Working with AVCHD Video

Recently obtained a camcorder that records to AVCHD video; those wondering about HD Camcorders really ought not to - the prices are relatively the same as standard-def now, no point settling for that. However, for those who wish to edit their video, AVCHD notoriously poses a problem. Few programs support editing for it; Adobe Premiere (what I use) specifically fails to import it.
Not that I doubt I shall be stuck this way for long though; I will be spending the next few days hunting for a way to edit it. I’ve already found some work-arounds, but they do not provide true editing and/or are flawed.
For example:
Editing AVCHD in Premiere without intermediate codec - This is as close to native editing as I’ve found so far (native, meaning no conversions before or after editing). However, the method here loads the files in RAM. What’s the problem with this? Remember that this is an HD format; imagine loading several GB of video into RAM. Many people may not even have more than 1 GB of RAM and will force their programs to shut down.

Editing AVCHD Made Easy - This method is definitely not anywhere close to native editing, but it does the job. It basically has you convert the files to an editable format before importing. The only problems are disc space and conversion time. There’s also that “eRightSoft Super (c)” program that looks pretty darn suspicious. There’s a debate on how safe this program is on Monkeyless’s blog, but it’s pretty inconclusive. The good thing though, is that it allows video players to view AVCHD - this lets you choose which clips to convert to AVCHD - saving you a bit of space and time.

Of course, the ideal solution would be if Adobe supported the format in the first place…