Why Windows Cannot Recognize Your Video Camera Via USB Port

I was trying to transfer video from my Canon Elura digital video camcorder to a Windows Vista computer but the system did not recognized when I plugged the camera into the USB port. The same problem happened with Windows XP.

The Canon Video Camera has two ports - one for USB transfer and other for IEEE Firewire transfer. I tried it again with Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premier Pro CS3 and WinDV but Windows was unable to detect the video camera plugged via USB.

After some digging, I figured out that Canon camera support video transfer only via the Firewire cables while the USB connection is meant for transferring still photos stored on the memory card.

Now I am looking for some kind of device that can bridge USB and Firewire ports.

If you are on Windows XP or Vista, you do not need to download external drivers since the files are already included with the OS. The video drivers are required for older version like Windows 2000.