Im using a copy of adobe premier pro 1.5, and I'm trying to import a video of a seminar we recorded onto my laptop. The recording is in mpeg format, and when I play the video in the source monitor it plays fine without any lagging. But when I insert the movie into my timeline to do some editing the frames become sticky and the video lags. At first I thought it was just because I hadn't rendered it yet. But when I export to avi or something it still is bad quality? How can I fix it. Am I inserting it wrong???

100th post!!!

I think that premiere doesn't like mpeg files. but marc knows all about that.

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AMD Athlon64 3000+
48x CD burner
16x Dual Layer DVD burner
512 Mb RAM
Windows XP Pro/Debian unstable
Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5
Firewire card
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
2 x 17" CRTs, 1 x 17" TFT

Mpeg is designed for distribution, not for editing. It incorporates a lossy compression method to reduce file sizes dramatically. Frame by frame information is not stored in the file -- only information on pixels that change between reference frames is stored. So, when you want to edit a particular frame, the actual video data may not exist for that frame, so the edit line "sticks" to the closest reference frame (where full frame video information is stored).

Did you actually record the seminar in Mpeg format? If so, you will have quality problems that editing will not help improve. Check out the free program Virtual Dub - (find it through Google) this may help you transcode the Mpeg into avi that you may be able to edit more successfully.
Good luck,
Chris