Computer won't detect camcorder

[996GT2]

I just bought a Sony HC21 MiniDV camcorder...I successfully connected it to an older dell computer and transferred some video to it. However, when I try to connect it to my new computer via FireWire (old comp doesnt have), it won't recognize anything. So I tried connecting it with USB on my new computer, and nothing worked even after the drivers were installed...my new computer is homebrew....3.2 P4 running WinXP pro...

Also, the video size is HUGE...a 19 second video clip took 130mb in .avi format...is there a way to have smaller filesizes?

Anyone have ideas?

 

[996GT2]

Nobody knows?

 

[QueBert]

do you have more then 1 firewire cable? It might be a cable problem, and not something in WIN or the Camera.

about file size, you process and compress it after it's been brought into your PC. Virtualdub does an excellent job. There might app's that do this automatically durring the Cam-PC xfer process, but I haven't seen one. The video is xfered uncompressed from the camera, that's why it's so big. Compress it down with DiVX or something and 19 seconds of video will go from 130 megs to almost nothing.

also just because the PC has a Firewire port, doesn't mean it's enabled. Check in your control panel/system to make sure it's a listed device. If you don't see it, reboot, go into your bois at the POST (press DEL usually) and check for a firewire enable/disable option.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Connecting a camcorder via firewire and USB is completely different. When you connect via USB all you can transfer are stills and low quality video clips. Usually the the camcorder appears as a removable hard drive.

When you connect via Firewire you DO NOT have access to stills and video clips - you will not see a remov able drive added to My Computer. Firewire establishes a connection to the digital tape for real-time video capture only. You need to run a video capture program in order to use the camcorder via firewire. For example, open Windows Movie Maker and you should be able to access anything recorded on tape on the camcorder.

You can also use this program to play videos directly from the camcorder tape to your computer screen: http://www.riverpast.com/en/prod/playdv/index.php