First, you need to make sure you recorded actual video. When you plug your camera into the TV the video should come up on the screen. pressing the button on the top of the camera will start the video if it doesnt start automatically.
Once you know there is actually video on there, take your d-load cable and plug the USB side into the PC, then take the firewire side and plug it into the camera and turn it on.
Open windows explorer (place that shows all your folders). Scroll down to find "removeable storage drive". Should be E: or F: Click on that folder, open the sub folders until you find "videos". Open that folder and you should see .AVI files. These should open up using your preferred viewing movie viewer. Mine defaults to Windows media player. Many others will work. You can d-load WMP or Winamp or many others.
Click and drag the file out of that folder to "My documents" folder. Once you verify it has moved you should re-name it like willow springs December 09.AVI.
Now, the 3 letter .AVI is the file type or extention. You can easily change the file type from AVI to MPEG. Mpeg or mpg is a friendlier file type that many media players recognize where some dont like AVI files.
To change this just find the AVI file you wish to change, single click on the file with the LEFT mouse button and the file name will highlight blue. Select the .AVI and delete it and type .mpeg instead. It will prompt you that you are changing the file type and it may not be useable. Select yes. I usually make a copy of it and put it in another folder then play with the copied file and keep the original as a backup. (from many years of Graphic design files mistakes).
When I loaded my first file to Youtube tonight I noticed the file types the site prefers are .mpegs. That is why I suggested to change the file type. Good luck, hit me up with any questions. Dont buy a card reader, totally unneccesary.