Installing Sony Picture Motion Browser on Windows 7 (64 bit)

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First, I must say that Sony is poo.

Picture Motion Browser (PMB) is Sony’s required software to use their camcorders. It claims to be compatible with Windows 7 64-bit, but compatible is a loose term with Sony. Compatible must mean “Installs well after hacking system files and registry keys.” All I ever wanted was to be able to use my camcorder—Sony Handycam HDR-SR5.

I spent hours trying to install Picture Motion Browser without making Windows 7 crash on boot up. Once I finally succeeded at getting Windows to boot with the software installed, I no longer had a DVD drive. It took me another couple hours to figure out how to get my DVD drive back.

I’ll guide you how to install PMB without corrupting Windows, and I’ll throw in your CD/DVD drives for free too!

Installing Sony Picture Motion Browser software without breaking Windows

Trick #1 is obtaining the software. The CD that comes with the camera will launch the install, run for 30 minutes, then realize that you’re 64 bit and it is confused, give you the finger, and uninstall itself.

Thankfully Sony finally shaped up and is providing the software as a download.

Go to the Sony.com website and navigate yourself to the Support & Drivers section. Type in your camera model (or mine: HDR-SR5) and look for a link with the text “Lost the Original Software Installation Disc? Use the Picture Motion Browser Software Download Tool.” At the time of this posting, this is the link. Download the software, and install. (You will need your camcorder plugged in to your computer so that Sony can validate that they tricked you into buying their crap.)

Be careful installing this though, it will crash your computer if you allow it to reboot your computer. Do not let it reboot your computer when it finishes installing!

Trick #2 is realizing that the software you just installed is out of date and incompatible with your computer. You need to immediately install an update. Go back to the Drivers & Support page for your product. Look for software updates for your operating system. You will need “Picture Motion Browser Update (version 5.2)” At the time of this posting, this is the link. Get and install the update, but do not allow the update to reboot your computer. Sony has still corrupted Windows.

Trick #3 is cleaning up after Sony’s mess. During installation, Sony’s software helpfully rewrote a system file that it doesn’t even use, but that Windows relies on. This file is now corrupt and will cause your computer to crash on boot up every time.

This file is pxhelp20.sys. It is located in C:WindowsSysWOW64drivers

What we are going to do to fix this is just remove the file. Windows will work if it can’t find the file. If it finds Sony’s corrupted version, it will try to load it and break, but Windows will work without the file.

So, remove the pxhelp20.sys file out of that folder. You don’t need it. Destroy it!

(I got this advice from a post at superuser.com)

At this point, you could reboot and have a working system (mostly). However your CD/DVD drives will not work, we need to tell Windows not to care about that file we just removed.

Trick #4 is getting your CD/DVD drives to work again, which means it’s registry hacking time:

1. Start->Run and open regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM and open key CurrentControlSet/Control/Class/{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. There may be a lot of keys with this name but search for one that has (default) value DVD/CD-ROM drives
4. Now, when you have found this one you delete strings “LowFilters” and “UpperFilters” (if existing)
5. Reboot and pray (should work!)

(I got this advice from Serializer’s blog)

Trick #5 is justifying the purchase of another Sony product…

I don’t have a solution to this problem. I don’t think I can justify another Sony product. After hours of pain just to get their ”compatible” software installed, the software (like the company) is poo.

Even after I am finally able to use my product, I’m left asking: why am I required to use this crappy software? Why are the files in a proprietary Sony format that only Sony understands? Why can’t I attach my camera directly to my computer? Why do I have to attach a docking station to my computer, and then my camera to the docking station?

  • Mike

    Thanks! – This actually worked for me after having PMB crash Win7 on my 5 other attempts – better than Sony’s directions…

  • Anonymous

    Thank you so much for posting this, it’s been a great help. After losing all of my files four times over (on this PC alone, don’t get me started on my laptop), I’m glad that I can finally use my PC and camcorder – so thanks, this article has been a bit of a life saver really (apparently teachers don’t like it when work mysteriously vanishes and they don’t believe that the culprit is corporate evil, not laziness :D).

    Anyway, I want to update the software, but I’m scared to incase the files are corrupted again, so would it be fine to follow Sony’s instructions, or would I have to delete another driver to make sure that my computer doesn’t crash?

  • kaito

    I hate sony. I have a CX7 as well. The camera is cool, but the PMB is awful. I will never buy a sony product again, EVER.

    • Cairo

      Any idea how to copy/move/transport all settings and tags I made in PMB database in my old XP 32bit system to my new W7 64bit?

