I copied some hdv footage into final cut now I am trying to put some dissolves in between my clip they are in the same order that I shot them in but when I go to add the dissoves a window pops up and says insufficient content for edit. What am I doing wrong I have 99 individual clip but I can put dissolves in between them.

...when I go to add the dissoves a window pops up and says insufficient content for edit.

Your clips need to have in- and out-points at least 0.5sec (depends on the length of the transition you want) from their beginning and end so that the transition generator can use that part (so called "handles") for the dissolve.

See page 374 in the Final Cut Pro User Manual (Vol2, Editing, part3).

Your clips need to have in- and out-points at least 0.5sec (depends on the length of the transition you want) from their beginning and end so that the transition generator can use that part (so called "handles") for the dissolve.

See page 374 in the Final Cut Pro User Manual (Vol2, Editing, part3).

Are the handles something I am putting in when I am ingesting my video or is it something I can put in after thanks Gary

Are the handles something I am putting in when I am ingesting my video or is it something I can put in after thanks Gary

Depends on how you're capturing. If you're doing the "classical" log-and-capture, then you're settting in- and out- points for each clip before you capture it. If you're using the "capture now" variant (I'm using that normally), then you set in- and out-points afterwards:
1. double click a clip in the browser so it opens in the viewer.
2. in the viewer set in point (press I) and out point (press O) at the appropriate time points.
3. drag the clip from the viewer to the canvas or timeline. If you're dragging the clips to the canvas, you'll see this popup appear that offers the different placement options. Two options include "with transition". That's probably easiest to do.

if you don't have handles you could always over lap them on the timeline to put in dissolves.

The handles are your video!

If you have two 10 second shots, ie the media is only 10 seconds in length, and you want a two second dissolve between them you'll have to edit them together so that shot 1 is nine seconds long and shot two is nine seconds long where the first frame is 1 second after first frame of the shot.

Think of it as two lengths of ribbin that you are over-laying. When the penny drops, you're kick yourself.

Thanks for all the help everyone I figured it out based on every ones post thanks again.