imjay, many thanx for that info mate, although new, my pc doesnt have firewire, so I've just ordered through Ebay, a PCI firewire card complete with lead, 4 to 6 pin?

so hopefully this weekend I should be up and running

as I'm completely new to this, I'm looking for software that will just allow me to connect the camcorder, press a button and get my video onto the PC so that it actually looks ok

I'm also lead to believe that the Samsung VP-D303D (mine) records in MP4.....at the moment the videos I've transfered (which are terrible) are WMV video file. Am I right in thinking the firewire will now make the videos play as something else?

sorry for the stupid questions guys