Maybe someone can help me...

I recently purchased the Canon XL2 and it will not interface with my computer. I have a Firewire card and have Windows Movie Maker 2 and Avid Xpress DV as editing software. My computer detects the camera but it won't recognize it...Canon tells me that they do not make a driver software for ANY of the their DV camcorder products so they tell me that I must have a problem with my software...I run Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, which is compatible with the XL2, and Microsoft tried to help me rebuild my driver database, and that hasn't worked either. Can anyone else give me suggestions? I have yet to try hooking the XL2 on another OS to see if that works...

You say "my computer detects the camera but it won't recognize it"

Your computer doesn't work with a camera. Your software does.
"it won't recognize it", what won't? Have you tried Avid to capture
from the camera?

XP itself does not do anything with the camera.

It's true there are no drivers for any Canon camcorder; Canon was the first camera manufacturer to be certified by MicroSoft as compatible with Windows XP out of the box. So I'm thinking that Rob is right, the problem most likely lies with the software you're using. Are there updates available for Movie Maker 2 or Xpress DV?

I have tried using Avid to capture the video and I get nothing...I know that my computer is not what's interfacing with the XL2, it's the software...I've installed updates from microsoft to try and capture through Movie Maker 2, but that doesn't work either...maybe i'm doing something wrong within the software? I'm not sure...it's pretty straight forward and yet i'm coming across this issue

Get a trial version of www.scenalyzer.com. See if that
works. Ofcourse something might be broken in either software
(installation) or your hardware.

Firewire cables, yes, simple as that, are notoriously unreliable. the cheap cables are NFG right out of the bag.

Thanks for all the speedy replies...it's much appreciated....
i'm gonna try to hook my camera to a friend's system and see how that goes...will def. keep u guys updated, and if you have any other comments or suggestions, pls keep them coming...