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You inform us you have a file that your s/w will not open. interesting. however, maybe if you tell us the format of the file we might have some ideas. Is it an AVI file for instance? What codec was used to generate it? etc etc

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

Ok here is what i do know that wat i rocord i can only open with Windows Media player and the sample videos in PowerDirecto4 open in Quick Time only. I hope you can figure out what format this two programs run. but i will look into it more.

it sounds like you are capturing with different software than the editing app.

This kind of indicates that you are using USB to capture, because of usb's inability to keep up continuous data streaming fast enough for high quality DV capture, manufacturers have to use software solutions to make up for this.

power director allows for capture from DV devices using firewire/i-link/IEEE1394/DV (in case you don't know these are all the same thing just different descriptions)

The only answer to your problem is to check your pc for a firewire port, go into device manager and look down the list for something like IEEE1394.

If this is not present then buy a PCI firewire card and cable, probably cost less than 20 quid, and most cards come with cables included if you buy from a local PC shop.

Fit the card or get the PC shop to do it and boot up, the drivers will load automatically, plug in the camera and start power director and capture.

power director will not capture in a format it does not understand and this will end your problems, and then you too will be editing until 5am just like the rest of us.

thank you so much
now i know i dont have a fire wire thing so can you point me to a product at agreat price that i can trust

There are only a few firewire chipset makers, so even though the cards have different names , most are actually the same.

Your local PC shop would be my choice, as they fit these all the time and will probably be good on price.

But with a little caution!

Last week I decoded to remove my Matrox RTX100 card from my rig. As it contained the only firewire port I had I needed a new card.

The cheapest PCI firewire card available from my local PC World was £50!!!!!

I picked one up from a different, independent 'computer shop' for £15. Ic ould still have saved money if I bought from Dabs or elsewhere online but at least I got it that day and didn't have to wait over the weekend without one.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

If you are confident to open your case and fit it yourself, then as Alan says the web will be the cheapest option.

If not go to a local PC shop because as also pointed out by Alan, PC world will charge huge amounts and you will still have to fit it yourself or get them to do it, which they may or may not charge for.