Thank y'all for the replies.
I called Panasonic (800-211-7262) and paid $7.95 for tech support .....which resulted in....
sometimes the older camcorders don't work on new computers.
THAT was a great investment...............???
I think I should let them know that I stumbled onto the answer...and charge them $10.00 for the education/training.
Since "Tecchie" stuff has lots of tentacles, I'm sharing my findings.
I happen to have an XP machine still working. Fired it up and ...bingo....everything worked fine.
Transferred several hours of tape from the camcorder to a USB hard drive...terrific.
Went back and compared WMM on the W7 machine. The "command" (under Tasks) to
"Capture from Video Device" was missing......which led to my checking the VERSION.
The XP has Ver 5.1 but the W7 somehow had Ver 2.1...... hhhhmmmmmmmmmm
After downloading and installing Ver 6.1 to the W7 machine....everything is OK...and faster.
THE lesson.....
DO NOT FORGET BASICS ...LIKE .....WHICH VERSION ARE YOU RUNNING?
Anyway...I'm happy....thank y'all for helping!