This sounds pretty normal to me - I seem to remember reading somewhere that encoding for VCDs takes about 4-6 times as long as the starting file is. there's a lot of compression going on there and that takes time. -- Jeff Fay Media Services Technician Cooperative Extension Service College of Rural Alaska University of Alaska Fairbanks P.O. Box 756180 Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6180 phone (907) 474-5349 fax (907) 474-5139 jeff.fay at uaf.edu http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext ----- "Claiming that the Macintosh is inferior to Windows because most people use Windows, is like saying that all other restaurants serve food that is inferior to McDonalds". Randy B. Singer Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)