Fastest & easiest way to convert files from dvd to upload to Youtube?

[scarypoultry]

hi all
I have been copying stuff from video tape to dvd-r, used Mpg2cut2 to divide them into individual files eg commercials and then uploading them to Youtube and they are fine for videotape quality. But i find any file over a couple of minutes after uploading & processing, the audio is then out of sync, the only theory i have for this is maybe because i am using PAL video & youtube is converting it to NTSC?
Anyway then i have converted some longer files to MPEG4 with SUPER & uploading them because thats one of the file types they recommend & they seem to turn out fine, which is great but if they are files over a few 100 mb then its pretty slow on my old 1.6ghz Sempron with 512mb ram eg tried a 700mb file & quit after
30mins because it had only done about 20% of it.

Any ideas on what other programs i could use to do this that would be faster on my old pc? without degrading quality too much, as i said its only video tape but i want it to still be pretty clear picture.
cheers from Oz

[manono]

the only theory i have for this is maybe because i am using PAL video & youtube is converting it to NTSC?

No, if it's 25fps to begin with, YouTube keeps it at 25fps.

You could try AutoGK and do a Target Quality 1-pass encode at the default 75% and see if you like the results.

[AudioParadiso]

Your original VHS files would be luck to have 400 lines of resolution with as many pixels to start with. The DVD standard (PAL) is 720 x 575. So you really can't use that resolution and it would be slowing down your upload unless you dumped it in Super.
I'd suggest using wmv at 320 x 240 (which was YouTubes original resolution (flash) before HQ and HD).
I know Youtube recommends H.264 -- but that's because it streams H.264 in an FLV container for HD.