Hi there Nem
Have a Sony DCR-TRV-730 E
had the same problems, and eventually, I used the Crappy s/w with it
if you mean MGI video wave III it's good for one thing, if your Cam captures DV then this one is the best for capturing it, zero frames dropped, and no problem in identifying the camera, worked fine on WIN 2k and WIN-XP.
try it forst to make sure it works and the Card can see the camera and the firewire connection, then try other s/ww, obviously, premiere is the second best option, and if all you need is low quality capture, then go with, uhhmm Microsoft Movie maker .
if you don't have that version of the MGI then I guess it'd be ok for me to upoad it for you
Hope that helped
I don't suffer from stress, I'm a carrier.