I just finished shooting my first project with the 5D, but have an older version of Final Cut Pro. All of the files are 1920x1080 H.264 30 fps and the audio is 16-bit 48kHz stereo. When I drop into FCP, the playback is choppy. I've tried using mpeg streamclip to convert them all to Quicktime files. The files playback without any lag, but the quality is unacceptable. I also watched a tutorial on changing my sequence settings, but that did not have an effect on the playback.

How do I keep the high-quality of my original files, and edit in FCP?

Thanks in advance.

I just used mpeg streamclip to batch everything using the Apple Intermediate Codec, and that appears to be okay. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it. Obviously, I just need to upgrade my FCP, but don't quite have the $ to do that yet.