I can not seem to download from my cam corder.
I am using Windows Movie Maker.
The PC seems to sense the cam corder because when I plug in the dv cable to the camera a message pops up to begin downloading, but it just stalls.
If I go in manually to download - File / Import - nothing happens.
I rebooted my PC and turned off my firewall.
Any thoughts or any freeware suggestions?

Look through these guides which have photos:

Infobase: About FireWire
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/infobase/about_firewire.html

Firewire and the Panasonic 3CCD Camcorder
http://www.pana3ccduser.com/article...-3CCD-Camcorder

I use WinDV to do the transfer of video. DVIO is another good utility. They are both easy; small; free and do not use a lot of computer resources: Easy Capture Program



Rich

__________________
FireWire Survey

There is thread on this subject either here or on www.pana3ccduser.com
I had this problem where 1 day the computer wouldn't recognize my camera being there,I think my problem was associated with Windows XP automatic updates.I am not suggesting you do this,but I tried to recall the last time I had my camera hooked up and capturing correctly.I then went to the list of automatic updates and removed the most recent ones,and for my setup it worked,and I turned off the automatic updates.Someone else had an entirely different solution for this on another thread.

but after deleting 12 updates and restarting my PC, the updates reinstalled automatically. I HATE XP.

As I said, it worked back in November...I am going to try another DV firewire cable. If that fails, I am going to cry.

I have tired movie maker and muvee by HP.
I also used Win DV without success.
Movie maker senses the device, because as soon as I plug the camera in or turn it on, movie maker wants to download, but it never finds the device. Same with muvee and Win DV.
Are ther any other importing programs I could try?

Normally if WinDV and DVIO does not work, nothing else works.

Firewire Troubleshooting

Check your Firewire setup:

1. Go into Device Manager by Right Clicking on My Computer and select "Manage".

2. Under System Tools select "Device Manager", the "Computer Management" window will open.

3. Verify you have an "IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controller". It should have a device listed. If not, you do not have a Firewire card installed or the drivers have not been installed. Install the hardware from the Control Panel by selecting "Add Hardware" and let it do a hardware scan. Follow the instructions given on the screen.

4. If you have a listing for IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controller but it has an ! (exclamation point) or ? (question mark) to the left of it, the drivers are corrupted. Expand the listing and right click on the driver for the card. Select Uninstall. Reboot the computer and let Windows detect and reinstall the driver for the hardware.

5. Right click on the host controller and select "properties" then "Troubleshoot".

Attempt to transfer video:

1. With camcorder off and in tape playback mode (VCR or VTR), plug the Firewire cable into the computer. Turn on the camcorder and verify that Windows XP

detects the camcorder. On some camcorders the computer might not detect unless you switch the camcorder from one mode to another. Switch the camcorder to the record mode then switch it back to the tape playback mode (VCR or VTR).

2. Make sure you have a recorded tape in your camcorder.

3. Turn your camcorder to the VCR or VTR mode.

4. I would try WinDV or DVIO in this thread Easy Capture Program to try to transfer video from your camcorder to computer.

5. Reboot your system before you attempt to transfer your video.

6. Do not run any other programs during capture. You should not be doing anything else with your computer during capture. Other programs can easily interrupt the high rate of data flow to the hard disk during capture that can cause dropped frames. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and view the Task Manager to see a list of applications that are running. Any unnecessary operations can be stopped by selecting the process and clicking the End Task button.

7. If all of the above does not work Click on "Start" on your task bar, then select "Run..." enter the following line in the "Open.." box:

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\qdv.dll
(you can copy and paste the line in the box)

Click on "OK"
You should get a "DllRegisterServer succeeded..." message. Try capturing again.

8. If the camcorder is not detected, take the camcorder and cable to another computer with Firewire, plug in, turn on and verify the camcorder is detected.

If not, replace the cable and try again. If still no connection, the camcorder's Firewire port is probably bad. If the camcorder is detected on the other computer then there is a problem with Firewire on the first computer.

Comments:

1. "DV-In" in the camcorder display means that there is some communication between your camcorder and the computer, I have never seen DV-OUT displayed.

2. You might want to reinstall/update latest DirectX: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx Many applications use DirectX files for the Firewire IEEE 1394 transfer.

3. Try deleting the Firewire driver and let Windows detect the again camcorder.

4. You might also look at this page: http://www.pana3ccduser.com/article...-3CCD-Camcorder

5. There are many times more than one IEEE 1394 on a computer. Sometimes one in the front and some on the back. There have been several people what found that all their IEEE 1394 sockets were not connected, so try all available IEEE sockets. Sometimes there is also a socket internally on the IEEE 1394 card.

6. Windows XP comes with OHCI Firewire drivers, so drivers are not normally needed.

7. Firewire and USB are not related, just because one works does not mean the other will work.

8. For peope with Microsoft Vista, this article might help Vista and Firewire problems: http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Prob...ndFirewire.html

Rich

__________________
FireWire Survey

After reading Richis suggestions, I downloaded Easy Capture for Carr Engineering and read his directions. They key was to put the Camcorder in PLAYBACK mode. My owner's manual says to put the corder in PC mode when connecting to a PC.

Once I put the corder in playback mode everything worked.

The next problem I had was that neither Movie Maker or Muvee recognized the AVI format that DVIO was giving me. I found that I had a copy of Roxio My DVD Basic 9 that could copy in AVI or MPEG2. Once I select MPEG2 format all my programs recognized my video files and I was able to captue my daughter's gymnastic meets from the cam corder.

Thanks again, everyone.

The one good thing was that I orignally bought my DV cable from Staples for $39 last November, and thinking it was a bad cable found one on ebay for $0.99 plus $5.00 shipping. So I ordered an extra cable.

Thanks again!

Glad you got it going,restores our faith in technology when it works.