Have just on-lined high def project in Pro-res HQ. I am monitoring through AJA IoHD and find the picture playback is stuttering on my panasonic 17" monitor . Media is on a G-Tech Raid E-Sata drive. The MacBook Pro is a 2.5 2 core with 4 gb ram.

Any ideas? or do I have to get a MacPro? if so what spec?

Are the render files on the external drive as well?

Check and see if Playback Quality in FCP is set to Dynamic.
Pro-Res is selectable and test lower settings to determine bottleneck.
-C

I am new to FCP. Should render files be on a separate drive?

I am new to FCP. Should render files be on a separate drive?Yes. I suggest that you read the installation manual.

I am new to FCP. Should render files be on a separate drive?

I've never had an issue with render files being on the same drive as my media (although back in the early days (FCP1.0.2/1.2.5 on a B&W g3 450MHz) I kept my media, application AND render drives all separate) but neither render or media files should ever share the system or application drive.

I'd render the whole thing to one ProRes HQ self-contained file and play it off the ESATA. When ProRes HQ stutters it's almost always because the data rate exceeds the capabilities of the hard drive.

Noah

Have you chosen the appropriate Video Output setting? Make sure if you're editing 29.97, it's set to 29.97, etc....