I'm still on the fence on this one. I love the Media Center 2005 UI, and even though I've seen the Vista one on YouTube I'm still not sold. But maby when I get to try it out I'll be convinced.

Apart from the UI change, the now included Mpeg2 decoder and the fact that it's prob more stable, what other benefits are there?

Also, what's gona happen to all the plugin's? Will all the developers have to bring out a vista version? I couldn't live without 'My Movies'!

I have a Vista RC2 box sitting next to me waiting on the arial to be fitted on Friday and a Nova-T-500 to arrive on the same day. Then off I go :).

Got the XBox 360 ready in the living room and watching and waiting for something a decent MCX box for the bedroom.

Yeah I like the interface better on vista mce, and the my music is wayyyy better than MCE 2005.  I just hope all my hardware works!  Still having audio issues, and video is jerky.

I'm really liking the new look Vista MCE. The main menu is pretty swish, and being able to browse through album art covers when using the music library is a real nice idea.

Also, when you access the menu whilst watching a movie or TV you can still see it playing in the background....

It all depends on hardware drivers for me, but at present I'm pretty happy with Vista MCE!

I use Media Center for my daily viewing, and wasn't having much luck w/ Vista until RC1. I've had RC2 installed since last weekend, and am quite pleased. I was able to get the 2 addons that are available (Webmedia & TAPI Rex mce) working as well.  
This is w/ the 32 bit OS, not much luck w/ 64 bit due to lack of driver support, as usual.
I'm hooked on the mini guide surfing.
My only complaint is that I had to put all my divx videos in their own folders, so that I could see the titles before I actually scrolled to them in the library.
Would I buy? Not at $299, but if I can get one of my MS buddies to come up w/ a better deal...

I loaded it up, but my onboard soundcard did not work.  I have since purchased an external SB Live (USB) but have heard about alot of problems with that one, and have not attempted it again.  My MCE 2005 is running really nicely, has been up for about 2 weeks now without any problems...if Vista can match that and work with sound cards better, I will perhaps switch.

Problems I see involve the DVDs not playing on windows any longer if the MPAA has their way, and the DRM that is supposedly in Vista.  I will fully test before I upgrade (which will probably mean new hardware)

I only had MCE 2004 before and I  was fine with it. I Installed RC2 and for me its an upgrage with MCE Vista everything works fine. I've also installed Web Guide for Vista and that works fine also. I was able to schedule a program to record from my office computer.
One thing I miss  that MCE 2004 had that I can not find on MCE Vista . IS when I pressed the Guide button on the Remote twice I would get another screen that would allow me to chose Sports (and be able to see a listing of all spots activities )as well as MOVIES etc. So far I can't find this function on MCE Vista.
MY bad I found it (Its under Categories on the left of the guide) Now I'm happier than I was before.

Bottom line is that MCE Vista with RC2 works fine for me In my Music I can see all my album covers.
Everything works for me with RC2 except one. MY CD/DVD drive is not been detected. worst case scenerio I'll get an external Drive

Over the past week I have got a great amount of feedback (more feedback) from my question about switch

I have installed the RTM release on a test box and have noticed that going to "pictures and videos" and browsing to my ripped dvd video share, and selecting a movie... instead of bringing up the movie, brings up audio_ts and video_ts... ok, I select video_ts... no videos found.  Whats up?  

P.S.  I see that with version 2.10 and up no special install instructions are required for my movies.. but the download section only has 2.00.

There is a registry key that you need to enable to support VIDEO_TS playback.  You can search the forum for it (sorry, don't have the link with me).

Version 2.10 (beta) can be found in the My Movies forums.

As an avid MCE user I have switched, but am not 100% sure yet.

I have posted a review at:

http://jritmeijer.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8A48A27460FB898A!788.entry