Digital8 DCR-TRV255E with Windows Vista??

[Maxi32]

Hi All.

     I purchased a few years ago a Sony Digital 8 Handycam (model DCR TRV255E) and recently I have tried to download some footage which I had on cassette as I wanted to re-use the cassettes I had.  I can not place my hand on the disk that came with the camera at this time.

     So... I went to the Sony site to try and download the driver for my Windows Vista OS and found that my camera is not compatible with Vista.  Is this right? Or am I reading it wrong.  I have downloaded the driver or so I thought which put it on my C Drive and when I went to "Setup" it said it was not compatible with my OS.

     So is there anyway that I can get my camera to download my footage on to the computer? The Sony Support guy just told me I needed a Firewire cable, but when I phoned a local shop they told me that unless I have a Firewire card installed I cant use it.  Please help as I am not technically minded at all. I just want to transfer the video I have.

Thanks All.

Max

[blaireau_photo · Accepted solution]

Hello Maxi32 - Welcome to the Sony Forums

The good news is that you are not the first person to experience this issue with an older camera and a newer OS. The even better news is that you do not need to be overly technically minded to fix this ....well maybe a little bit

If you are using a desktop PC, you can purchase a relatively inexpensive FireWire card for your computer and provided that there is an appropriate expansion slot inside your PC, they are relatively straightforward to fit (they are usually supplied as PCI cards and most motherboards have one or two slots available). One example would be something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Firewire-IEEE1394-capture-Adapter-Cable/dp/B001CJ06J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid...

On the other hand, if you have a laptop computer then it all depends upon whether your machine has an expansion slot (usually referred to as a PCMCIA slot). If this is available, then you need to be looking for something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Pro-Firewire-including-connection-Camcorders/dp/B0015601N4/ref=sr_1_sc_1?...

If there is no expansion slot then this may be slightly trickier - let me know if you need more information.

Thanks,

Simon

[wilall]

Re DCR-TRV255E incompatability with Vista.

I also cannot capture my video footage on my Vista computer although I have a Firewire card installed. I also have Picture Motion Browser 5.6.02 installed.

The computer does not recognise the Handycam.

Is there any solution to this problem or do I have to write off this Handycam?

Thank you

Wilall

[blaireau_photo]

Hello wilall - Welcome to the Sony Forums

In theory, as long as your Firewire card is correctly installed, the camera should be recognised without any problems by video software. I would suggest that you download a free video software editor such as Windows Live Movie Maker as this has basic Firewire video capture capabilities - it can be downloaded from here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-live/movie-maker-get-started

It may also be worth checking that you have the correct drivers for your firewire card. If you have the original packaging for the internal card, you will be able to read the make and model number and this will allow you to search for the latest drivers on Google (these details should also be printed somewhere on the card if you are happy with opening up your PC).

Thanks,

Simon

[wilall]

Thanks Simon for your advice,

I had already tried to capture my video with Windows Live Movie Maker but failed.

After reading your advice I tried again after making sure all the cables were connected securely and lo and behold it worked, so the statement on the Sony site saying that DCR-TRV255E is incompatable with Vista is not true.

Many thanks again Simon.

Wilall