Does the remote control function only with Media Center?

Question

Hi, I was told that Vista Business is 'better' than Home Premium (stability and administrative rights), as for XP Pro. I still am not sure it is like that, but I asked the Sales Rep. to put Vista Business. Now I see it looses Media Center, which I do not know really what is it for, but I fear that the remote control will not function, or it will?

ButtonMasher · Answer

Have a look at this comparison table:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/n/choose.mspx

I've found that the only features in business not in home are builtin back up and slightly more advanced networking options. Since back up can be done by lots of 3rd party software including Microsofts OneCare Anti-virus spyware program it's not a big deal and the networking can all still be done in Home edition just certain features are easier in Business and others are easier in home. I'd go for home every time as it includes lots of features not in Business and if want to change something like file permissions it's 1 dialogue box instead of 2 or 3. If you really want everything go for Vista Ultimate but again I'd say home premium is good enough for most people.

The remote works with most media players including PowerDVD, Windows Media player, Media direct and Quicktime. Some functions only work with Media Center as they are designed for the TV functions not found in other programs.

Hope this helps.

Sergioo · Answer

This helps terrorificly! Very good! And I also have just found out that it is not as for Xp, where the Pro had a different core from the Home. Here any version has got same core... May I ask you, even if out of topic, if you think that a T7700 processor, with its just 0.2ghz more than a T7500, can give me something more or I would never notice not even a little bit if I do not use very heavy programs? I mean, generally I do not use heavy programs, my use of the pc is of a medium user, home user. But I like when I click on a window or on a program and it opens imediately, and when I can open many things at same time without problems. I will have 3 giga of ram, and I think to buy 4 even if the OS will not recognize them all, but I would have dual channel. So, let put it in this way: with 3 giga of ram (no dual channel, so, no improved access times), would I find helpfull a T7700 or I would never notice the difference with a T7500? And with 4 giga (dual channel)?

ButtonMasher · Answer

In some situations on certain systems 0.2ghz can make a difference. However on the Dell notebooks it won't be noticeable.

The reason is the speed of the ram will be the bottleneck on your performance rather than the processor. In almost any situation I can think of the speed of the ram or the harddrive will limit your performance before you will be able to take full advantage of an extra 0.2ghz of processor speed.

Ask anyone with a recent Dell XPS what their Vista WEI score is and the lowest value in most cases will be the ram or the hard drive.

If you plan to swap out the ram for faster ram (I am currently considering this) and opt to buy the Solid State or a good 7200 hard drive then maybe it might be worth while. With the 667mhz ram and a 5400 hdd I'd stick with the T7500.

Again with all my comments it's just my opinion so it's up to you.

Sergioo · Answer

Well, I have choosen a 200Giga 7200rpm HD. I have no idea of what wil they put... I hope it will be good... Ram is 667mhz, but as far as I know there is no Dell notebook yet which can mount a 800mhz, or better, which would run it at 800. In Latitutde it was so D830 (the one I am changing for an XPS)... With this of the bottleneck are you meaning that if the CPu is too fast it will send all the infos to the ram but the ram will send them to the HD at a slower speed, too slow to make the faster CPu worth the extra money (almost US$200)? But, are the 667mhz the velocity of the trasmission from ram to HD? Does it indicates te maximum amount of memory which is transferred, or just the velocity of this transfert? Because, if there is another value, the quantity of memory transferred, and this is not lowered down by some bottleneck, than it could be different... How it is? I am just supposing, I have no idea really. Anyway, I could also inform better about if on the XPS 1530 a 800mhz ram would run at 800mhz...

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Does the remote control function only with Media Center?

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