I did search this forum but couldn't find anything similar.

We've got some Sony Handycams the ones with harddrives in them, around the school, DCR-SR32, DCR-SR52 etc.

They record mpg's and it seems that you have to use the Sony software in order to download the footage. Once it's downloaded, you can view it using their software (Picture Motion Browser (Or PMB)) but Windows Media Player won't play them and Windows Movie Maker (WMM) won't import them.

It's obviously a codec issue. If i download VLC Media Player i can view the clips outside PMB. It's often the case however that we want to edit the video, and PMB is poop.

Anyone come up against this and (hopefully) have a solution?

We're using Windows XP, WMM is up-to-date and the option to 'automatically download codecs' is ticked.