I have limited experience with HDV because the processing time is very long with my old MacBook, but Final Cut Express will work with HDV. I assume this was originally recorded on MiniDV in either 720p (not likely) or 1080i (more likely with either a Sony or Canon), but you weren't given the original tape. HDV uses mpeg 2 for compressing the video and mpeg 1 for audio. That may be a clue as to why the audio is working and not the video. I'm wondering if the latest FCPX doesn't handle HDV well (there are obviously a variety of issues still with FCPX). Since your HDV file wasn't imported on your system, I suggest requesting the original tape and re-import it or try an older version of FCP or FCE. Make sure you use a firewire cable, not USB. Not sure that's very helpful, but no one else has replied for several days.

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