Here's a short clip I just captured on the A1s. Could someone else download it and see if they get the same results. Try it in Premiere or AE if you could. I would really help narrow down the problem.

Here it is: http://ia311341.us.archive.org/1/ite.../captured.mpeg

I can't get that clip to import into Premiere CS3.2.0. However it plays fine in a couple of software media players (VLC and Mediaplayer Classic).

Will try a few other things and report back....

Hmmm... tried it with Premiere CS3 on a different machine and it DID load this time. No artifacts. Also ran it through MPEG2Repair, which is a mpeg transport stream fix program, and it reported "no errors".

Very strange, it won't play right on either of my computers. Have you tried it on After Effects?

Loads and plays fine in After Effects CS3 8.0.2 on both machines.

It must be incompatible with CS4 then. Now what am I gonna do? I have some filming for a client to do today and a lot next week with no way to edit it. What a mess.

I have CS4 on a dual boot - just checked and your clip loaded fine into both CS4 Premiere and After Effects.

This is one of the most confusing computer problems I've ever had. Do you have Vista as your operating system?

I have CS3 on a XP64 install, and both CS3 and CS4 on a XP32 install ... CS4 isn't working well for me - I'll probably wait for more stable releases, more memory and Windows 7 before I try to do much with it.

Did you add effects and try play it? Will it render? I just now tried to import the same exact video into AE CS4 and it immediately crashed.

So when you first received this camera all you had to do was plug it in and it was ready to go?

I'm headed out to do some filming now, thanks for all your help!

OK I just pulled your clip into AfterEffects CS4 9.01.51 on XP32 and added Curves. Plays fine....

I have a Sony FX7, can't help you with Canon settings, sorry.

Mitch, your computer must have some sort of problem, or the clip you uploaded didn't include the "red zone" frames in your footage. I also imported into an HDV 60i sequence and had no trouble with the clip on a QX6700 machine booted to a partition with Vista x64 SP1, in CS4 version of PPro and AE (Vista and CS4 fully updated as of this afternoon). Imported, fiddled with a few different effects and it all behaved properly. Really doubt it is the camera.

I believe the red frames indicate a dropout that the capture module of PPro identified; in old versions it used to be that dropouts caused a capture abort or other unfriendly anomalies. Did you run a head cleaning tape for a few seconds with this new camera before starting to shoot with it? That is generally recommended.

If you have CS3 and CS4 installed on the same partition, it is possible that they conflicted. I had similar problems with CS2 and CS3 (really messed up the system to have them co-exist, which it SHOULDN'T do, but did), which is why I have CS4 on a separate partition (so I can use either CS3 with Cineform Prospect or Adobe CS4 without Cineform without worries, pending their long-awaited upgrade to fully support CS4).

Here's what I get after importing it into AE and putting it into a composition. Does anyone have an idea of why this is happening to me and only me?

Pete, I do have Premiere Elements 3.0.2 installed on the same partition as PPro on both computers. Could this have something to do with it? But I've been using PPro with SD video taken on a different camera for some time now with no problems.