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Trick #2 is realizing that the software you just installed is out of date and incompatible with your computer.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?