Tried another drive and still choppy. This is getting frustrating. Might just go get a new drive and start over.

OK, now I am really confused. My PC has two IDE ATA/100 drives, one main with the OS and programs, and another for backups. Then I use a SATA hot sway drive bay. So far the two SATA drives in that bay have giving me choppy playback with Premiere. I tried the file on the main drive and no problem. I just tried it on the 2nd IDE ATA/100 drive and no problem. I thougth SATA drives were faster? I am so confused now on what I need to do.

Something isn't right with the SATA setup. Could be as simple as a flaky cable (often is). Can you hook up the SATA drives to the motherboard internally?

SATA drives, themselves, aren't faster than IDE drives. The SATA interface allows for a higher peak data transfer rate. In real world performance, it's doesn't make a difference for most things. I won't go into a ton of detail. Either interface (IDE or SATA) is plenty way fast enough for real time DV or HDV data transfer.

OK, installed a new IDE drive and redid XP and the programs. Used HDVSplit to import the last tape where I had packet losses. This time NONE!! Seems like my old OS must have had some problems. I am no longer going to use the SATA removable drive bay. Just going to run two 500GB IDE drives, one for the OS and programs, and the other for just videos. Will just use the SATA drives externally for backups. Thanks for all the help.

Also I guess the tapes were not an issue. But I think for this camera I will stick with the Sony DVM63 HD tapes.

Good to hear you have a working solution for capturing now. I don't use the Sony HDV tapes. As long as lower cost tapes work fine, I look at it like this: Perhaps the high price tapes will reduce head wear, but when they cost around $5 more than many alternatives, after a couple hundred tapes you've saved in the neighborhood of $1000, and that can pay for a lot of repair (or go toward a new camera). I just got a Canon XH-A1 and I'm going to try Maxell's "Pro" MiniDV tapes in it. They claim to use a superior lubricant that results in less head wear and clogging than with standard tapes, and B&H sells them for less than $5/ea.

Update: Ok, an interesting observation. Had a car show to tape and did not have any of the Sony DVM63 HD tapes left (have used 6 so far with no problems). So I took a chance and used the Costco TDKs in the HD1000. Used my Canon HV20 to import 30 minutes of footage, and no dropouts :) So might just go back to using those tapes instead of the Sonys as long as I don't notice any more dropouts.

For the last dozen or so tapes (the TDKs) no problems, but Costco no longer carries the TDK tapes and now has Sony. So my question is, is it ok to switch over from the TDK tapes to Sony? I have read that TDK uses a dry lubricate while Sony uses a wet. Is that true and would it present any problems switching?

No problems. Just run the cleaning cassette for 10 sec before switching.

I use the SONY PHDVM-63DM master tapes exclusively. I often suspect I'm paying more just for hype but I have heard of some people having serious issues with lower grade tape.

Even though the cheaper tapes could save you enough to replace the camera, they cannot replace the footage you may lose if you have a tape or head failure in a live shoot. But maybe my risk threshold is unreasonably low.

the tapes I use... but remember I use them once....
 

I use maxell tapes I get on sale at walgreens wehn tey are around $3 each ($6 per 2)

I never had a problem in sd or hdv. but I use them once.. ie write to them once... maybe preview once..... capture to disk once..

I am not reading writing reading writing... I hear of intance of people using a tape over and over and over and wonder why it starts dropping out.......