graphics card

[matt_h]

does your graphics card effect the encoding time?. if so can someone recommend a few good graphics cards for converting

[stk]

No it dosent

Your encoding time depends on your processor speed.

[stk]

ati cards are the bests (btw)

[hhhhbk]

i was going to say get a better processor
but then i read your pc description
Operating System: xp professional
CPU Speed: 3200+ amd 64bit
Harddrive space: 180gig
RAM Memory: 1 gig
Video Card: 128
Capture Card: spirit
Motherboard: winfast pro
CD-ROM: 52x
DVD-ROM: liteonit
CD Writer: 48x
DVD Writer: liteonit 4x
Standalone DVD Player: LG

a pentium 4 3.4/3.6 GHz may be slightly faster but there would be a minimal difference and would cost £400 for processor and motherboard

1 What Program are You Using
2 What format do you initially have
3 what format are you trying to convert to
4 what are the length and filesize of the file your trying to encode
5 how long does it take you to encode

if you think its currently taking a long time perhaps you are using a bad program or are including too many filters more information will allow people to post suggestions on where the problem is(if there is one)
i would expect a pc with your spec to take 5 hours to encode the video from a dvd film into an avi

[miksu]

Those stupid integrated solutions with shared memory have (little) negative effect on encoding speed, since it steals memory bandwidth that otherwise would be available for CPU.

But of course, integrated isn't really card...