What NLE's are people using to edit AVCHD natively? How does the performance during editing compare to HDV native editing? Assuming the same machine and software, is the playback and rendering similar in performance? I was reading that AVC is more processor intensive than HDV.

You are true, a single core processor is fine for HDV but AVCHD needs dual or quad core processors to edit natively.

I have yet to know of one NLE that could input and output AVCHD. But currently non-native intermediate editing is more effective.

I have yet to know of one NLE that could input and output AVCHD.

Sony Vegas Pro 8b can.

If you add the excellent Gearshift script (from VASST.COM) you can edit very smoothly with proxies and yet get a one generation AVCHD to AVCHD render from Vegas 8b.

What NLE's are people using to edit AVCHD natively? How does the performance during editing compare to HDV native editing? Assuming the same machine and software, is the playback and rendering similar in performance? I was reading that AVC is more processor intensive than HDV.

This thread might cover a few of your questions.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=119998

Never done HDV, but for pinnacle studio 11+, my amd athlon x2 4400+ (s939) win XP, 4 gig, takes 20 minutes to convert 1 minute of avchd to wmv 1280x720 60p.

It's choppy in the preview, and I have to pause after about 5 seconds for it catch up.