Hello All,

I recently purchased Premiere Elements and a Panasonic PV-GS400 Camcorder. I thought I was buying a good combination. Apparently not. I have tried every possible Panasonic Camcorder device control configuration setting, but no matter. All I get is:

"Can't Activate Recorder. Try resetting the camera"

I have an IBM Compatible system running windows XP-Pro, with native 1394 (Firewire) support built into it's ABIT AT7Max motherboard. It is of the Texas Instrument variety, and works fine with all my other firewire accessories, scanner, hard drive etc. And the DVMotion software that came with the Camera does work via the same Firewire.

I tried to call Adobe tech support, but they wanted $40 just to talk to me. Which explains why their on-line tech-support is so incomplete and difficult to navigate.

So my question is: Has anyone else had any luck with this camera and Premiere? And if so, what settings did you use? Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this?

I've had no problem capturing from my GS200 using PE into a Dell with XP. I'm not that knowledgeable on some of this stuff but it maybe your card. I would post your problem on the Adobe Premier Elements forum. I really don't think it's the camera if you can capture from other programs.

- No need to say you tried again after restart ur computer.
- try with other applications like window movie maker. Is that give you same warning.
- For IEEE1394, your device manager shows two driver or one
- Check whether your camera (NTS/PAL) and you create a same setting project (NTSC/PAL) in Premiere Elements.
- What are the other video apps u installed in ur system.

Did you ever get it to work?

I'll have a gs-400 soon and would like to use PE with it....

I hope that Brewmeister solved his problem since November...

Newmie, I use a NV-GS400 (PAL model) and Adobe Premiere Elements without any problem

My experience is limited to my PAL camcorder: I have no NTSC model for testing...

I am trying to help a friend that also has a NV-GS400 (PAL model) and we have the same problem. DVMotion that came with the camera works fine and captures both video and audio, but when we try with other software, such Vegas, it only captures video, not audio. Premiere says it cannot control the camera at all, and we are at a loss as to what this can be. Unfortunately he doesn't have an internet connection at home yet, but his computer is running Windows XP Home SP2, so there shouldn't be a driver issue I don't think? I'll attempt to download updates for the drivers from Panasonic's page and install these from CD, but still don't know what could be causing this problem. I'll keep you guys posted.

If you can't get audio with Vegas, then you are capturing using USB or some other software that creates Type 1 AVI files. Use Firewire and Vegas (and other software) will work just fine.

Thanks Guy, but we are using Firewire I think? I'll make extra sure that it's not a normal USB port we're connecting to. Weird part is that it works fine with the DVMotion or whatever the application that ships with the camera is called. There we get audio, full control of camera, and all the information about the tape and so forth and so on, it's just in Premiere or Vegas it doesn't work, and this guy really wants to use Vegas.

Sounds like the classic Type 1 vs. Type 2 AVI issue. If you capture over Firewire, Vegas, Premiere and other software that needs Type 2 will work. Alternatively, you can use DVDate to convert the Type 1 AVIs to Type 2. DVDate is freeware.