Problem Working With Footage From Two Cameras

Hi there,

This is my first post on the forum. I have a question that I hope you can help me figure out.

I am an assistant editor working on a project with footage from two cameras - Panasonic HVX and a Sony XDCam. After L&T, the Panasonic footage comes in as 1280x1080; 29.97 fps; Compressor - DVCPRO HD 1080p30; Data Rate 14.1 MB/sec. The Sony footage is already in a quicktime and is 1920x1080; 29.97 fps; Compressor - XDCAM EX 1080p30; Data Rate 4.3 MB/sec.

I'm trying to use the footage in the same sequence and have set my sequence settings to match the Panasonic. In doing so, I get bright green render bars over the Sony footage, and it can take hours to render. My external drive is cranking....I get the beach ball, and FCP crashes sometimes.

I've tried to find some answers, but there's nothing clear cut. The closest thing I've found is to convert both to another compressor using MPEG Streamclip, but when I do that to the Sony footage, it becomes drop frame, and I lose the time code. (My boss doesn't want to lose the original TC).

Is there a way to get the footage from both cameras to match in frame size? Is there a way to use the footage from both cameras in the same sequence without getting the render bars? Is there something I need to do to the footage before/during L&T?

I'm stuck. I greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide! Between the 2 cameras, I've got about 12 hours of footage....

All of my media is on an external hard drive. I'm working on a MacBook Pro; 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor; 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Memory: FCP 7.

Many, many thanks!

Kelly