Can someone tell me if the Poloroid PDC 301 webcam and JVC DVL160EG camcorder are...

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hkgant

New Member
plug 'n' play? I can get the webcam recognised by Windows XP and Vista in Amcap but it doesn't show what it sees. The light comes on when I connect it to my Mac but it doesn't appear to work in aMsn, iMovie or Image Capture. I tried installing the driver which came with it on the Vista and XP machines and it didn't work. How could I get it to work or where could I get another driver for it (either for XP, Vista or OS X)?

On the other hand, the camcorder I checked is plug 'n' play on an iMac PowerPC G5 and Mac OS X 10.5.6 with iMovie 8.0.1. I used my Mac - which obviously has a 6-pin Firewire 400 port built-in - I had no problems. This isn't the case with XP SP3 or Vista SP1 though. I tried connecting the camcorder to the Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 boxes using a 4-pin Firewire to USBa adapter (cos it doesn't have a Firewire 400 port built-in) to no avail - but I still am getting confusing messages from what I read online about whether this is possible. When I connected it to these Windows machines, I got showed promising messages (the Found New Hardware pop-up). But then it said "unknown device installed" and something along the lines of "this USB device is malfunctioning." I can't remember what order these last two messages were shown in. How can I make this thing work on Windows? I don't have the CD and the JVC America site is useless.

Is this a classic case of the Mac being a better OS than Windows or I am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.
 
lawson_jl

lawson_jl

New Member
The sort of the story:
If you are using Firewire then you don't need any drivers, Firewire video cameras are plug and play.

If your using USB you need drivers for the device to work.

This applies to both Mac and Windows.
 
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hkgant

New Member
You're sure about this? Even in this day and age? But my Firewire DV cam didn't plug and play on the PC!
 
lawson_jl

lawson_jl

New Member
You said you used a Firewire to USB plug on the PC. So you didn't connect it via Firewire you connected it via USB which is not plug and play. While people say USB is plug and play most devices beyond a mass storage devices or Human Interface Device need a driver, so that's not really plug and play.
 
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hkgant

New Member
The result was that I bought a 6-pin Firewire 400 port via a PCI card slot and installed it in my Vista machine. It worked flawlessly. The controller driver and camcorder driver was installed without a hitch and without needing to go manually searching for drivers on the internet. I also found a 4-pin to 6-pin Firewire 400 cable which I used to connect to the XP computer which already has a Firewire port. It also installed the camera without a hassle. I have come to the conclusion that I either bought a physically damaged 4-pin Firewire to USB adapter cable or was scammed when I did this. I found out that such an adapter cable exists (as of very recently) but the cost is absolutely ridiculous (or it was last time I check a few weeks ago) that I'd highly recommend just buying a PCI card. When I bought the apparently faulty adapter, I was charged about a tenth of the price of the adaptor cable which claims to work. I should point out that this adapter cable claims to be compatible only with Windows. But you never know, it might work on a Mac (just like lots of peripherals do even though their system requirements say they don't) - just ask someone loaded to give it a try.
 
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