DVD Templates and encoding

[Canadian*]

Folks.

(2) Questions.

[1]
I use ULEAD Movie factory to create end result DVD's, but I am unhappy with the quality of menu templates. The windows VISTA dvd software has a really professional looking "video wall" template and chapters. Does anyone know of some good professional quality menu templates for ULEAD MF ?

[2]
I download all my video from the cam to the PC via firewire and then author the movies in AVI format. Thats all fine ... However, I waste a lot of time waiting for the MPEG2 conversion for the end result DVD's. Can anyone offer a PC Hardware card that does dedicated MPEG2 encoding with fast encode times, multipass (GT 2), high quality results, that is reasonably cost friendly ....

Thanks in advance ...

[guns1inger]

You can't do hardware multi-pass at capture time because the video only passes through once. You can do CBR or single pass VBR. If you want high-quality and speed, buy a faster computer. Dual core can increase encoding speed by 70%. Quad core should push that to 150% or better.

[Canadian*]

guns1inger

[2]
The MPEG conversion is not required during pass through, as stated, I capture over firewire to AVI and do all the manipulation in AVI format. (that part works very well)
I was interested in a multipass MPEG converter hardware card (if such a beast exists) to convert large AVI files into MPEG2 for inclusion in a DVD. I am keen to reduce encoding times and gain access to multipass improvments in MPEG quality.

I understand the X1000+ range of ATI chipset cards offers accelaretd MPEG encoding, but i have a Nvidia 8600GT512. I am also happy to have a dedicated card to do encoding.
Does such a hardware card exist for PC's ?