Sony Z1 and Vista 64 Ultimate.
 

I can not get Prem 3 to see the Z1 on the fire-wire port.
It works fine on my windows XP64.
Any suggestions to solve the issue please.
Thanks in advance.

Check Firewire
 

Did you check if the Firewire door is working at all?
Some version of the vista doesn´t have the driver for it.
The vista ultimate is to large (more then 5 gbs), to fit into 1 DVD-R they remove a lot of driver.

For example, my vista doenst have any driver for printer and for the speech search, or help.

After that try to reinstall the Premiere.

Hope I help.

Many thanks for the reply Dan.

My system does recognise the Z1 but not in premiere.
Even my Cineform HDlink doesn't see it... but the built in windows capture software player does.
I have a feeling it maybe the mother boards built in firewire that is causing the problems

The "built in Windows capture software player" is Movie Maker HD and it will capture either HDV or DV. Are you sure that you are actually capturing HDV with Movie Maker HD? If Premiere and HDLink can't capture in HDV, then either:

1) The HDV capture driver for the Firewire port is bunged (It does come installed with Vista x64, BTW). You can try uninstalling the Firewire port and driver from the Windows Control Panel and then Windows will reinstall it, when you reboot.

-or-

2) The camcorder output is somehow set to DV mode (Not likely).

Also check the capture settings in Premiere, that make sure that you are selecting the correct capture device.