Talk about repeating myself...I just gave this same info on the XH A1 forum. See if it helps you:

In Vegas go to your capture window. On the little box, top left corner, that says "Prefs" go to Device > IEEE 1394/MPEG2-TS Device.

They all use the same MS drivers.

Goto the Details tab (not the Driver Details button). In the drop-down list, choose Hardware Ids. The items will all begin with something like PCI\VEN_104C&. The VEN_xxxx indicates the vendor. I can probably locate who it is from the number.

Having said all this, I won't pin too many hopes on it since chipset problems tend to affect everything rather than just a logical difference between DV and HDV.

There are four IDs:

PCI\VEN_197B&DEV_2380&SUBSYS_2380197B&REV_00

The rest of the numbers look much like that one.

I Installed Vegas 80.c back onto a very old XP computer. I'll Capture (It works fine) with it, onto a external hard drive, then switch the M2T files over to the new computer to edit, until I can figure this mess out.

Vendor ID 197B is JMicron. Does your system have 2 rather than 3 ports? From what I can tell, JMicron have their own chipset. Is your FireWire integrated with the motherboard or a card? Do you have access to another FireWire card that you can temporarily install, preferably with a different chipset? It would help rule out your interface.

I bought the computer locally. I was planning on asking for different firewire card. I was also planning on taking my camera down to try on a different computer.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'll report back tomorrow.

I found this piece of information last night:

There is no new Windows Vista x64 driver released from Cannon for this device.



VIXIA HV20

I would like to let you know that actually device driver is a bridge between the operating system and the hardware device. Also, the device drivers are generally designed and tested by the hardware manufacturers.



In other words, it is hardware manufacturers’ responsibility to design, develop, test, and support their device drivers.

There does not seemed to be any upgraded Vista 64 drives for other Canon or Sony Camcorder models either.

New Information:

When the camcorder is in the DV Mode the Camcorder shows up in Device Manager under IEEE 1394 Bus, and Captures and works fine.

When the Camcorder is in the HD Capture Mode it does not show up under IEEE 1394 in Device Manager. It shows up under Sound, Video, Game Controller????

Anyway, when it shows up in Device Manager under Sound, Video, Game Controller, it claims that the Device is working properly, but it isn't. No HD Capture.

Re drivers, DV/HDV camcorders use the standard MS drivers - there are none to download from the manufacturers.

Interesting about the Device Manager thing. Did you try that registry tweak - may be it might help (it can't hurt).

And/or when you see the camcorder in Sound, Video, Game Controller, try right-clicking on it and then uninstalling. This *should* clear the hardware part of the registry of anything relating to it. It would be wise to reboot the PC at this point without the camcorder connected. Reconnect it and see if it installs it "properly".

EDIT - Sound etc might be the right location for an AVC subunit (like an HDV cam) but it wouldn't hurt to explicitly uninstall the entry in Device Manager and start over.

Based on my experience troubleshooting hdv difficulties on XP, John's advice is on the right track.

In short, Microsoft's plug-and-play architecture will sometimes choose the correct driver for your hdv camera, and sometimes it won't. If it doesn't, as John wrote, the place to go is the hardware device manager. You can manually specify the driver to be used for a particular device, and this part hasn't changed much for Vista. Here are the XP instructions.

I have uninstalled the Camcorder three times in Device Manager Sound, Video, Game Controller. Re-started Vista each time. Vista finds the Device and installs it. Each time it tells me that the device is working Properly.

I have tried Capturing in Vegas 80.c, 8.1, and Microsoft Movie Maker. When I hit the Capture button, nothing happens, and what is weird is that I never get any kind of error message. Also, if I hit play, nothing ever plays in any of the three software preview screens.

When I try to Capture in Neo Scene, I get a error message: "Could not find video Header 10002 ms of Video data.

Yes, I have tried other tapes. Yes, all the tapes Captured correctly in a old machine with XP.

Is anyone else thinking that a reinstall of Vista might help?

I know that for me, the first thing I do with a new OEM pc is reformat the HD and install everything from scratch. It's a long shot David, but it appears you have nothing to lose at this point.

Update
 

Update:

I took my Camcorder down to the place where I bought my new machine. We hooked up the Camcorder to a machine with Vista 64. Same problem. Vista 64 recognized the Camcorder, but would not Capture HD.

We then hooked the Camcorder to another machine with Vista 32. It worked perfectly. It recognized the HV20 and Microsoft Move Maker Captured the HD, both 1080i and 24P perfectly.

Go figure....

Did you get a chance to try a different FireWire interface?

Yes, no difference. It's something in Vista 64. It hasn't worked on a Vista 64 machine I have found yet. Vista 32 works great. I sure like the extra rendering speed in Vista 64!!!!at least three times faster than my old Dell 2.4 with XP.
Now, if it would only Capture.

David, you've got 2 threads going on this same subject and it makes it a little difficult to follow. As I said, I have my HV working absolutely fine in Vista 64 with both 8.0c and 8.1. My camera in HDV mode also shows up in the Sound, Game... section of Device Manager, sothat's not the issue. The fact that it was a problem on a V64 computer in the store tells me it is an issue with your camera and not Vista. I know a lot of people using the HV on V64 with no issues, so I'm inclined toward a camera problem in your case.