Maybe you can show us, Bob, what you mean?
Which is the previous version you came from. What you describe sounds “normal” behavior to me. for PD 19 / 365.
The clips you select in the media-room will be shown in the preview screen. They will play (audio and video) when you press the space bar or the play button. Once you have moved/dragged the clip to the timeline, AND you select the clip then that clip will be shown in the previews screen, and will play with spacebar or play button.
But clicking on a spot in the timeline may be tricky: what is the spot you click on. If you click anywhere in the video or audio track of a clip, you select that clip and the “cursor” will be positioned at the start of the clip unless the cursor was already somewhere in that clip. If you click on a spot at the top of the timeline where the yellow time indicator is shown, the “cursor” will be positioned at that very place in the video clip or clips under that spot and the top clip will be selected automatically.
But you also write about
not syncsing up with the preview screen; that is a bit confusing to me. So maybe you can explain, or show us what you do, with either a screen shot or a screen recording of the action?