Sony Vaio Does Not Work With Gl2!
 

i just perchaced a canon gl2 last wensday, and i realized that the camera was not being recognized by my computer. i have a sony vaio desktop computer, that was supposedly optimized for video editing. i had a digital 8 sony camcorder for about six months, along with this computer, and it worked fine. now after purchasing the gl2, i realized that my sony vaio computer's device control is set up to only accept sony products. i have spent hours on the phone with sony who has repeatedly told me there is no such problem with these computers. if you look on google, you will find hundreds of similar problems. canon was helpful, but they could not get very specific on what i should do. if anyone has any ideas on how to proceed, please post. i am thinking it may be a problem with the DV Device control 2.0, but i cant find any software to replace it. thanks.

That's funny; I have a Sony Vaio PCG-GR250 with Windows XP and it recognized a Canon Optura Pi, Canon Elura 40MC and Canon ZR45MC when connected by FireWire. I have not tried it with a GL2 though.

Other than hook up and turn on the cam before switching on the computer the only other thing I can think of is to download free trial software OTHER than Sony software. Try Sonic Foundry or other video software. The codecs you download automatically with the software may even enable your Sony software. I have heard bad thinks about Sony's software before, I think. Good luck.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/newshowproduct.asp?PID=490

Look for "Demo Version" on right side of web page.

Also you may want to put "Power DVD" into a search engine and get a free download. This media player beats Windows Media Player hands down in my book, especially at playing MPEG2 clips; you can even string clips together and run them as a movie.

Hope that helps.

Vaio Compatibility
 

Just for the record. I have been using a GL1 with a Vaio PCG-FX220 laptop for the past 6 months without any problems. It was true plug and play.

could just be the sony software ... i think sony switched over their I-link (1394) to be OHCI about a year and 1/2 ago .. any sony computer before that needed to down load a software patch ( canopus , sonic foundry has em ) so you could switch the I-link to be used with other capture utilites ...

as suggested you might down load trials of Vegas or Premiere and use their capture utility to see if it works ...

Yup
 

the Sony software only works with the Sony Cams. I have an unregisterd copy of Vegas Video (2.0) you can have for $150, and it should be upgradeable to 3.0 for a decent price
Mark

Used to be a computer tech in a former life. These kinds of problems are always software related. A firewire port is a firewire port is a firewire port. It would be the Sony software being a little dictatorial in this case. It may have even corrupted your Windows' built in firewire drivers to make it that much tougher for you to use a non-Sony cam. Gotta love Sony... they're like the Microsoft of Japan.