Hello,
I'm getting a serious headache from the time I've spend on this, if someone could help me.

First, how do I record analog cable? I've read 352x480 but then I get a tall picture. Converting it to other formats and specifying a size doesn't seem to correct it. And if I do 640x480 I get outragous conversion times to XviD, and even to nuv is much slower.

Second, what's the best way to convert to XviD? mencode, transcode, or FFMPeg? I can't get anything that isn't really bad from the last one. A command line example would be appreciated. I'd like to be able to convert an hour of analog cable to XviD in under an 8 hours if possible. My equipment is an AMD MT-37 2Ghz, 2GB, PVR-350. I'd like the final quality to be better than VCR and close to standard tv.

Third,
What converts to nuv faster? mpeg2 or nuv?

Thnaks in Advance!

Correction to my last sentence.
What converts to XviD faster? mpeg-2 or nuv.