[clamer]

Hey my friend has a Sony DCRHC21 Camcorder and we recorded a whole lot of video on it that we would like to put on my computer to edit because he doesn't have a computer (shocking I know). So heres the deal, the only cable he has for it is the usb, when I plug it into the computer it recognizes it and sais "Locate and install driver software?" so I click it and it searches and doesn't find anything...So then it sais "Check for a solution" I click it and it sais "Sony Handycam DCR-30 is not compatible with this version of windows" I've tried going to "My Computer" and then scrolling down to a folder that sais "Sony usb" its the folder and it has a setup and installation. When I finish the installation it sais "Do you want to restart you computer now or later?" I click now, it restarts, and nothing changes. I've also seen alot of different software downloads around but I dont know what they mean so I dont wanna go downloading a bunch of stuff I dont need. Now I've looked all over the internet and theres lots of people who have this problem too, in fact theres some old threads on this website. But they're all very confusing, I'm not the most techy person but I do understand some stuff. So does anyone know the answer to this problem and can explain it slowly and simply? Im assuming that it doesn't work with vista because the model might have come out before vista did...I cant find it on the sony website either although there are quite similar camcorders. Im getting pretty frustrated with this , please help me.

Thanks, we just wanna edit our biking video...

[jaymac]

Hi well you cant do it with a usb cable you need a firewire cable and your PC has to have a firewire card instaled.Check this either visually for a socket or go into device manager,Right click on My computer >properties >hardware>device manager you should see in the list
Something like IEEE 1394 if you have then you have Firewire installed .If not you need to installl one not expensive and a cable often comes with the card

[clamer]

Originally Posted by jaymac

Hi well you cant do it with a usb cable you need a firewire cable and your PC has to have a firewire card instaled.Check this either visually for a socket or go into device manager,Right click on My computer >properties >hardware>device manager you should see in the list
Something like IEEE 1394 if you have then you have Firewire installed .If not you need to installl one not expensive and a cable often comes with the card

Ok so I do have the port. How expensive are they usually?

[jaymac]

Originally Posted by clamer

Ok so I do have the port. How expensive are they usually?

Presume you mean you have firewire installed and not just aport then a cable is less than aTenner Check out on google for plenty sources. Word of caution do not hot plug like usb the safe way is pc and Cam off connect cable to both switch on pc then when its up and running switch on the cam with play mode selected .You can get away with ignoring this but you can also fry the lead /card or cam
firewire cable - Google Search

[clamer]

Originally Posted by jaymac

Presume you mean you have firewire installed and not just aport then a cable is less than aTenner Check out on google for plenty sources. Word of caution do not hot plug like usb the safe way is pc and Cam off connect cable to both switch on pc then when its up and running switch on the cam with play mode selected .You can get away with ignoring this but you can also fry the lead /card or cam
firewire cable - Google Search

What do you mean installed? I looked through the list and I did have the IEEE thing. Do I need to purchase a firewire program?

[jaymac]

Originally Posted by clamer

What do you mean installed? I looked through the list and I did have the IEEE thing. Do I need to purchase a firewire program?

No you dont need aprogramme If it shows installed I only meant you only mentioned a Port.All you need is a cable now

[clamer]

Originally Posted by jaymac

No you dont need aprogramme If it shows installed I only meant you only mentioned a Port.All you need is a cable now

Oh okay, everyone sais firewires are expensive though. And I just looked on ebay and they were only $10 with free shipping. If you buy the port are they expensive?

[mmace]

Originally Posted by clamer

Oh okay, everyone sais firewires are expensive though. And I just looked on ebay and they were only $10 with free shipping. If you buy the port are they expensive?

you have a firewire port, just buy a cheap cable

A PCI firewire card is very cheap if you're still bothered (£8.50 - Extra Value PCI Firewire 1394A Card with 3 External and 1 Internal Port OEM - Ebuyer)

[senu]

Originally Posted by mmace

you have a firewire port, just buy a cheap cable

A PCI firewire card is very cheap if you're still bothered (£8.50 - Extra Value PCI Firewire 1394A Card with 3 External and 1 Internal Port OEM - Ebuyer)

And the cards tend to come with a cable too
As for firewire being " expensive"? Just who is everybody?

[clamer]

Originally Posted by senu

And the cards tend to come with a cable too
As for firewire being " expensive"? Just who is everybody?

Ok so I bought a firewire today and did exactly what you said but nothing is happening.

[senu]

Originally Posted by clamer

Ok so I bought a firewire today and did exactly what you said but nothing is happening.

When you say you bought firewire do you mean a cable?

There are a few reasons why a camcorder connected to a PC by firewire may not be recognised
The cable may be faulty or connection loose
The card on the PC may be faulty or not seated well
The camcorders own fire wire port may be faulty
The camcoder may need to be in Play (mode) or need a menu setting to be DV out enabled

The only way to find out is by a little trial and error.
The main original point being that the firewire should be enabled within devices manager in Windows , Windows ( any flavour since 98SE) has firewire drivers

[subbu68]

I am having the same problem with my Panasonic mini DV Camcorder NV GS85. It works fine with my laptop running XP Home. As laptop has only 521MB RAM and 30GB HDD made a PC with E6750 proc and Intel DG33BU Mobo, 2GB RAM and 500+80GB HDD. Without checking out I took a plunge with Vista Home Premium. The onboard Firewire has never recogonised my DV Cam though the Device manager has the IEEE 1394 port on it and working but no DV Cam in Imaging Devices. Last two years I am using the XP laptop to capture AVI files from the cam on portable HDD and transferring to my desktop to edit and burn on DVD.

If you googled DV Cam compatibility with Vista you would see a lot of people writing the same. Tried all sorts of solutions suggested (even by MS to edit the driver file with a Enumerate code). Still you can see some are lucky to have their DV Cams working on Vista.

As I have the firewire port 'alive' on the Device Manager I do not want to get another one.

Any suggestion other than having XP also on board the PC (if I got it in the market)?

[senu]

just out of interest, could this be a Panasonic/Vista issue? There was a Panasonic /Xp issue in the early days which a patch sorted out
I know the poster above has a Sony but My Sony HDV camcorders have worked fine so far .
I will test an old Sony Digital 8 on it in a minute to see what happens.

[subbu68]

Originally Posted by senu

just out of interest, could this be a Panasonic/Vista issue? There was a Panasonic /Xp issue in the early days which a patch sorted out
I know the poster above has a Sony but My Sony HDV camcorders have worked fine so far .
I will test an old Sony Digital 8 on it in a minute to see what happens.

I first thought it was Pana/Vista issue. But Pana say it works on Vista as there isn't any special driver for this cam.

I think it is something to do with the speed of Firewire as DV Cams are supposed to work on IEEE 1394 at 100MBps. Whereas it looks like Vista 32bit supports only IEEE 1394a - 400MBps. MS have on their site a couple of solutions but none worked. I tried editing driver, setting Sidspeed to 100MBps etc. No luck.

I also read that some who have older build versions (5270 or so) of Vista have their DV Cams working but mine is Build 6XXX or so. some have posted that it works on Ultimate not on Home Premiums, others have been lucky to have their DV Cams work on 32bit versions of Vista. Perhaps I should not have assumed Vista would take older devices without trouble.

[senu]

Strange, this one is a 6001 build Home Premium and it works fine with 3 different camcorders (All Sony I hasten to add)