DCR-HC27E - can't seem to connect to anything!

[pdine2]

I own a 5 y.o. Handycam DCR-HC27E.   I recently decided I would transfer all of our mini-DV tapes to my PC.   I have access to 2 DELL laptops at home.  1 runs on Windows7 32-bit and the other Windows XP.

Both have USB and 4-pin IEE1394 ports on them.

Try as I might I cannot get the camera to be correctly recognised by either laptop (this is with the camera powered on in playback mode).

With the Windows 7 32bit laptop, I am attaching to the 4 pin 1394 connector on the camera and PC.  The computer does not acknowledge that any device has been plugged into it at all.  

With the Windows XP laptop, I have tried the 1394 connection - same result as with the windows 7 pc.

I have also tried a 4 pin 1394 to USB cable.   When I power on the handycam I get a device driver warning and Windows attempts to retrieve the driver itself unsuccessfully.  I can see a warning in the Windows Device Manager as well.

I attempted to download the Windows XP compatible USB driver from your website (the DVD I got with the Handycam just appears to be a movie DVD - no software on it??).   

On the support website I get to this page: http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/topics/landing/usbdrven

The drop-down list for DV camcorders has drivers for the HC26E and the HC30E, but not the HC27E.

I tried installing the HC27E and HC30E drivers, but it didnt make any difference at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Paul

[blaireau_photo]

Hello Paul - Welcome to the Sony Forums

One of the features of a Firewire connection (the 1394 connection) is that usually, as long as the Firewire card is installed correctly in a computer there are no further drivers needed to connect a compatible device (unlike USB, where every new device requires specific drivers). On your Dell computer(s), have you tried connecting the camera to the PC over Firewire, then opening software such as the free Windows Movie Maker and then switching on the camcorder to see if this enables the device to be recognised by your computer? Doing it in this exact order may help.

Thanks,

Simon

[pdine2]

Thankyou for your reply.   Unfortunately no amount of messing around with the windows IEEE1394 driver could get my pc from recognising the Sony camcorder.  In the end I attached it to one of my work's Apple Macs and it worked straight away.

[Mick2011 · Accepted solution]

I may get shot down for saying this, but it does seem that Windows implementation of 1394 has historically been something of a travesty of driver re-writes etc, while the Mac has always just got on famously with it

If people are having trouble with Firewire connectivity I often suggest they try connecting to a Mac... if it connects, the problem lies with the PC and can often be fixed by reinstalling drivers.

Your experience bears out the value of this troubleshooting route. Some time ago I offered this solution to a W7 user and it worked; might be worth a try http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Firewire-1.htm

Cheers

Mick

[pdine2]

Thankyou for the link.   Unfortunately I had already tried switching to the legacy 1394 driver in Windows7.   However I did notice the following paragraph in that webpage:

"If you are still having a problem importing video after you have switched the Firewire driver to Legacy, then the problem may be with the Firewire port.  This is a common problem.  The Firewire port will work with an external driver, but it won't let you import video from your video camera.  Most people report this problem with Dell computer, but it does happen with other brands, even brand new computers.  This problem is usually with the Firewire port that is built into the motherboard."

In my case, both PCs were Dell laptops, so perhaps that explains it. 

I only really needed to get a temporary connection to the camcorder, as I wanted to convert my tapes to MP4's before I get rid of the camcorder (my Sony NEX camera does filming duties these days).  Had I intended keeping this camera I would have tried using a cardbus Firewire adapter.

Once again, thankyou to those who have taken the time to contribute.

[Mick2011]

That's an interesting & useful observation Paul, thanks for updating us

Cheers

Mick