Hi
If the sound is in synch up the point where it stops I can't think what it might be. When it's added to the sequence line can you see the missing sound on the audio track? If you can it should be rendered when you create your film.
The black frames thing has been mentioned before. Again, I have no idea about them. All I can say is I never get them but, of course when a clip is previewed, it always ends with a black frame. It's not part of the clip however as it's not present when another clip is added on.
I am wondering if it's related to the format your camera is producing?
With regards converting MPEG4 to MPEG2. It's what I do as a routine (or until I can affort a whizz PC). There a quite a few free conversion programs available. I use "Any video converter" from:
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
(NCH do one of course but I had this one first which does what I want.)
It's pretty easy to use and you can add multiple files and convert between different video formats using variable parameters. (frame size/fps/ etc.) The resulting file outputs to a named folder (usually on the desktop) and the original remains unchanged so you can try something different.
Sorry, all in all not much help. Try MPEG2 and see if there is any difference.
Nat