I wish I was more familiar with Vista. But I was thinking, is there a software package that came with the camera. Maybe that's the way you interface with it. I know, kinda lame answer.

the sw package only works for still images believe it or not.

Make sure the drivers/software are rated for Vista, not just XP. Check Canon's website for updated software. Is it supposed to show up as an external drive? Suggestions: check with another computer; reinstall drivers/software.

Here's the deal ... firewired DV (or most other tape-based) video cameras lead a double life.

On the one hand, it is possible to pull still images from the camera via firewire, provided the device has that functionality and the computer sees the device as an external drive.

On the other, you're dealing with a device that can only provide moving images by playing-back the tape. To get those movies into your computer, you're going to need software that not only recognizes the device (most likely as a DV Camera), but can tell the device to play, f-fwd and rewind. For the most part, this software is not free.

Some possible software options: Corel VideoStudio X2 (formerly Ulead Video Studio) ($79.95, free trial), Adobe Premiere Elements ($139, free trial). The free trial for Adobe is fully functional for 30 (or maybe 60) days, so that might be your best option for a one-shot retrieval. I'm using the older Ulead Video Studio 10 (or maybe it's 9) that came with my firewire card and it works like a champ, but I've used Premiere as well with good results.

There are a handful of Open Source softwares, but most are either Linux-only (Kino) or the projects have been abandoned for quite some time (Jahshaka).

Oh, yeah, streaming... My tape-based video camera streams to the computer via usb. I can use standard windows movie maker software to capture the video (on XP at least).

We sorted it out, with HDVSplit and ffdshow! TAPE, I don't understand it!

Tape is slowing giving way to solid-state memory but the biggest downside is the cost. Tape is cheap (fairly) reliable and well-understood technology. Solid state is gaining ground but you have to dump to your hard drive every few minutes. Which means offline storage is now a hard drive instead of a tape, so there's even more expense. The upside is once on the HD you don't have to capture it again. The downside is you can't capture it again.