I just bought a Cannon dvd camcorder and the Roxio 8 software- after much trouble installing Roxio I finally got the program to install. My problem now is I cannot figure out how to download the movies from my camcorder to the laptop. When I click on Videowave/MYDVD it freezes and I have to shut it down. When I try to do plug and play it does not recognize my camcorder as being a device. Also- I have attached the camcorder to the laptop with the USB cable that came with it- when I read some of these postings it says I need a 1394 firewall cable. Is this the reason why nothing is working? i went to Best buy and circuit City but they both said they do not carry this cable. Please help I am so frustrated!!!

EMC 8 requires a Firewire connection to capture from DV camcorders. Your camera and PC will of course have to have a Firewire connection port. USB will not work. Of course Best Buy and Circuit City carry these cables. Maybe they should get some better informed salespersons.

Missed the part about DVD camcorder. If you have that then like Gary says in his post, Firewire does not apply.

Is it a miniDVD camcorder? Which model? I haven't see a miniDVD camcorder yet that has firewire. They normally use USB2 and should show up in Windows as an external DVD burner. If it is recognized by Windows correctly, then Media Import should be able to import from it directly. Otherwise, you shoud be able to insert the miniDVD into your computer's drive for 'capturing'. Just make sure the disc is finalized.

It is not a mini- it is the DC 40. I'm sorry- but once i put the disc from the camcorder to the computer and start Roxio- how do i download the movies I jsut took onto Roxio?

From the Canon support website:

It records to the 8cm DVDs which IS a miniDVD camcorder. Meaning it doesn't record to the large ones.

Make sure the disc is finalized and put it in your computer's DVD burner or reader. Run Media Import. Click on the VIDEO TAB. The drive should show up in the drop down list. Select it and the movies will show up below that. Select the ones you want and click CAPTURE NOW.

You can also access Media Import from inside Videowave and MyDVD from the FILE menu. Just select CAPTURE/IMPORT.

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Thanks but things are getting worse. Today when I tried to do the above suggestion I now receive the error message that the Certificate File is missing and I need to reinstall. I do not know what to try next. When I first installed Roxio- it destroyed my whole system. I shut it down and when I restarted all my icons were mssing. I had to pay 250.00 for Dell support because they said it was a software issue .'m afraid to uninstall and reinstall and that this will happen all over again. I'm sorry to be so dumb but I never had software so unuser friendly. I appreciate any hekp you can give

It sounds like possibly your computer won't handle the software. Does it exceed the minimum specifications listed for the software?

I know this is a bit late but for transferring movies from Canon DC10/20/40 to a computer, the bundled version of MyDVD for Canon is required... the instructions are in the user guide that came with the device...