My best advice to you is: download all your current software & drivers and make sure they can run on Win7.
-Do not try to clean install with an upgrade disc, it won't work. Its not like the old days when they just ask you to insert the windows disc to verify you have a copy. It must be loaded on your machine and activated.
-I couldn't get the IR blasters to work right on my 2 Comcast STBs. Win7 never recognized my remote so it could not change channels
-Recorded TV is in a wierd format *.WTV, but now I find its pretty simple to convert them back to *.DVR-MS, I'm not sure how much extra time it will take though, as I said I went back to Vista
-I could never get the home network to see my two XP machines. I guess Win7 is suposed to be on all machines with Homegroups.
-more security was added, what a pain and no OFF switch I could find. Oh right, all machines need to be Win7.
-My network drives software wouldn't load and said I need the min of WinXP sp1 for it to operate, so I couldn't read my backups. I bought the pro ver so I could have WinXP compatability mode, but I couldn't find anything like that.
At this point I gave up and loaded Vista back on. Now I'm at the point of loading all my software back on and foolishly thinking about trying Win7 again and telling myself NOOOOO, not until these issues are addressed...
So maybe when Win8 is released, Win7 will be up to par...
MCEGuy...I could never get the home network to see my two XP machines. I guess Win7 is suposed to be on all machines with Homegroups.
MCEGuy, did you check the name of the Workgroup? IIRC, the default Workgroup name in XP was 'MSHOME', whereas in Vista/7, it's now 'WORKGROUP'. Machines on the same network in different workgroups will often have trouble seeing each other.
In response to the OP, the only major problem I've experienced with 7 is the annoying waking from standby/not going back to sleep issue. MS seem to be working on this so I'm not going to abandon 7 just yet.
There's nothing wrong with those specs at all. I would ask what graphics card you're using, but if you're already running Blu-ray, it should be fine.
With regards to NAS pics etc, I'm afraid I don't have any experience with those at all, so I can't really comment.
As for playing Blu-ray in Windows 7, unfortunately because of the excessive licensing costs, blu-ray playback is not built-in by default. There are free codecs available, but I use a (paid for) application called Total Media Theatre 3 (TMT3). It's an excellent app and integrates very well with My Movies.
Your specs are good and using a NAS won't be a problem either. Just check your tuners to ensure they work w/ W7. As mentioned you'll still need a 3rd party software for Blu-ray but the two popular, TMT3 and Power DVD 9, integrate with Media Center and the native Movie Library relatively well. TMT3 has a slight edge in integration as it can playback from disc w/o having to rip to ISO.
I'd recommend doing a fresh install if possible instead of an in-place upgrade. W7 has vastly improved in-place upgrades but a HTPC isn't something I'd want to risk being unstable.
The waking up from S3 sleep issue has been a problem since the 1st available beta!
MCE Standby Tool...
http://slicksolutions.eu/
That was the first thing I was trying to find and they moved it or maybe I forgot where it is, so the only thing win7 said was "I needed to form or join or create a workgroup". It also said something about "I needed to go to each station and join the same group", which I already know from experience. You will never see any machine outside of your group(ran into that before).
If you could show me a screen shot or give me the links I need to select(follow) then maybe I will find it next time I decide to try Win7, now that just leaves my network drives and Netgear says it has no eta on software update.
Thanks for the responce though,