The actual error reads: The effect "Brightness" cannot be rendered in a sequence of this size with the current graphic card.

I'm on an early 2008 MBP with 2.6 dual core with 4GB of ram running FCS2. It has worked fine up until this point. I've currently got 8 layers of 1080i HV30 footage and I'm trying to brighten one shot that was done outside at night.

I thought the error was just referring to the real time render but when I exported to a Quicktime movie, that part of my 4 minute music video only has video in the top third of the frame and the lower 2/3 is black.

Are there any options to work around this while still brightening the clip? I was hoping to hold off on a new Mac Pro until they give it some kind of update. Is there any external solution I can get (like a Matrox unit) to work around this and will still be useful once I move onto a Mac Pro?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Also, I've tried creating a new sequence for the clip and brightening it that way then importing it back into my main sequence but it still says the sequence is too large to handle on my graphics card. That was with only one video track.

Strange. As a workaround you could try exporting that one clip with the filter applied and then re-importing it to FCP. As opposed to just nesting the sequence.

Another option you could consider, if Erik's recommendation doesn't work - take that clip onto another timeline, send it to Color and see if Color will allow you to adjust the clip, then render and send back to FCP...

I tried what Erik recommended over the weekend and no dice, I get the same error. I'll try Color hopefully today and see if it works. Good suggestion. Thanks

Go into sequence settings then click the Video Processing tab. Change from Render 10-bit YUV to Render in 8-bit YUV.

Go into sequence settings then click the Video Processing tab. Change from Render 10-bit YUV to Render in 8-bit YUV.
Am I losing any image quality by doing that? Or should this be a "this project only" change?

This may not work in all cases, but I've found that the order that the effects are being applied to the clip matters at times. Try flip-flopping the order of the filters.

Am I losing any image quality by doing that? Or should this be a "this project only" change?

Chances are eventually you'll output an 8-bit YUV file - DVD or web. So you're not going to loose much. I've never been able to see a difference between 8-bit and 10-bit if it is not acquired that way. The real advantage of 10-bit is more latitude to do color correction. However, you've already captured the material as 8-bit.