AUDIO HICCUPS ..NOTHING PLAYS SMOOTHLY

DO I NEED MORE RAM...AUDIO CONTINUES TO HICCUP EVEN WITH PROXY....I HAVE 2.8GHZ INTEL CORE I7 27" IMAC 4GB 1067MHZ DDR3...AND ATI GRAPHICS RADEON HD4850 512MB

4GB RAM? A miracle it plays at all. Get more!

Definitely max out the RAM. And get a good external drive for Events and Projects.

just maxed out the RAM to 16gb...still getting poor playback....also using a 1tb Lacie design by NP.

How is that LaCie connected to your Mac? Firewire, USB 2, USB 3, Thunderbolt?

What format/codec is the media? What camera did it come from? Did you optimize it on Import?

seems to only hiccup on the timeline, Bin playback is fine. (off timeline)

...USB 2.
...The file is coming from a Tricaster HD300 as a MPEG2, then rewrapped into the Mac as a MOV. don't remember if I optimized or not..sorry.

I think this is a rewrap issue.

...just imported different footage from cam, it plays well on the timeline.

USB 2 is not really going to keep up with serious video editing.

MPEG-2 is also a really sucky editing codec.

Right-click the clip in the Browser, "Transcode Media", "Optimize". See if that helps.

Seriously, move to FW800. Or USB 3 if your Mac supports it. If you can. I know that's just more money, but I see all sorts of issues with the slow rate of USB 2 every day. And optimize your media.