So I've got CS3 and like it lots, however... all footage that I've captured with 1.5.1 needs rendering once placed in a CS3 timeline.

And when I capture stuff in CS3 it plays weird and jumpy and is squashed when viewed in Windows Media Player, as if the footage isn't going from 1440 to 1920 wide. Does that make sense?

What's the trouble?

I'm capturing from a Sony Z1P.

The footage you have from PremPro 1.5.1 has been converted to the CineForm codec at capture time as 1.5.1 does not handle native HDV. Are you using CF with PremPro CS or you're editing natively?

Native HDV footage is 1440x1080 with no indication whatsoever that it should be displayed as 16x9. You need to set the player to display it as 16x9 and I'm not sure WinMediaPlayer can do that. And it's jumpy perhaps because your computer specs are not up to the task - try a lean player instead, WMPlayer uses way too many hardware and software resources (I use MPlayer Classic).

The footage you have from PremPro 1.5.1 has been converted to the CineForm codec at capture time as 1.5.1 does not handle native HDV. Are you using CF with PremPro CS or you're editing natively?

I'm editing natively I guess - I haven't downloaded any Cineform products.

Native HDV footage is 1440x1080 with no indication whatsoever that it should be displayed as 16x9. You need to set the player to display it as 16x9 and I'm not sure WinMediaPlayer can do that.

It's played perfectly forever though. Only recently has this problem appeared and it won't go away.

And it's jumpy perhaps because your computer specs are not up to the task - try a lean player instead, WMPlayer uses way too many hardware and software resources (I use MPlayer Classic).

My computer is definitely up to task - the whole problem didn't exist until recently.

You may only edit natively HDV footage that has never been converted to something else - in other words if you capture footage NOW with PremPro3, you can edit that natively (and version 2 does the same).

But PremPro 1.5 was not able to edit HDV natively; this is why Adobe came out with the 1.5.1 update, which is basically an early version of Cineform. So when you captured HDV into PremPro 1.5.1, the HDV footage has been converted into Cineform AVI.

regarding your 1440 aspect ratio issue. You may have to properly interpret the clips in the bin. That is right click, interpret footage, then select conform option radio button, and choose "HDV anamorphic... 1.333" in the drop down.

Otherwise, you'll have to re-encode or recapture the clips.

Alternatively, you could download and try the cineform trial and edit in a cineform hdv based project.

regarding your 1440 aspect ratio issue. You may have to properly interpret the clips in the bin...

The issue of video not displaying at the correct ratio does not effect playback in Premiere but in all media players (Nero Showtime, Media Player, etc...) Every program I have tried produces the same squashed result. All footage I have ever captured is playing back squashed and I cannot identify the cause.