Hi Diane,

I am a computer tech and photographer, and I spent many hours on the phone
with microsoft and sony about this same issue. They keep blaming each other
for the problem. Good luck at getting it to work with vista unless you have
a 4 pin fire wire 1394. If you have read through all of the fixes, ideas
andwork arounds you have probably determined this. I have a sony dcr-trv280
cam corder with usb streaming. Thanks to both sony and miscrosoft "not
communicating" there is no fix except the fire wire in vista and above.
Anoying as it is I still dont have video streaming(something I need when I
storm chase grrrr) but was able to transfer via firewire. And also welcome
again windows 7 home premium that wont even
recognize the usb hookup. I for one dont have the money to just turn around
and buy a new cam corder with these same features. Way to go Microsoft and
Sony !! for pushing out products faster then the consumer can keep up!! and
they say
windows 7 was my idea? they sure as hell didnt ask me what I wanted LOL

"diane in seattle" wrote:

many apologies if this question has been well-answered in this thread. I
couldn't find an answer that made sense to me while trying to wade through
all the words.

Again, apologies.

I have a DCR-TRV27 Sony Handycam which I bought used. The guy didn't give me
any cables or software or guides. I've managed to download a guide & then
looked for the right software to download images to my computer.

I was ready to buy a piece of software but was unsure which cable to buy, so
I phoned Sony. The tech there said Windows Movie Maker would be fine to use
for this offloading purpose. She told me which cable to buy--the "IEEE 1394
connection or a USB 2.0 connection," as is noted in Windows Help.

So I got the cable she & Microsoft recommended & have been trying since
yesterday to download images. I get an error messages telling me my USB
device is not recognized. So of course, the drive with the camera on it is
not recognized. I can't install/connect it manually because there's no option
I can find. I look under "imaging devices" & then "Sony," but get no love
whatsoever.

So, I have the camera & the cable & the Windows MM, but am stuck, even after
going through a few scenarios in Vista Home Premium's help & support stuff.

I have connected it, then turned my computer off & back on, & other lowtech
things I've seen suggested here. I do not to my knowledge have Firewire
capability. I say this based on looking at the fitting, which is different
than any fitting I have on my HP Pavilion laptop. I'm stumped.

Can anyone help me?