32-bit v. 64-bit for a Media PC

I have a PC that I am updating from Vista to Win 7 finally. Its been a slow project stalled for among other things, buying and moving into a new house.

Anyway it was going to be a HTPC initially but because of some compromises, I'm going to re-scope it and make it a Media server, sort of. It will record media and manage it, but I won't display/play directly from it. I have networked enabled devices that can do that for me now. 2 years ago when I first started that wasn't the case.

Anyway 2 years ago there was some concern over codecs for various media for 64-bit at the time. So I went with 32-bit on that machine.

Should I stay 32=bit or go 64-bit? I have 4 Gb ram and no immediate plans to upgrade it but don't want to rule it out so I'm leaning to go 64-bit. That's unless 32-bit is still preferred for compatibility/codec reasons.

software now if it supports 32bit then it will support 64bit, i would go 64bit

I went back to Win 32 (... from Win64) because a chunk of my videos (saved web content, like stuff from Youtube, etc) and some MKVs with subtitles wouldn't play properly and it was a still a headache getting them to play in WMC.

The 32bit installers for these codecs worked just fine in most separate frontend apps like XBMC or (better yet) Media Portal. If I was using something other then WMC (64) it would have been fine.

w7 64 bit works fine for me, but all i use media center for is to play back its own recordings, and amazon unbox videos once in a while.

I've heard the various codec packs for your nonstandard video may not behave as well under 64bit.

I run 64-bit, WMC only, and have had various playback problems from time to time. I made peace with it and have no plans to change my setup, but if I had to do it all over again I probably would opt for 32 bit.

i can confirm that 64 bit is much better now. just make sure you install both 32 and 64 codecs.

almost every 64 bit codec is out of beta and solid.

64bit...but I don't use WMC =P

Everything I've come across plays in x64, with appropriate codecs (I use shark007). I mostly just use WMC to watch my blu-ray rips though. To get a Vista or Win 7 certification, software/hardware must support x64, so I think it's probably safe for most anyone to go x64 nowadays.

I tried 64-bit install and there was no HMDI sound. It had worked previously out of the box like a charm with 32-bit Vista. I tried updating driver and downgrading drivers for the chipset and audio and no luck. I was also getting some blue screens, too.

I gave up and installed 32-bit Win7 and had sound out of the box and its seems to be stable. It will still probably do its job. I had plans to add some upgrades to this machine, but now I'm just going to leave it as is and it should still do fine.