PC can not detect Dv recorder

[dazedandamused]

Hello...I recently purchased a Panasonic PV-gs80...great little dv recorder...but I can not get it connected to my PC....I have firewire & a 1394 ieee compatible pci card, but still nothing. The manual calls for a "Panasonic DV Cable"...I don't have that just a 4-6 pin firewire cable. When I connect to the PC, it is just not able to find the device. Everything I can find online tells me there is no difference in the cables...I am at a loss...& ...Very frustrated...any thoughts?

[MOVIEGEEK]

The cable is fine,make sure the camcorder is on and reboot your PC.
Use WinDV to transfer the video.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Have a read of this document I wrote a while ago to help with DV connectivity problems. Please report back your findings...

http://www.enosoft.net/dl.php?filename=dv_connectivity.pdf

Note, if your PC isn't recognizing the camcorder (it doesn't show up in Device Manager) then no software whatsoever will be able to help. This means Windows Movie Maker, WinDV, our DV processor, DVDate, Scenalyzer, VLC, Vegas, Premiere yada-yada. They all use the same Windows components to do the actual capture. They differ only in their user interfaces and additional features. On XP, the easiest, quickest and most reliable way to see if the camcorder is visible is to open My Computer and see if there is a "drive" for the camcorder. If so, the camcorder has been recognized. Opening the "drive" should show a window with the video inside it (if a tape is playing or you are using camera mode). This is described in the document.

[dazedandamused]

Thanks Moviegeek...it was that simple...wierd thing is I had already done that several time with no luck...this time it picked it right up.....life is good when your "things" work....a BIG THANK YOU!

[MOVIEGEEK]

You're welcome.