MPEG convesion programs

[GT40FIED]

Ok...I'm looking for a good program that will encode AVI files over to MPEG1 or MPEG2 formats. Problem is the ones I have (TMPGenc & AVI2VCD) are either waaaaaay too clow (AVI2VCD takes, on average, 10-16 hours to do a 1 1/2 hour movie) or they have bad audio-video sync as the movie gets longer (TMPGenc is pretty bad about this). Can anyone recommend anything (preferably free) that doesn't have these problems? Tried FX MPEG writer but it took just as long as AVI2VCD and left out the audio track.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

I've never had problems with TMPGenc or AVI2VCD. What speed computer are you on? Your speed problems are mostly based on that, not the software.

[GT40FIED]

2.4Ghz processor, 512MB Ram, 80 gig HD. It's not bleeding edge tech, but it's not a slouch. TMPGenc is usually good on time...but it's kinda picky about what it will and won't encode. I've got a bunch of old MST3K episode that it won't take and they have to go through AVI2VCD which takes forever (and 100% of your CPU).

[Civic Backwards]

I'm not sure what you can do to speed things up. However I generally use prepared media for encoding.

Head over to www.dvdrhelp.com their should be a few tutorials on speeding up encoding times.