Computer:

MBP Core2Duo 2.53

there's your problem. thats a pretty underpowered processor for avchd. i have a quad core 3ghz, and still is a struggle at times, but neither of us have a Cuda Card for MPE. (its not that important to me, but i dont mind doing edits unrendered cause i dont do anything breathtaking, yet). not familiar with pro-res cause i have neevr used final cut, but how long did it take to convert from avchd to pro-res? anywho, when i get ready to do the final export, i just set it to go overnight and leave it, and it works fine until i can get something that chews the avchd faster.

Then when I went to export I tried to go straight to mpeg 2 DVD, but it would take something like like 10-15 hours, so instead I exported "sequence settings" which ended up being 1920x1080 30p .mpeg file. The resulting file is a much more acceptable size at around 29gb vs 300 as ProRes.

 

i have a problem with this... you are essentially compressing your footage twice, which is never good. going to mpeg2 sequence settings first, is essiantially an intermediate format (and not a good one, either) may as well just encode it to avi or prores, you'd atlest get a better intermediate. but Premiere doesnt have a NEED for intermediates. until you get a more powerful pc, i just sugest encoding it, leaving it. sleeping, take a shower, eating breakfast, and you should be good as gold.

a better intermediate if your workflow requires would be lagarith avi, but i would suggest droping in AVCHD in a sequence matching assets timeline, do your edits, then export as mpeg2 dvd, and just find a way to occupy your time while it works. thats what i do for the time being until i can get a system like jim, or Harm has.

>red bar above the footage

That means you chose the wrong setting... when you first import and before you do any work, your timeline should not have a red line

For CS5 and later, the easy way to insure that your video and your project match

See 2nd post for picture of NEW ITEM process http://forums.adobe.com/thread/872666

http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2011/02/red-yellow-and-gree n-render-bars.html