What is the best production setting for high quality but that won't take super long?

My videos average 28-58 mins of footage that I shoot of live bands. They usually include 6-8 tunes with simple transitions, title & credits, and some video improvement. On rare occasion I also use the equalize function to improve audio. I post these full length videos to Youtube, then burn dvds for distribution to public access tv.

My current 48 min music video in production mode is going to take over 20 hrs to produce... and then it will take another 300+ mins to upload to Youtube. My laptop needs to rest, cool down in between, so I'll have to wait again til tomorrow night to post to Youtube since it's too hot here in the daytime to work it. I really would like a quicker turn around time!

One of the reasons I purchased the Cyberlink PD11 as soon as it was available online is that it claimed really quick processing. 20 hrs does not seem quick to me - neither does the 6 or 10 hrs for shorter videos. Am I doing something wrong, or is there something I can do to make my computer work faster beyond everything I've done like buying more gb, updating graphics card, clearing out old programs & files and making lots of space on C drive and cleaning with Cyberlink's PC TuneUp 2013 that came with the PD11 Ultimate Suite package. I have been told there will be a faster laptop out in November, but meanwhile...

I do know that if I produce as lower res, it might be quicker but lower res = lower visual clarity, which I don't like. I didn't spend so much $ on camera, software & computer equip and time to only get grainy footage.

I have been using the AVCHD option to match my filming settings of 1920 x 1080 / 60i. Since this forum had advised selecting slower settings for rendering since I was having problems burning dvds, I chose 16 mp this time rather than 24. But over 20 hrs really seems long for a video under 1 hr, especially since the program lists it as Smart Rendering, which is supposed to be "fast".

Are there other settings that give high quality results but don't take so long? When I send as MP4 to Youtube they send a msg saying I should set my Quicktime or Movietime at a different setting for better quality. MPEG-2 takes longer and doesn't look as good.
Please advise... Thanks! Tina9999 CyberPower Inc Windows 7
Intel (R) Core (tm) i7-4770K cpu @ 3.50 ghz
64 bit op sys - 32.0 GB RAM