[Graham Spice]

Try compressing your AVI to the normal ProRes 422 codec, not the HQ version. That will likely play on your laptop.

There might be other settings in FCP that are limiting its playback, also. The sequence settings should match the clip, you should have this data on an external hard drive connected via FW800 or better, etc. There are many articles on this forum and elsewhere that deal with system settings.

If standard ProRes 422 doesn’t perform well on your MB Pro, follow Shane Ross’ recently posted video tutorial outlining online/offline workflows. Use ProRes 422 (Proxy) for offline editing on your laptop and then reconnect the full resolution files for your export.

Tutorial:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7.php

[Graham Spice]

I agree. This book covers more ground for the entire video production process than any other I’ve seen. Many cudos to mitch for compiling such a great resource and being so up-to-date on the technologies and syncing options currently available. Highly recommended.