How can I get my Panasonic pv-gs 300 camcorder to work with windows vista?

Question

I tried to install the software that came with my gs300 camcorder and it said not compatible with this version of windows. Is there a way to make it compatible? Is there an update or something for the software to make it compatible with windows vista? I know the Panasonic ps-gs 320 has software compatible with vista. Can I somehow use that software with my camcorder? Thanks.

Answer 1

Panasonic and Vista are not compatible, you can go to the panasonic website and see if they have a compatible driver. Once you have a driver, then if this camera is a dv camcorder then...Your dv camcorder needs a firewire connection (ieee 1394) in order to download video, your PC probably did not come with a firewire port, so you will have to buy one and install it, since most computers (except possibly brand new) don't come with a firewire port, your camcorder did not come with a firewire cord so you have to purchase a cord too. Your camcorder did come with a USB cord and that is used for downloading stills from your camcorder.

If it's a DVD camcorder your DVD must be finalized in the camera before you can play it on a DVD player.

Answer 2

If you had a working firewire port on the computer you would not need to use the software on the CD. Installing one is typically easy to do.

Once that firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link) port is operational, additional camera-specific drivers are not needed. You will also need a firewire cable: 4-pin (camcorder DV port) and either 4-pin or 6-pin (computer firewire port).

USB is used ONLY for transferring stills from the memory card (if the camera has one) or webstreaming (if it has that capability - most camcorders do not).