How can I hook my sony video camera up to the computer?

Question

I lost the CD and tried to download the softwear from sony.com but it says" there are no programs requiring updating on this computer. Confirm that programs that can be updated are installed and try again." I don't know what else to do.

Answer 1

Check the Sony support site for your camera using the link below............

Answer 2

You have not provided enough detail. You do not need the Sony CD.

If it is a miniDV or Digital8 tape based camcorder and you are using trying to use USB to transfer the video, that's not going to happen. You need to use the firewire400 (IEEE1304a, i.Link - all the same thing) port on your computer with a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable connected to the DV port of the camcorder - USB won't work. USB is used only for transferring the stills off the memory card. If you don't have a Firewire 400 port, adding one is typically very easy. Then Capture the video with MovieMaker and edit.

If the camcorder is DVD based, hopefully your computer has a drawer loading DVD drive. Rip the DVD with Handbrake:

http://handbrake.fr/

If the camcorder has a slot loading drive or cannot handle DVDs (does only CDs, or uses an analog format - VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, etc. to store to tape, you will need to get an analog/digital bridge from Pinnacle (Dazzle) which connects to your computer using USB or one from Canopus which connects to your computer using Firewire.

If it is some other camcorder, you need to tell us more detail.