HELP?? Need advice from Camera Savy people

[freshmtt]

OK, if someone could possibly offer some help or suggestions for me I would really appreciate it. I bought my daughter a brand new Kodak Easyshare Digital Camera model C813 for her Birthday over the weekend.

I am so frustrated with getting the videos uploaded to the laptop and being able to view them and getting the software to work on the laptop I am about to return the whole thing to Walmart and just get our money back.

I spent almost 2 hours last night installing and uninstalling the software for the Camera onto my Laptop trying to figure out why any of the video segments she takes cannot be properly uploaded onto the laptop.

I am so used to our other HP digital Cameras that we have that we can just take the tiny memory card and slip it into the laptop and instantly download pics and video without having to have a special HP software program to view the pics or video. The laptops Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery automatically converts the video so we can immediately view it. But the newrt HP Digital Camera we have is kind of broken with a lense error. The Lens closes when turned on and opens when the camera is shut down. And the older HP digital Camera we have is just old, no zoom lens.

So, Rachel wanted a new Camera for her B-day. I thought the Kodak Easyshare camera was going to be just that EASY!!!!

WEll, I am so pissed right now I feel like throwing the Camera and the software disc in the garbage and tossing the laptop out the window!!

When Rachel tapes video segments on the new camera and tries to take the memory card out and place it into the laptop and download it, the laptop downloads it all using Microsoft Photo Gallery and then when we try to click on the video to view we initially got an error message telling us that we did not have the newest version of Photo GAllery and it would not play the video. This is confusing because the Laptop is only a year old, a Gateway bought in 2007 at BestBuy. It has Windows Vista as the Operating system and appears to have the newest version of everything. It has like 180 GB of memory.

So, I thought, OK, lets try actually installing the Easyshare software that came with the Camera, even though I thought we did not need to use it because like I said the Hewlett Packard cameras we have don't require any special software to view the pics and video, we just slip the memory card into the laptop and Windows Photo Gallery does everything for us no problems at all.

I installed the Kodak Easyshare software and tried again to download the video segments taken with the camera. The Kodak Easyshare program just keep shutting down, Windows gives us a error message saying the Kodak Easyshare has stopped working. Click here to try and solve the problem and close the program. You click on that and it just shuts down the program. Everytime you try to view the video clips the same thing happens. Tells us that the program has stopped working, click here to try and solve the problem and close the program.

I uninstalled and re-installed the Easyshare software 3 different times and the same thing is happening. We can view all the pictures taken with no problems at all, we just cannot download and properly view ANY of the video clips taken and it keeps telling us the Easyshare program is NOT responding and has stopped working.

I even tried downloading the software program from Kodak's website last night to no avail. Same problem!!!

So, I have NO idea at this point WTF is wrong!!! I am loosing patience and now have seriously thought about just taking the Camera back to Walmart and getting my money back and calling up HP and sending out the newer Digital Camera with the lens error to be fixed by them so we can just keep using that camera. Very easy, just pop in the memory card and all pics and video are downloaded to Photo Gallery in a matter of seconds.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be??? Rachel is at the age that she likes to make videos of herself singing and goofing off with her friends and likes the option of the camera with the pics and the video. The newer HP camera we have that is currently not working correctly is actually my husband's camera anyway. So this Kodak was specifically for Rachel.

I am about to call Kodak today and see if anyone over the phone can maybe troubleshoot what is wrong, but it hard for me to wait too long on the phone here at work, so I was hoping someone here on PC that is really good with cameras, software and computers might have an idea of what is wrong.

We like the camera, it is very nice, but I just want the damn video clips to load properly on the laptop and be able to view them.

[hyo silver]

A call to the help line while you're sitting in front of your computer with the camera sounds like your best option.

[chinalfr2]

If you having problem viewing the video taken from the digital camera on your computer, it's mean your computer do not have the proper video Codec. Download and installed the Vista Codec Package.

In additional, you might want to invest on a multi-format digital memory reader. Managing your digital photo should be easy. You just need to insert the Memory card from the digital camera into the multi-format memory reader and you should be able to access all picture and video files stored in the memory card.

For photo management and editing software, try Picasa. My wife love this program and it's free too. You can manage, edit and sharing your photo collection.
Picasa - free photo editing and photo management software

[Ichabod]

The help lines can be frustrating, but they may be able to walk you through things carefully. If you're frustrated, chances are that other people have had the same issues, and the phone support staff should be prepared (if not fed up) to deal with your problem.

Personally though, I agree that you shouldn't need "special" software in order to get your files off the camera and watch videos or look at pictures. Some of the manufacturer software really is just plain buggy, so it may not be something you're doing wrong.

Having said that, I've always felt that Canon makes nice software for their cameras, and makes nice cameras with the kind of features you want. I have also always thought that Kodak does a particularly poor job at making software for their products, and I generally wouldn't look to Kodak for a camera in the first place. That doesn't mean I think you should get rid of your camera though. There's got to be a way to make it work for you, and it really should be just as easy as you want it to be!

Without having your computer and camera in hand (or you on the phone) it might be hard for any of us to troubleshoot your setup.

The first thing I'd look for is that the files coming off the camera are of a "known" type (e.g. Something.jpg or Something.tif or in the case of video Something.mov or .avi or whatever). If the files don't have an "extension" (the dot followed by three letters) then you computer might not know how to open them. If they're in a proprietary format coming off the camera then you may be forced to use the Kodak software to convert the files to a usable type... another thing that makes me avoid specific products!!

Good luck sorting that out!

[john1701a]

It's the same timeless struggle many others have had. The format is not supported out of the box. There is some dependency that you hopelessly cannot identify.

Filename extension reveals a major clue. With that, we can hunt down the support addin/codec/executable you require.

Please tell us what the last 3 characters are in the filename.

.

[TimBikes]

Originally Posted by john1701a

It's the same timeless struggle many others have had. The format is not supported out of the box. There is some dependency that you hopelessly cannot identify.

Filename extension reveals a major clue. With that, we can hunt down the support addin/codec/executable you require.

Please tell us what the last 3 characters are in the filename.

.

I agree. .MOV files, for instance, are not natively supported in Windows Vista. However, if you install Quicktime (from Apple's website for free), you will be able to play these. I also recommend Picasa (from Google for free) for managing your photos. It is very easy and intuitive and with Quicktime installed on your machine you will be able to play your movies (again, assuming they are .MOV format) right within Picasa.

[Godiva]

Sorry. I have a MAC.

[vtie]

Originally Posted by Godiva

Sorry. I have a MAC.

Somehow, I knew that sooner or later the word Mac would pop up in this thread.
The world really is predictable!!

[Godiva]

Hey. I have a Sandisk card reader. It reads like 8 or 12 cards. I stick them in whatever slot they fit in and the computer does the rest. Whatever program reads them pops up. What can I say?

I also have a Nikon Coolpix. Like it a lot.

My miniDV is a Canon.

[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by freshmtt

This is confusing because the Laptop is only a year old, a Gateway bought in 2007 at BestBuy. It has Windows Vista as the Operating system and appears to have the newest version of everything. It has like 180 GB of memory.

I think I'd just wander on down to that BestBuy with the camera card, and try it on the many display units in the store. Also, their Geek Squad people can be very helpful.