I've a Canon MV550i which I'm hoping to edit footage using Adobe premier pro. Only problem is that my Laptop which is operating XP, aint seeing the camcorder device.

Do I need a special cable other than the USB one supplied. I'm reading some articles that suggest the supplied cable will only enable stills to be shared.

My PC does have a IEEE 1394 firewire port, and the camcorder has a mini USB-b. Though aint came across a sinble cable that complies to this setup.

Desperately In need of some guidance before I loose my patience

[MarkE19]

Welcome to the forum and the highly confusing world of video editing!

Camcorder makers should be shot for the complete lack of information supplied for editing on a PC. It is true that you can not get full quality video onto the PC via USB. This will only give webcam type quality or still images. You need a firewire cable (6 pin to 4 pin for around £8 online) to connect from the dedicated firewire port on your cam and PC. The USB port/cable are not used for video transfer at all. The port on the cam may be labelled as DV-out, ieee1394 or if a Sony could be iLink or similar (I told you it was confusing ).

And I must say that if getting the cam connected to the PC is confusing then wait until you start to try and use Premiere. It's a great program and what I mainly use but is far from easy to get to grips with. As you are running Windows XP I suggest that at least for starters you use the free Movie Maker software that comes as part of XP. Make sure you have the free upgrade to MM2. This is about the easiest program to get started with and will do all you need to get going. Further help can be had from the very good www.papajohn.org web site that gives very erasy to follow step by instructions for MM2.

Good luck,
Mark.