Hoping someone can help on this weird problem. I have a Sony Handycam DCR-PC9 for quite a few years. I moved a few years ago and my recorded miniDV tapes have been in a box. I decided to transfer the tapes to my computer and put the content on DVDs and accessed by my home media PC. The camera has been kept in good shape and it immediately fired up and all fucntions work very well (VCR, record, memory stick) - except getting the Handycam connected to a PC. I have used three different computers (Vista and XP), USB and Firewire, different cables, resetting the Handycam using the reset button. I have the camera connected via USB or Firewire, turn it on, turn on to VCR mode - and nothing. I know this used to work, but it's been a while. Is there something I'm overlooking? Is it common that the first thing to go on a digital camcorder are the digital connection ports? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm want to get the data off the tape using Windows Movie Maker. But even before using Movie Maker, once the DV Handycam is connected using either USB or Firewire, Windows (XP or Vista) will alert you that the camera is connected and it can be seen in the Device Manager or Control Panel. Neither of those things happen and using Movie Maker, the software just returns a message saying no input device can be found. I have confirmed that it is a problem with the camera's connectivity ports as I borrowed a DV camcorder from a friend last night and my computers immediately recognized it and installed it using the same cables I was using with my Handycam. I was then able to use it to download media data from my DV tapes into Movie Maker. If anyone knows if this is easily fixed or it's possible that a setting is preventing the connectivity, please give advice. The camera works perfectly except for the connectivity.
There is no question what I would do first. Read your owner's manual, and if you don't find anything there, contact Sony. Just thinking about this, again. This is not meant to insult, in any way, but did you have the Sony set to playback mode?
