Need help! Ready to return my Canon HF R21

Sorry for the length of this, but I'm trying to give all the relevant background info I can. I have also posted this on another forum, but I'm not getting any replies, which may be because I'm too confusing. Thought I'd give it a shot here, though, and try to keep it a little shorter.

I am pretty good with computers and problem solving. I'm a total ignoramus, especially in regards to camcorders, so feel free to talk down to me. I honestly don't know what all the acronyns stand for.

Three days ago I bought this videocam to upgrade the quality for my son's sports highlight videos, among other things. With my old Olympus, I could import videos through Windows, cut, paste, and move them, and most importantly, alter them with the Windows Movie Maker (which I have mastered for creating sports highlight videos, etc. and they are perfect but quality is poor with Olympus)

I've got the actual use of the Canon videocam down, but today was my first attempt at installing the software (Pixela), importing the videos, and trying to use the software. My computer is a 3 yr old Gateway laptop (Vista). This 1st attempt involved downloading the Transfer Utility software (the smaller and less complicated of the two versions that came with the camera), but once I hooked the camera up for transfer and tried to import with the program, I got an error message that read that the camera is not recognized....so uninstall, reinstall, and then nothing.

This is when I uninstalled the Transfer Utility again and then installed the VideoBrowser version (more complex option of Pixela software that also came with camera). I did manage to get the videos imported using this, but when watching them they were choppy, blurred, etc. more than likely due to my computer, but if I can't even watch them to edit them, what's the point? I don't know what to do about that. The videos were in either MXP or FXP recording mode, both of which are the highest fidelity on this Canon.

I then thought, "What the heck? I'll just import them to Windows Movie Maker and see what I can do." Not compatible. I couldn't even import them.
I read online that there is conversion software, but I don't know if it will work, how to use it, and I am not trusting of freeware.

I am just tired of reading and messing with this. I don't have time to spend 4 hours everytime I upload videos. With my Olympus I don't have to, it's no different than uploading a Word doc from my flash drive. What should I do????? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Other than the crappy battery life of this video camera, I love it, but I am really frustrated and at the end of my rope.
Thanks for any help you can give!
Tammy

Thanks so much for the feedback. You're right, my biggest problem was the software working with the computer (which I figured), but I was hoping that maybe another camera (with other software) would be better. I wasn't aware that they were so interchangeable. I will definitely check out Splashlight for viewing.

After another grueling few hours, I found a solution, which I will share for the benefit of others.
1. I installed the Pixela VideoBrowser, but I didn't import the video through that software so I have more control and management of the files.
2. To import I actually just connected the camera, selected "All" on the camera menu and then went to My Computer, found the Canon, and cut and paste the video to My Videos, renaming it at this time (go to Canon--AVCHD - BDMV - STREAM - to find the actual file) so I could control its location and naming right away.
3. From there I opened the Pixela VideoBrowser and then File, Add Files to Library and found the file in My Videos and added it to the library.
4. From the VideoBrowswer I then converted it to a wmv through the Web option. I was then able to import it and edit it in Movie Maker. It won't be the same quality, but it is better than what I had. I'm saving the original .mts files onto my external hard drive in the event I want to burn them to disc with the VideoBrowser or another piece of software that I acquire later.

Pieced this together from help all over the web, including this forum. Thanks! SO relieved!!!!

Downloaded a trial version of Vegas (11 Platinum?) last night..... WAY more complex than what I want to do (I chose that version over the basic b/c of the burning capabilities). WMM is intuitive and has all the basics I need. That's why I love it and am trying to stick to it somehow.

Right now I'm trying to see if there's a workaround for getting my HD videos into format that WMM accepts so I can maintain more of the integrity of the HD experience from my videocam. Converting to .wmv as I'm doing now is fine, but if there is a better way, I'm open to it.

I thought I read somewhere that for Windows 7 WMM will let you import HD (AVCHD? is that right?) files. My son has Windows 7, so if I could import my HD vids into WMM and edit on his computer, maintaing the integrity of the vid instead of converting to .wmv for WMM import on my Vista, that would be better. Not to mention fewer files.

Fantastic! Thanks for being so clear! I will just tranfer my mts files from my computer to a memory card and take it to my son's computer...that way I won't bog down his memory. I wish there was a fix so I could do this on MY computer (input mts to WMovieMaker). That way I could just uninstall Pixela. The only reason I'm using it is to convert mts to wmv so I can use it in WMM. Also seems rather sad to lose the integrity of the video after paying for the HD.

I wonder, though, if I create the videos on his computer with WMM (Windows 7) if they will play and be OK on my computer with Vista? They'd be WMV files, like you said, so I would think that is OK.