Rendering problem - takes ages - why ?? Problem described + hardware listed

Question

Hi
First I will try to describe my problem which makes me nuts by now :-(....then -  I will also submit the information about my hardware as good as I can, to hopefully get some wise hints about what to do. I'm not that skilled when it comes to video and different formats and hardware etc, so hopefully I will get some easy to understand hints :-)
I'm using Premiere Elements 8.0 and for the video capture I'm using A canon HF10 recorder. When recording I get AVCHD files (filename.mts). When starting up a new project I select "PAL->AVCHD->Full-HD 1080i 25" which I think should be the correct preset !? Atleast a preset that should work if I intend to get the best output quality in the end if I understand everything correct....
So, the problem I'm experiencing at the moment : As soon as I drag the firt clip to my timeline and I see this "red" bar above my clip, I hit "enter key" to start rendering this particular clip.....at the moment I'm trying with just a small clip (file size 13,5 MB - 6 seconds long)....when this rendering dialogue window comes up it takes like 5-7 minutes to just render this little clip..very frustrating as you can imagine :-)
Another thing is that after I have managed to render all my clips I added to the timeline(even though it took a huge amunt of time)..and the afterwards save the project and then re-open it, some of the clips are "red" again and I have to hit "enter" to render them again (if I'm not mistaken ?)...why is that ? Some setting I have missed and if so exactelly where can I find this and what should it be set to ?
Have been struggeling with this for a while and need to understand what I have to do, just killing my motivation for moving on :-( Hopefully someone can describe what I need to do - and please in an easy way if possible without getting to technical (if possible)
I can also mention that I'm using two separate disks (also listed in the below spec. of my system)..one SSD disk and so another larger disk for storage...when setting up the project I noticed that its possible (of course) to specify the different output files and where on the disk system/s they should go....also, if this is important and can make a difference for my described problems, how should I think ? What data should go on each disk and what should go on the faster SSD disk? I imagine I will get perhaps a suggestion to have even more disks for my video editing, but I really hope what I'm trying to do with just a tiny clip should not need to have more then this..hopfully its more advanced things that will create perhaps a future need for additional storage components ?
So, here's some data on my system (give me feedback if I should list even more details for someone to be able to help me out):
Processor :  Intel Core i7 930, 2,8 Ghz - 4 kernels, 8 logical processors
RAM memory : 6 GB
64 bit operating system Windows 7
HD Drive1 : Intel SSD Sa2M080 G2Gc ATA Device - 80GB
HD Drive2 : Samsung HD103SJ ATA Device - 1 TB
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce Gt240 (1 GB RAM for video card)
Shouldn't this be enough for atleast being able to render my small clips a lot faster ? All of you that will be able to help me get back on track - your help will be VERY APPRECIATED. Thanks in avance
//Helmut

Answer 1

Bill & Robert. thanks both for your replies. I will try to use
either of the software recommendations for getting more info about my .mts files, back shortly about this...
(later in the evening).....but when it comes too what you mentined Robert, after re-opening my projects only some of the
clips "turns" red again and need to be re-rendered ? Is this really a known problem in PrE you say ? And if so, does it exist also in PrEL 9 ? If so, I cant understand how a such central and "must-work" feature can not work properly, sounds really weird ? To be able to render same preview files when openiing a project must make people furious ?
Thanks for your answers, anyone else experienced these problems Robert mentions and if so, do someone know if there are any workaround or fix to cure this really enoying thing ?
Will get back about the .mts files to hopefully get some further assistance
Thanks
//Helmut