Have XP Media - should I change?

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ihs

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Hi everyone,

I picked up a new computer last week that came with Windows XP Media Edition. Just wondering the following...

1) Anyone here using this OS to record? If so, what interface are you utilizing?

2) If this is a bad choice, which should I switch to instead - XP Home or XP Professional?

Any help would be appreciated. I've been using a Delta 66 (Omni bundle) alongside XP Home that came with my old Compaq I bought in 2001. That computer died last week, which led to the purchase I mentioned above and has put my recording on a temporary hiatus until this is resolved.

I'd like to pick up a Presonus Firebox, but on their website they mention they've had problems with users who are utilizing XP Media as their OS, so I'm hesitant to go that route. I could just always keep using my Omni, but I'd like to upgrade my soundcard to go with the new computer, thus the request for suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help and/or opinions.
 
I'd just get the Firebox and try it out. Buy it from a place that has a good return policy in case things don't work out. I don't think XP Pro has any advantages over XP Home in a DAW setup. XP Home is less than $100 now so you could just grab it along with the Firebox and be on your way.
 
I don't think you will see much difference using XP Media compared to Home or Pro. It is all the same OS for the most part. The difference between Home and Pro is some networking stuff that you will probably NEVER use. I think I recall that Home won't do dual cpu either? If you don't have a dual cpu mainboard, no problem! ;)

The only problems I can foresee at all would have to do with all the crap applications MS installs with XP Media Edition. But, I am betting that they won't anything too hard to overcome. Mostly is would concerning maybe some services running in the background, and what app's would open certain files by default.

I will go just a little out on a limb and say that you won't have ANY problems. Maybe a 20% of something being "odd" or "whacky" that you will have to deal with.

Good luck.
 
In fact, having looked over Media Edition, most of the difference have to do with video type of stuff. I wouldn't worry about anything at all with it. Anything "optimized" for video is going to SCREAM for audio! ;)
 
I think I read that Windows Media edition has problems with some DAW software. You might want to check for compatibility with the software you plan to use.
 
IMO, the Media Edition is a consumer tinker-toy and best avoided. YMMV.

XP Pro primarily differs in security functions and how user accounts interact with security.

Go with Home or Pro, then locate the WinXP tweaking document and discard all non-essential services and eye-candy from your DAW. I reduced my out-of-box XpPro memory footprint from 128mb down to 53mb with the OS loaded.

The memory gain is great, but not as impressive as the huge amount of cpu cycles you will free from eye candy tasks and make available to your DAW for recording.

After you get your DAW tuned up and working properly, make a GHOST image of the system partition. This will let you restore that virgin, wonderful system if/when it gets tired or trashed. An image preserves all that tweaking work so you don't have to do it all again should you rebuild the system.
 
I'm Running XP Media 2005 With Sony Vegas 6+DVD. however I'm only editing and mixing with it. To be totally honest, unless you are going to try and use your computer as a VCR the Media Center OS is Bullshit. It came on my computer and so far Vegas 6 is running stable with it but if my hard drive ever crashes I wont be reinstalling the Media Center Edition. If you want to save the 100 bucks try it with whatever you decide to use but I would NOT
IMHO buy recording hardware or software just because it's compatible with Media 2005, Choose your hardware and software first then go from there.
 
OK......I have two computers in my studio. A Gateway GT5012 desktop and a Toshiba M45-S265 Laptop. Both came with Windows Media Center on them. If you disable and uninstall all of the crap in Media Center that allows for recording live TV (essentially a cheaper TIVO), the only thing left that makes it different from XP Home is the fact that it's a little more fancy when it comes to playing DVDs, than windows media player. I am running an ECHO Gina 3 PCI card in the Gateway with Sonar 2.2 installed, along with Adobe Audition 1.5 and Sony Sound Forge 8.0b. I have no problems with any of those running, and record with them daily. On the Toshiba laptop, I am using a Phonic Helix 18 Firewire Mixer and running the same three pieces of software with no problems there either. As for Windows XP Pro. I did have some problems trying to run Adobe audition with it on a Dell Pentium 4 ....2.80 GHZ desktop machine and was told by Windows support that it was because of 32 and 64 bit conflicts in the OS and the audio software........ That's my 2 cents..........
 
Thanks for all the advice, guys. For now, I ended up pulling my Delta 66/Omni out of the old computer and installing it in the new one. It's working fine at the moment (still using Vegas Audio 2, btw), and this way at least I'm up and recording again.

I'd still like to upgrade in the near future, and am leaning toward the Firebox as I'd like to be able to use it with my soon-to-be-purchased laptop as well.

bgavin said:
...then locate the WinXP tweaking document and discard all non-essential services and eye-candy from your DAW. I reduced my out-of-box XpPro memory footprint from 128mb down to 53mb with the OS loaded...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendations, bgavin. Is this the tweaking document you were referencing? http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/winxptweak/
 
I dunno, maybe. I've slept a lot since November 10, 2005 when I did the tweaking...

:D

I incorporated the link you gave me into my text file, in case somebody is interested in it.
 
FYI, Windows MCE is built upon WinXP Professional and has no performace impact if the actual media center shell has never been activated. It has all the file permission settings and remote desktop shell, just like XP Pro.

The difference is merely one process that monitors your scheduled TV recordings. Obviously, recording TV broadcasts and recording live audio at the same time is a very dumb idea. If you have never activated the Media Center shell, then it is essentially WinXP Pro, with a different visual style.

PS- Win XP Home supports multiple CPUs. All intel HT CPUs required 2 CPU licenses from Microsoft and the OS used was mostly XP home in the retail segment.
 
I found this on the fire podsite. "We have seen many issues unique to systems running Windows XP Media Edition, and strongly recommend using Windows XP Home or Professional instead." http://www.presonus.com/compatibility.html
if you scroll down right past the MAC icon you will see it
 
I would more than likely attribute that to the simple fact that OEMs that build their machines with WinMCE typically put in cheap TV tuner cards, sometimes with proprietary drivers. Any computer with crappy PCI add-in cards and (more than likely) flaky Firewire PHY's will have issues.
 
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