      • http://supershabam.wordpress.com supershabam

        Sorry, I have no idea. I don’t use the software myself. I was just helping my Dad get up and running with his new camera. After suffering for so long to just get the program installed, I decided to post how I did it.

  • http://hikaritomizu.wordpress.com soulassassin547

    Given that there are some remaining incompatibilities for some XP software in Win7, I think I’ll have my PC reconfigured for dual booting: one XP, and the other Win7.

  • Peter

    Thanks for your fix. I have the same camcorder and had the same problem with my new laptop windows 7, 64 bit. I haven’t tried by CD/DVD writer yet but will be making the Recovery disc first if it does work, Sony were useless.
    Thanks again.
    Peter

  • Stephenie

    I’m curious if instead of deleting the corupted file pxhelp20.sys and hacking the registry, did anyone try just saving a copy of the original version of the file and replacing it after the software install? I’m not a PC guru and I’m very leary of going into my registry and making changes myself. It seems that you should just be able to replace that file with the original copy and circumvent that step. Or does it break PMB?

    • http://supershabam.wordpress.com supershabam

      It has been so long, and I can’t remember if I tried that for sure. I agree that your idea would be much cleaner, but I think that I did try it and had problems. If somebody tries it, let us know if it works.

  • ALF

    Great job, SuperShabam. It worked wonderfully well!!! Thank you very much.
    Best regards!

  • Stephenie

    I was able to install PMB on Win7 following your instructions. I tried my theory of just replacing the file, but the file did not actually exist until after I installed the program. (Before I installed I looked for the file in the directory and also did a file search of all of C: drive and the file was not found.) So after I installed, I removed the file and edited the registry before I rebooted and it works fine. Thanks!!!

  • Danny

    Hilarious post. I have lived the same ridiculous weekend (or more) with Sony. The funny part was that even on the phone with their tech agents, half of which admitted that there were some previous cases of “messing up the boot” on computers, never did it occur to the Sony engineers that crashing and damaging the boot on a computer IS THE WORST THING THAT A SOFTWARE COMPANY CAN EVER DO AND IT MAKES THEM LIABLE FOR DAMAGES DESPITE WHAT THEY WRITE ON THE DISC BECAUSE IT FALLS INTO THE CATEGORY OF GROSS NEGLIGENCE.

    it was like they were doing me a great favour by answering my call and for the most part they said becuase the computer was crashing that it was the obligation of Microsoft to fix my problem.

    They don’t get the “Cause and Effect” logic known by most of mankind.

    I too have sworn NEVER, EVER to buy another sony product, firstly because they are so arrogant that they try to mess with standards and nothing they make works with anything else and secondly because their software damaged my computer. What part don’t they get. I recorded some video and I want to get the video in a standard form onto my computer. I could have a Mac, or a Windows box with 32 or 64 bit OS. How hard can that be boys???

    Did betamax not teach you a lesson morons??? Could you imagine your mother or grandmother trying to do the most basic thing with their camera? “Grandma,now go to the search text field and type REGEDIT….no, not Reginald grandma, REGEDIT…then you will see a list of wierd numbers and you then have to……”

  • Fony

    Dude – invaluable post. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I had a crack at this… I am really pissed off, I like the HDR-SR5E and even bought it through a friend from Sony. I have sent said friend this link and asked them to tell the techs.

    I almost got to the point where I was going to buy another Camcorder.

    Thing is the Sony is a great product but this B.S about the PMB is so ridiculous I can’t get past it. Honestly, the arrogance is truly amazing…

    Anyway – I’ll give the HDR-SR5E another year or two.

  • Carl

    Hey chaps
    Beginning to feel the sanme way about Sony. It actually extends to Sony Vegas which generates jerky files in AVCHD format but that’s another story! I must have been lucky in the version of PMB I got with my camcorder because I did manage to load it on a Windows 7 64 bit computer. However, I noticed recently that when I try to “check for updates” the web page cannot be found. Are Sony discontinuing this product or just sick of all the complaints?

  • janos

    Thanks very much for this info. I wanted to download the pmb software for my camera. But Sony can kiss my …ss after reading your trouble shooting with it…

    Again thanks very much.

    Janos

  • Damian

    Wish this would work for me I also have Windows 7 home Premium 64bit, i keep getting a ‘This installation Package could not be opened. Contact the Application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Package.’ so it won’t even install was with tech support and they controlled my computer remotely for 4 hours and finally gave up a bit after midnight and gave me a number for someone higher up on the command. Apparently my situation is unique and they haven’t seen it before it ticks me off though, I love the camera i don’t love the PMB if they don’t fix the issue soon i will be taking it back and buying another brand of camera. They have 10 days i have 14 before i can’t take it back for a refund one has been used and i want to take it back before the deadline just in case.

