Connecting Camcoder to a laptop

beancounter1968

Hi

My girlfriend has just bought me a Sony DCR-HC51E camcorder. Various descriptions of this camera suggest it can connect to a PC but the cables and software were not part of the packing lists. I have worked out that I need a firewire as both camera and laptop have the 1394 ports but now I am stuck as to what driver/software I need to make them talk to each other. I am using a 18 month old laptop with windows XP. Xp is regularly updated.

Thank you for reading and any help would be most appreciated

Thanks

Phil

scheming_gypsy

depends what you want to do really. If you want to connect the cam corder to the laptop and copy files off you might not need any software as it may just add it as an additional drive letter.

Best bet is to connect and see what happens, worst it will ask for is a driver which you shoul be able to download from the Sony website.

bob_a_builder

I have a panasonic camcorder
It works for me by just connecting it via firewire cable
Then starting Movie Maker (standard part of XP) , it auto detected the camera, no driver reqd.
can then import & edit video with that software

turbobob

Yes no drivers are required. Windows Movie Maker is good enough to copy video to the hard drive and do the basics. If you want to perform more sophisticated editing then you can get software that will do this.

beancounter1968

All connected up but nothing. I got the firewire (cheap) on ebay and it arrived today. When the camera switches on, the laptop does not make any sound or acknowledge any change.

alanwjones

Faulty cable? try opening Windows movie maker, click on capture from device see if it fires up. Alan.