[John Pale]

There are probably many areas where the video is too unstable for capture. Making a firewire dub wont fix this, as it will just duplicate the unstable portions.
Try having an analog dub made through a TBC/Frame Sync at your local dub house.

[John Pale]

You need Automatic Duck.
FCP only exports OMF files that are suitable for digital audio workstations (like Protools).

[John Pale]

This is a hard one to troubleshoot. Never tried it, but is it possible to do a custom install, without installing Live Type (then do that as a separate install later). This might at least help you figure out whether the problem is related to the installation of Live Type.

[John Pale]

do you have it set to ignore timecode breaks?

if so, all code after a break will be wrong.

[John Pale]

You can use the noise reduction filter in Compressor while you encode.

[John Pale]

Check the motion tab. If you put an 8 bit clip into a DV timeline, FCP will automatically shift it one line to deal with the different frame size (486 instead of 480) causing a field inversion.
If you paste this clip back into an 8 bit sequence, you will have to manually shift it back or it will be soft.

[John Pale]

Does the timecode from the DAT match the master clips?

[John Pale]

Why not use Live Type? Its excellent for things like this and, integrates well with FCP. Thats why its included.

[John Pale]

Unfortunately, no. But you can keep the sequences separate, encode them, then join them on a single track in DVDSP.

[John Pale]

Search your FCP help for the term “Merge Clip”.