[Frank Nolan]

[Sam] “FCP on Safe RT, Dynamic (or Full) on Video Playback and on Frame Rate.
Importing MP3s cause a render for Audio (which might be required anyways).”

Set it to “unlimited RT” if you want to play without having to render.
You should convert MP3 to Aiff.

[Frank Nolan]

https://b2b.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/Locator/Query.jsp?renters=1&cmpycd=3&cboModelCategories=3-OWNER,160&txtZipCode=91606&txtZipCodeExtension=

This is the panasonic owner/operator or rental house locator page.

[Frank Nolan]

[Peter Perry] “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that fancy equipment will make up for inexperience.”

Agreed! In fact it can have quite the opposite effect. The more gear an inexperienced operator has to put the signal through, the more chance there is of them F*#%ing it up!

Without actually seeing what your engineer is doing and hearing the results it is very difficult to offer any advice as to what you need. My suggestion would be to hire an experienced engineer, even if it is just for a day or two, to come in and help your current engineer to achieve the best possible sound with what you have and then advise you on any future upgrades as needed.

[Frank Nolan]

[oxyde] “nice cheap setup”

I dont know whether this and HD fit together.
How do you plan on getting the HD footage onto the Raid set up and then monitoring it while editing?

[Frank Nolan]

Have you tried opening FCP from the dock icon?
IT sounds like you may need to trash your preferences. Follow the steps in this link then try opening the program from the dock icon.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

[Frank Nolan]

[Matte] “I would venture that its the combination of mics, placement, studio, EQ, and (MOST LIKELY) some carefully chosen and adjusted “processing units” that involve level compression at well-chosen frequencies.”

I am going to put on an even bigger rain-helmet and venture to add that it is also, more than likely, a lot to do with talent, both in front of and behind the microphones.

[Frank Nolan]

What is your chosen career? I think that will have a bearing on whether or not being certified will help your career. More knowledge is usually beneficial in any thing you do, but do you really need it to be sucessful? If you have chosen editing as a career it certainly wouldn’t hurt to study the course. If you have chosen teaching or tech support for FCP systems then it would almost be mandatory to get certified.

[Frank Nolan]

[nateboston] “The most recent is a VHS tape being played on a proffesional, but older, VHS deck”

Ahhhh, my money would be on the fact that you probably need a TBC (time base corrector) I have seen this happen before when passing analog signals thru the I/O without a TBC, especially VHS.
You should check the other room and see what the different set up is with their I/O, compared to yours.
Also not a bad idea to make sure you have the latest firmware. Check the AJA site for that or call tech support.

[Frank Nolan]

[nateboston] “So in theory, when I watch the monitor (being fed from the I/O) and listen to the audio (also being fed through the I/O) I should be all in sync – but I’m not. “

Yes, that is the correct way to monitor. HHmm Interesting!
I guess the next question would be, what is the analog video source that you are digitizing from?

[Frank Nolan]

[James Mulryan] “Will a Dual G4 1GHz with 1.5 Gig RAM and Firewire 400 drive handle DVCPROHD FCP5.1.1?”

I………..think……….that………would………be……….veeeeerrrry…………..slow………. 🙁
Actually Just to run FCP 5.1 you are below the recommended amount of Ram so you would need to up that a couple more gb. I also doubt the FW400 would be fast enough to handle that codec. I would put a PCI SATA card in the G4 and buy a G-SATA raid from G-Tech. Then you should be good to go.