When I hook up my Camcorder to my PC via USB Cable (Camcorder says USB Straming) and/or Firewire, the software which came with the Camcorder Picture Package ver 1.0) imports the Video onto my PC. However, Windows XP does detect it as Hardware, but does not assign it a drive. For example, when I plug in my Still Camera, it will show up in "MY COMPUTER" as G: Sony Memeory Device. With my camcorder, even though WIndows detects it, no Drive is assigned. I want to edit it using Pinnacle Studio 9.1.0.429 but it appears Studio is searching my Drives (C, D, E, etc) for a Camcorder but not finding it. The fact that I can actually get the Videos from my Camcorder onto my PC gives me hope, but I'm not sure if I can do what I'm trying to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Try the program winDV to capture using a firewire or Studio 9 using the firewire. Both should work aslong as you use a firewire. USB is just not up to capturing digital video.
If your video camera records to miniDV tapes, you need to connect it, to your computer, via a firewire cable. If, when connected via USB, your computer may recognize it as a webcam, and even if you can capture the video, the quality will be poor. Connecting via USB is for getting pictures, from your camcorder, to your PC.