  • BigRed

    You are the man. Your post is a lifesafer. Wife was going to kill me for destroying her computer. Not only is this sony software crap, but because it installs like 30 different pieces of software, my acer created a save point before each install. So when I went to system restore, the only save points available were all corrupted. I was starting to look at a backup off of my home server before I found your post. It worked like a charm. Wife is now happy. Thanks very very much.

    • Saychowder

      That is the same thing that happened to me.  I had to format the HD and start over.  Thank God I back-up frequently!

  • chris duda

    you are a lifesaver…and sony is poo

  • http://www.facebook.com/leolsliu Leo Ls Liu

    I have new situation here, PMB installed successfully on Window 7 64bit version and it does not crashed the Windows OS, instead it crashed itself every time I open it.

  • http://bhupen.k6yar.com/ ruben

    well, i bought the cx150 and having the freaking same problem. sometime so called Picture Motion Browser and ik call it poo software, recognizes, and other times, it doesn’t . Its all confusing too. When I googled just PMB for Windows 7 and my camcorder model it started giving me all sorts of unrelevant information. There is nothing in a name. I was thinking of the upcoming vita, but I am just gonna wait cause SONY’s customer care is a disaster! thank you for tips. gonna try the regedit. PMB is a complete joke, those who use it will understand. thanks again for useful info here.

  • http://byazrov.ru vlad

    if I only knew that sony is such unfriendly to customers. I will recommend to everyone to never buy sony products. I wish I didn’t too

  • M Genrich

    Thanks for your excellent sleuthing and for posting this useful info! And next time, go ahead and use the word that you really wanted to instead of poo! We’re all muttering the same!

  • Harv

    Not being too tech minded I am going to have to just forget loading Sonys PMB onto my new Asus 64 bit laptop, its all a bit to over my head.

    What I will do though is to avoid ALL Sony products like the plague from now on!

    Well done Sony marketing….How not to sell your products.

    From one very UNSATISFIED customer

  • TP

    Best not to use Sony’s PMB at all, i even went to the trouble of allowing a so called “Sony Tech” to have remote access to my new laptop. After 1 hour she couldnt get it to work and with the gracefull skill of an elephant she managed to uninstall all my drivers so my printer, usb ports, mouse etc didnt work after she logged off. After hours of frustration i ended up doing a reformat, installing another movie maker software package and all is good. Sony make great cameras but their backup support and technical skills re software and harware integration are some of the worst i have seen.

    • Mag60

      before i smash my camcorder to bits what was the other movie maker that worked for you please

  • Venkatmreddy

    It is unbelievable companies invest so much in their products R&D, Manufacturing and Marketing and yet are dumb to make these products easy to use. No wonder Sony lost out to Apple, even though it had such incredible good will not too long ago.

  • Scott Hillman+is_the_man

    Any post with the word “poo” in it is definitely noteworthy.

  • nroff

    I actually have a HDD-XR200 which is made for the latin america market(but bought in Houston, TX!)  and I can’t get the camera connected to my 64 bit win 7.  therefore, can’t finish installing the PMB software to edit the videos.  any advice?
     

  • jlo

    Having issues installing PMB software for Sony DSC-WX9 Cyber-shot.  Laptop is running Vista 32 bit.  Problems with Microsoft VC++ Redistributeable file.  Any suggestions?

  • Miker633

    Great Post, but my computer won’t reboot.  How do I get it to boot again so I can delete the corrupted file

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Derick-Miles/100002314902885 Derick Miles

    Your blog probably saved me a few hours.  Thanks a LOT!

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  • Mprocec

    I did the Installation and Update the PMB, but the Update is: 5.8.02, and the file wasn’t in the C:WindowsSysWOW64
     File:PMB56_Updater1105a.exe (version 5.8.02)Date:11/08/2011Version:5.8.02Size:3.51 MB

  • Vivaart

    Great post, thank you….am a Granny and lost now but…..the answer is, the next camera won’t be Sony!!  PMB updated itself and in so doing wiped my AutoRun,my default for images,have to re-install the update every time I plug the camera in….who knows what’s happening in my Registry….that’s a step toooo far at age 74.5!! At least I know not to phone Sony. What I want to know is:::if I remove pmb completely, will I get back to my default images AutoRun place, which was soo SIMPLE ???

  • Thejetzman

    I was able to load the PMB software, but after formating and burning the first disc in DVD format I receive an error “Authoring Tool for DVD has stopped working…”, what is the fix for that.  I tried reloading the PMB software, and doing the updates, but no luck.  Any suggestions?