Windows 7 Ultimate (Release)
I finally came to a point where I was to install Windows 7 Ultimate on a Dell
XPS/Dimension 400/9150, which I use as a (not so quiet) Multi Media computer. Below
a summary of my findings.
The Hardware
The Dell machine is quite old already: it shipped on 15 March 2006. It has the
following configuration:
- Dell DXP051
- BIOS A07 (1 August 2007)
- Windows XP Professional UK
(later Windows Vista Ultimate was installed)
- NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 256Mb
- Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz with
L2 Cache Size 4096
- 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2X1024)
- Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
- 1TB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe (2X500GB) through
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
(later a Maxtor STM3320820AS 298MB disk was added)
- Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card
- DVD/CD-ROM Drive HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GWA4164B ATA Device
- DVD/CD-ROM Drive TSSTcorp DVD-ROM TS-H352C ATA Device
- Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
- IEEE 1394 PCI Adapter Card
- TV Tuner Integrated Analogue PCI & Dell:
Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150
(later replaced with a FloppyDTV DVB-C Digital Card ex
Digital-Everywhere)
I am using a 42" 'TH-42PY700F' Panasonic Plasma TV as monitor, connected
through HDMI. This is a Full-HD television, capable of a maximum resolution
of 1920x1080.
The Sound Blaster is connected through a Creative Digital I/O Module and
Optical Cable to a Harman/Kardon AVR 635 receiver with 7.1 speakers.
The Operating System
Originally the machine was running the Media Center version of Windows XP. When Vista
became available, I installed that, but I had serious stability problems. Also to get
the proper (video) codec's was not a trivial exercise (to say the least).
A few months ago I reinstalled the Vista Operating System to include TV Pack 2008,
but had some issues playing back HD movies (MKV) and DVD's (would stop for some
time, then move forward fast to catch up).
So I downloaded Windows 7 RC build 7100 (from MSDN) to install on this
machine and ran that for a few months without serious problems. There were some minor
issues:
- While playing DVDs from Hard or Network Drive from Media Center, the screen would
freeze a number of times per DVD. The only way out was to stop the movie, and
start from scratch (you couldn't resume from where the movie froze).
- Sometimes the computer wouldn't go to sleep. Well, it went to sleep, but then
immediately woke up again. Not always, but... At least it was better than Vista, which
would wake up kind of randomly...
In October 2009 I downloaded Windows 7 Ultimate (Release) from MSDN, so I installed
that. As I could not upgrade from the Release Candidate, I did a fresh install - which
went smoothly.
Additional Software
I installed the avast! 4 Professional Edition virus scanner - which can be
bought from the avast! Web Site.
I then did a Windows Update, but with Language Pack Updates hidden (I prefer to have
English as Operating System Language).
I installed Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.32.18, which can be downloaded
from the Adobe Flash Player Downloads Page.
I installed the '191.07_desktop_win7_winvista_32bit_english_whql' driver for
my NVIDIA Graphics Card - which can be downloaded from the
NVIDIA Web Site. This driver works great - an issue I had before with the 185.85
driver (over scan at maximum resolution could not be corrected: correction with 'HDTV
Resize Desktop' was not retained) has been resolved.
Then I installed the 'SBXF_W7DRVBTA_US_2_18_0013' (Creative SB X-Fi XtremeMusic
2.18.0013) driver for my Sound Blaster Card - which can be downloaded from the
Creative Web
Site.
I then installed the 'Integrated Driver Setup (BETA)' (5.6) programs
and drivers for my FloppyDTV Card - which can be downloaded from the Digital Everywhere Web Site. It seems to work great: I could
find all Ziggo channels, including the HDTV ones(one channel that is missing is
the Belgian 'een' channel).
As Windows 7 cannot handle Matroska files (open standard container files
for several different audio and video formats, a format that is becoming more
and more popular), I then installed the 'The_KMPlayer_1435' KMPlayer
v2.9.4.1435 - which can be downloaded from the KMPlayer Download Web Site.
I was hoping installation of the KMPlayer would result in the ability to
play Matroska files from Windows 7 Media Center, but that was not the case.
I therefore downloaded and installed the
'Win7codecs_v1171' Windows 7 Codec's from Shark007. Information can be found at
the Shark007 Free Codec Solutions
Web Site. The actual download is kind of 'hidden', but can be done from the Major
Geeks Web Site.
That was it.
The Results
So far I have not had any issues with Media Center playing DivX files, AVI files,
etc. from Hard Drive or Network Drive. Music (MP3, WAV) is also played without problems. Since I installed the Shark007 codecs I can play
Matroska files - including subtitles - although the sound is at very low levels.
DVD's from Hard or Network Drive still give problems: the screen freezes a
number of times per DVD: I have to stop the movie, and start from scratch...
I'm not such a happy camper - I hoped the Windows 7 Media Experience would be
better...