64-bit has noticeable performance benefits. For me, 64-bit performance increase, if any, has never been worth the possible incompatibility problems that arise with applications, drivers, codecs, plugins, etc.

[Taddeusz]

I'm running Windows 7 RTM x64 on my client system. Runs great. No major issues.

In reference to 64-bit driver availability. Now that 64-bit drivers are a requirement for Windows logo certification there shouldn't be any problems finding hardware or software that works in Windows 7 x64.

[gplasky]

You may run into issues with drivers for older hardware. So you now have justification for picking up that new hardware.

Performance on 64 bit OS is much better that 32 bit as long as the application was written for and takes advantage of it. Video editing encoding/decoding is one application that absolutely can take advantage of the 64 bit OS and the increased memory support. Media center-type apps and office apps-not so much.

I have the latest SageTV PC client running on Win 7 Ultimate RTM with no issues and the best video quality ever.

Gerry

[wayner]

Originally Posted by kingwr

The feedback from general testers of Win7 (not folks in the Beta program, so calm down people) is that there is little performance improvement in 64-bit vs. 32-bit client, at least as it pertains to Windows 7 Media Center. Don't know if SageTV Client 64-bit has noticeable performance benefits. For me, 64-bit performance increase, if any, has never been worth the possible incompatibility problems that arise with applications, drivers, codecs, plugins, etc.

But won't you get a performance increase by being able to use 4GB+ of RAM in 64 that isn't possible in 32?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

But won't you get a performance increase by being able to use 4GB+ of RAM in 64 that isn't possible in 32?

No performance increase other than there being more physical RAM available. Hence less swapping to the page file. The real advantage of 64-bit won't be realized until more programs start coming in 64-bit versions. 32-bit processes are still limited to a 2GB address space.

Why they chose 2GB rather than 4GB, I have no idea. I'm sure they had some idea that "2GB should be enough for any single process." It really didn't take very long for programs to come along that could actually use more. Most end-user programs, of course, don't.

I think SageTV is one of those programs that could really take advantage of being 64-bit. Especially in complex environments where people have more than just a couple media extenders and/or placeshifters. The memory overhead starts growing quickly the more you add because of the fact that the extender UI is generated by the server.

Edit: Sorry to get slightly off topic. In regards to running a software client either 32-bit or 64-bit would do. Since things are pointing in the direction of 64-bit I personally would tend to lean that way.

[loube]

there are issues with 64bit OS vista/win7 and the happauge wintv-500. From what I have researched it is due to happauge's drivers. Just a heads up.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by kingwr

The feedback from general testers of Win7 (not folks in the Beta program, so calm down people) is that there is little performance improvement in 64-bit vs. 32-bit client, at least as it pertains to Windows 7 Media Center. Don't know if SageTV Client 64-bit has noticeable performance benefits. For me, 64-bit performance increase, if any, has never been worth the possible incompatibility problems that arise with applications, drivers, codecs, plugins, etc.

I wonder why? I recall, moons ago, when we got our first 64 bit DEC Alpha. It was much, much, much faster than the fastest SUN Sparc we had. But these were different architectures and compilers.

[Fuzzy]

64-bit processes aren't inherently faster than 32-bit, unless dealing with massive amounts of data and can take advantage of the wider data. Sage, even though it handles large amounts of data, doesn't PROCESS that data. With full hardware acceleration, it pretty much just passes it from hard-drive to video card. Also, it is probably more limited by being a Java app. Sure, this helps cross platform development, but JVM has memory limitations that moving to a 64-bit OS will not fix.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

64-bit processes aren't inherently faster than 32-bit, unless dealing with massive amounts of data and can take advantage of the wider data. Sage, even though it handles large amounts of data, doesn't PROCESS that data. With full hardware acceleration, it pretty much just passes it from hard-drive to video card. Also, it is probably more limited by being a Java app. Sure, this helps cross platform development, but JVM has memory limitations that moving to a 64-bit OS will not fix.

Java is also available in 64 bit for all platforms with less memory limitations.

Gerry

[Fuzzy]

true, my point was that sage doesn't use those implementations, so you really don't gain much on that end by moving to 64-bit. However, if sage splits their extender processes each to their own JVM, I think it could easily make use of the higher RAM availability in newer systems, and easily justify the move to 64-bit. How smooth would fanart and such be if you could have a gig of heap dedicated to each HD200? This wouldn't require moving sage to a 64-bit codebase, but WOULD allow the multiple JVM's to use up the higher memory.

[briands]

Thanks for the discussion.... I decided to go for 64 bit and it seems to be working OK.
Took a while to get playback of the HD-PVR recordings, but the client seems to be playing everything back now. Seems like I just went through this with the RC. I really wish Sage would natively support playback of the encoders that is supports.
I'm sure the client is a little easier since I have very little hardware to worry about (no tuners).

[sportera]

Originally Posted by briands

Thanks for the discussion.... I decided to go for 64 bit and it seems to be working OK.
Took a while to get playback of the HD-PVR recordings, but the client seems to be playing everything back now. Seems like I just went through this with the RC. I really wish Sage would natively support playback of the encoders that is supports.
I'm sure the client is a little easier since I have very little hardware to worry about (no tuners).

You say you've got a Windows 7 64 bit client working OK with HD-PVR's? Since going to Windows 7 64 bit on my HTPC client, I've got major video and audio studder at the end of each scheduled broadcast (on the 1/2 hour) and hanging when I change channels. Cannot use SageMC (it gets worse). I've tried nVidia Purevideo and Cyberlink PDVD codecs for both video and audio. I'm using Cyberlink as H.264 codec.

What codecs are you using for DVD codecs and H.262 codec? I'm about to wipe my hard drive and try Windows 7 32 bit but hate doing that since I've also just upped my memory to 4GB hoping for some better performance in 64 bit mode. Also, not looking for another full day of work to revert back.

[Taddeusz]

What kind of processor and video card do you have? I am running Windows 7 x64 and am using the built-in video decoder. Works great for both MPEG2 and H.264 video.

[sportera]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

What kind of processor and video card do you have? I am running Windows 7 x64 and am using the built-in video decoder. Works great for both MPEG2 and H.264 video.

I'm using:

HTPC Client: Core2Duo E6300 1.86 Ghz CPU, 4GB DDR2 800 memory, MSI 512 GeForce 9400GT Video, bluegears b-enspirer 7.1ch audio, nVidia Purevideo Platinum Video/Audio codec, Cyberlink H.262 codec.

What built in video decoder? I'm still using my old Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Untility to check and select default decoder. Is this a boo-boo when running Win 7 64?