My footage looks posterized in FCP playback

im using FCP 7 and have downloaded all the latest software updates.
my footage looks normal when i play it back on my video camera, it's normal when i watch it on quicktime, and even when i export it as a quicktime from FCP. it's also normal when capturing to my computer using the 'log and transfer' window. but when i play/preview the clips from the timeline or directly from the browser window, the footage looks distorted and posterized.
ive tried talking to apple support, ive re-loaded the program, ive tried the program with a different user account, ive trashed preferences and reloaded again... but the footage still looks posterized on FCP.
when i change the view settings, the footage looks normal on the R channel, the G channel and B channel, and even on the RGB + alpha channel, but when i view it using the RGB channel, it looks posterized, making it quite difficult to edit and colour-grade.
any suggestions on how i can fix this problem?

ok, so i dont know what i did. but after checking my colour settings in my system preferences (which i didnt change), FCP has decided to magically work! the footage is playing back normally now. yay!
i really dont know what i did to fix this problem, but it all appears to be fine now. thanks for your help!

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