At the bitter end with PMB

[dmfox1]

Hoping that somebody will help - hence the rather dramatic strap line.  We have been given a Cybershot DSC-W320 as a gift by my son who will notice if I am not using the camera which is ok - but PMB is a nightmare.  I am an experienced PC user and thought I was fairly savvy but I cannot make PMB work and after hours of trying to find information by Google and wading through the incredibly unuserfriendly Sony website I would like to try to find out basically:

What is the PC spec needed to run PMB.  My graphics card for instance.

How do I know if I have codecs which are incompatible and which ones are they that might be interferring with PMB.

Why are the Save and trim buttons greyed out when I want to capture a video frame.

Why is there no option to conver to MPEG?

The handbook is useless. It's written in techspeak I don't get.Why does this thing creat bizarre files which can't be read.  Arghhh.

I cannot even find a way of updating the software just in case I am not running the correct version. 5.2.00.03250.

I know that if I get on the telephone with the techies they will blame my OS or spec or something similar so I would appreciate some answers.  Perhaps I should Tweet it!

Or can I just junk this PMB and use Windows Media or Movie Maker?  Or even HP Photosmart - which I am seriously thinking of doing.

thanks

[Blencogo]

I can't answer your questions as I don't use the PMB Software but I may be able to point you in the right direction!

If you go to the Support Page for the DSC-W320, you will find tutorials on PMB plus an update to PMB Ver 5.6.01.

The PMB Tutorial Titles seem very extensive and include conversion to MPEG-2.

As far as I can see PMB runs on anything modern(ish): -

• Windows XP SP3 (32-bit)*1
• Windows Vista SP2 (32-bit / 64-bit)*2
• Windows 7 (32-bit / 64-bit / Starter)

*1. 64-bit editions and/or Starter are not supported.                                         
*2. Starter is not supported.

To find the Support Page for the W320 follow this link: -

http://support.sony-europe.com/dime/digistill/cyber/cyber.aspx?site=odw_en_GB&m=DSC-W320

Good luck - I'm sure some users will be along later and will be able to answer any specific problems you may find but I hope this helps in the meantime.

[dmfox1]

Thankks Blencogo - I appreciate your coming back to me. I have actually extensively explored the areas you have suggested and from what I can see, you loose some functionality with the update.  Also, the tutorials are great if you actually have the options available to do the actions - for example I do not have the option to save or trim an individual frame and also the MPEG-2 conversion option does not appear in the menu options available from the Toolbar.

I have the OS available I believe - but am not sure.  Hopefully someone will give me more advice on top of you kind assistance.

thanks again

[ziggy33]

dmfox-

I have to share your disappointment with the PMB software. Complete rubbish. I bought a cybershot HX5 camera at the weekend and I am very pleased with it ... except the photo/video software is useless. Crashes every few seconds. I have uninstalled/reinstalled and downloaded an updated version which, annoyingly, takes an eternity to complete and then, once it reaches 100 per cent, it says my connection has failed!

The support website is pointless as is the handbook. This is my first Sony camera purchase and needless to say it has put me off for life. Real shame because the camera is great. I have very good alternative software for the stills but when the video software doesn't work then it makes for a very unhappy customer.

I will be letting them know.

If anyone can help with the PMB problem (I cannot be the only one!) I would be grateful.

I use windows Vista.

Regards and thanks in advance.

Dave

[dmfox1]

Hi Dave

Oh dear - I was hoping it was just me being dim.  I honestly don't know if it is the camera that is not working or the PMB.

I wanted to playback some videos and pictures from the camera taken atthe Royal Wedding celebrations. I had transferred them into PMB from the camera, which promptly mixed them up into different order and generally messed with them.  The following day, I tried to copy them back to the camera to take to show my friends and I couldn't do it.  I couldn't locate which drive the SD card was in the first place, then when I did eventually work out which one it was, or I thought so, I tried to copy them over and got told the disc was full - rubbish!  Then when I eventually got them over, I tried again to play them back and couldn't find any images on the camera.  Absolutely infuriating.  I gave up in the end and used my old HP AS400 - no problemo!  I'm not a great fan of HP with its bloatware and prescriptive practices,  but it is a doddle in comparison to the Cybershot and PMB.

Obviously this is of no interest to anyone from Sony - I presume their moderators read this forum?  I appreciate that they may be a tad busy trying to put the lid on their nightmare data loss - so I am going to give them a week's grace to contact me - there is no way I shall be using the camera again in that space of time.  If nothing happens, I will Tweet to see if anyone else has problems with PMB - global.

Cheers

[gogrrrl]

I have just bought a DSC-HX100v and can't even transfer my videos to my computer!!! They don't even show up when I open PMB, but I can watch them in the camera so I know they are there.....I used Explorer to move the files from my camera to my PC but it only moved the stills, - the videos are not there, they are still in the camera!! Reaally, I am at my wits end - what am I supposed to do?? How did you even get your videos from PMB to the PC??!!

[Mick2011]

Hello gogrrrl

It's possible you have a system confict somewhere but it's always worth looking for the simplest explanations first.

The page linked to below has some tutorial videos which might be worth checking through:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/topics/videos/pmb

Have a look at the 'Importing' sections and follow the steps in the videos there. If none of that helps there are some connectivity troubleshooting steps you could try.

Let me know how you get on

Mick

[geritwo]

Hello!

I have a serious problem with PMB too. I just purchased a DSC-H70 and PMB simply does not recognize the device when connected to the PC.

I installed the PMB client on a fresh, clean install of Win7 64 bit, I upgraded it to the latest version but when it instructs me to connect the camera and I connect it - just nothing happens. After connecting it for the first time Windows recognized the camera but it won't import nor display video files and that's the biggest problem for me.

The install wizard of PMB suggests that I could "register" the device with PMB later but there is no option in the software to register camera or whatsoever. In the Import option the software doesn't even list a camera, only the DVD drive although I can browse the memory card in Windows Explorer (- the aformentioned videos that don't show).

I have used a previous version of PMB with an A200K that worked properly.

How can I solve the problem? I don't have any codec packs installed on the PC yet and the PMB is updated to the latest.

[Mick2011]

Hi geritwo, welcome to the Sony Forums

I've clipped this from a Sony help page I had saved. Check through it and see if it helps resolve the issue:

If the PMB Download Tool does not detect that your camera is connected and does not install, first make sure that the USB cable is securely connected to both the camera and computer. Also, make sure the camera is turned on and that you have selected the appropriate USB or COMPUTER option displayed on the LCD screen (if applicable).

If the installation procedure still does not detect the camera, follow the steps below.

1. Start the Computer Management tool.
   
   
   • On the computer desktop, click Start.
   • In the Start menu, click Control Panel.
   • Click Administrative Tools.
   • Click Computer Management.
2. In the Computer Management window, click to select the camera in the list of devices.
   
   IMPORTANT: The camera will be shown as a Removable Drive with a drive letter assigned.
3. Change the drive letter to a different drive letter that is not being used.
4. Restart the computer.
5. Open the My Computer window.
6. In the My Computer window, confirm the camera is listed as a Removable Drive with the newly-assigned drive letter selected in step 3.
7. Start the PMB Download Tool.

Cheers

Mick

[apriliaken]

I typed "Sony PMB rubbish" into Google and this forum popped up... needless to say, I am not impressed with PMB. I had a Canon Powershot beforehand and its Camerawindow software does an excellent job of downloading and storing my HX9V images in dated folders... something PMB seems incapable of emulating.

I've since junked PMB and stayed with Camerawindow to file my pix and no problems at all.

PMB did not recognise any videos I took with the HX9V - that was the straw that broke the camel's back.