Various sources of video and how to handle them...

Question

First and foremost we use Final Cut Studio HD... our mac is one of the last Power PC models I think...anyway on to the issue.
After showing a new editor our setup today he came to the realization and asked something that I've been wondering for a long time...
There has to be a better way...but is there really?
First our setup is kind of unique. Not optimal. We don't get all our footage from a dv camera. We get footage fed from the studio to the mac via a AJA IO-LA capture card... we capture in 8 bit uncompressed over composite cable. We also capture video from a Beta cam SP deck also in 8 bit uncompressed. Thats fine as we get plenty of stuff that route and we don't have to render anything but overlays from Live type (although I have a question about that as well).
However we're losing hours each day watching the render bar because the bulk of video we use for B-roll and stories comes via satellite into a server computer. The files are in mpeg2. We convert them to DV (because every option on mpegstreamclip produces the same results) and DV is easy and fast for conversion. Why convert from perfectly good mpeg2s? FCP Won't even acknowledge that the files have audio unless you convert them into something you have to render on the time line.
So what can we do? How do we avoid the rendering we endure daily? I've been plugging away at it for a long while now... but finally talking to another editor (I'm the only one here at the company) kind of cemented something thats been annoying me for a long while.
How can I do this so that I don't have to edit, render, edit, render... Other programs (namely Adobe) allow multiple file types on the same time line. Sure you have to render to play out a file or export but you don't have to render just to hear whats being said or see whats going on.
Is it just a setting I've got wrong or haven't turned on? I'm fairly unfamiliar with mac's and this stint at work dealing with issues like this isn't exactly endearing macs or FCP to me...
So hopefully some of the more experienced folks around here can help.
Other potential issues would be the live type files and graphic overlays? Is there a setting that would let us preview them in real time as they play? It doesn't have to play perfectly and I realize I have to render them to play out or export. But surely there is a way to just put it on the time line as an overlay over video (even video we don't have to render) and watch roughly or exactly what we want without waiting the 5-7 minutes for the 30 second section of the show to render.
And one last issue: Despite hard drives that pass speed tests with flying colors (both our internal sata drive and our external sata array) we can't Print to tape from our timeline without first exporting the time line into a huge quicktime file. If we just play it out we end up with dropped frames all over the place. Regardless of having all the files on the same hard drive and having everything rendered. I think this problem stems from having the files being rather large (8 bit uncompressed) as it plays fine it just likes to stop about 6-10 times over the course of a 30 minute time line saying dropped frame. I've gone over the various fixes for dropped frames and none help or fix the issue...the only thing that works is exporting our 30 minute show into a 30+ gig quicktime file...which makes archiving really really hard.
We produce 2 30 minute news shows every day that are seen syndicated all over the country... So time is of massive importance to me as I'm the only editor and work every day... if the mac drops a frame or rendering throws us off time it is my fault and my issue to fix. Our deadlines aren't flexible and having random issues with all of these issues has put a serious crimp into what all I and we can accomplish in any given day.
Any help would be greatly appreciated...anything you see that seems strange please ask as I said earlier I'm unfamiliar with macs outside of work and my dealings with FCP here.
G5 Dual 2.7 GHZ, 4 GB DDR SDRAM   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Lacie BIG 1TB External

Answer 1

As an editor I started out using adobe at home... then when I moved into professional editing I started with an old copy of Avid on a 5+ year old mac... After doing that for over a year we moved to this FCP system... After my boss has spent the money on this system I really have trouble seeing me convince him to drop enough cash for a PC system... although I'd be right at home on it.
One query: you are using the Kona to capture 8-bit through composite?
No... we don't use the Kona... We use the AJA IO-La... different than a Kona because we originally got that one... although moved (I think) up to the model we currently use because it was supposed to help in real time stuff.
But we do capture through composite (The whole office is wired for it...) rather than anything better.