Drivers for Windows XP

[josephj]

Every time I search for a device driver for Windows, all I get for results are paid services that will scan and update my drivers.

How do I just find a driver I need directly?

Currently, I need a driver for my Panasonic pv-gs12  Digital Video camcorder which is old.  The original did not come with a software disk at all and I don't see any relevant (free or non-free) download on the Panasonic website.

Are any of the paid services any good?

I owned Driver Genius for a very short while a few years ago.  It suggested updates that seemed to cause more problems than they fixed.

I just did a scan with Driverwhiz and it wanted to update (if I had paid for it) up to 80 drivers and a bunch of them were provided by my vm (I'm running XP under vmplayer).   I can only assume that updating the vm ones would break my system.

TIA

Joe

Something about this is probably already posted on this site, but I couldn't find it with a quick search.

[fpirrone]

Found this, Joe.  See if it's helpful.

http://ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/capture/ComMass.zip

You shouldn't need software or drivers if you use a firewire cable for the video, but that's the USB driver.

Frank

[josephj]

I downloaded it and will try it later - Oh Google Master!

I have never had anything that did firewire before.  I don't have a cable, but I'll get one.  I assume that what I need is a 4-pin to 4-pin cable for a notebook.  Is that correct?  I saw a video on youtube that said something about desktops using a 6-pin connector.

Will it do anything in Linux with a firewire cable?  It would be great if it did.  When I tried it with the usb cable, it showed up in lsusb, but that was that.

The manual that came with the video camera said you needed software (optional - that I didn't get - now extinct).  It sounded like you needed it with either cable - at least for Windows.

What about the issue of finding drivers in general?  I haven't had any luck with that on several occasions.

Joe

[fpirrone]

I searched for the camcorder and found a commercial downloader link that listed the file name which I then searched and found a couple of direct links including that Panasonic.com one above.

Here's the story on the two FireWire protocols:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394_interface

If you discover that you need to go with that protocol, you'll have to match what your laptop has.  My MacBook Pro has both 400 and 800 IEEE 1394 connectors.  The ochi1394 module should support direct access to your camcorder in GNU/Linux - I'm assuming it would mount upon connection and you would simply open it up in a filemanager and pull out the video clips.

As I described above, finding drivers is often a matter of catching a clue as to a filename and tracking that down where it can be directly downloaded.

Frank

[josephj]

Thanks.  Always learning.

Joe