tsqiared3
Thanks for all the important troubleshooting information.
I am still going through the details, but my first impression is that you are editing AVCHD.mts in a 32 bit application in the 32 bit mode of a 64 bit computer.
As such you are working with a high resource demanding format in the 32 bit computer environment with maximum supported installed RAM of 4 GB of which only about 3 GB or less of that are available. And you are working with 35 minutes of this format. How much free hard drive space does your computer have?
If you put aside the computer resources question...
1. Is this strictly a previewing issue or is this an overall project/program problem? If you export the Timeline content, what is the quality of the export - similarly flawed? (When exporting a 1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 content, please use export settings with the frame size 1920 x 1080 to avoid the dependency of the player reading a 16:9 flag of the 1440 x 1080.
2. You wrote
When I select Render, it immediately starts playing the video because there are no changes to render.
This would suggest that you have selected the correct project preset for the project. What is it according to the readings in Edit Menu/Project Settings/General?
3. Your screenshot of the original show only one frame rate. And you are using a camcorder. So, there is not indication for a variable frame rate in this instance. If you were dealing with a variable frame rate, you would have seen three frame rates in the MediaInfo video properties readout. Typically camcorder are not devices that record with a variable frame rate.
4. Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1 was particularly noted for its Display issues. By the way, are you working from the 9.0.1 Update of the program? If not, use the following link for the Update. Do not use the Help Menu/Updates for the update to 9.0.1.
Adobe - Premiere Elements : For Windows : Premiere Elements 9.0.1 update
Have you gotten any display card errors even if you have your video card/graphics card driver version up to date. For that the solution is likely to be deletion of the BadDrivers.txt file. ATR Premiere Elements Troubleshooting: PE: BadDrivers.Txt File Locations
Please consider and then we will discuss this further in the morning based on the details in your reply. If file conversion is necessary for reasons other than variable frame rate, perhaps we could look at obtaining a HandBrake 1920 x 1080p29.97 H.264.mp4 instead of the 1440 x 1080p29.97 that you went with.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Thank you.
ATR