This was using my external FW 16x DVD-R/RW drive as well. You might be running into a bottleneck using the slot drive on the newer iMacs.
It seems like the right fps for the iMac. The h.264 will use a lot of rescources on your computer for the encoding. When gavd is getting 85 fps, he's not using the h.264 codec.
I am ripping my first DVD using Handbrake with the AppleTV presets.
The rip is averaging 11.8 or 11.9 FPS on my iMac C2D 24" 2.16. Is this speed acceptable or is something wrong here?
bframes=3:ref=1:subme=5:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1:no-dct-decimate=1:trellis=2
MP4 file
Create chapter markers
MP4 file
Framerate: Same as source
Codecs: AVC/x264 (h.264 Main)
Average bitrate 2500
Anamorphic ON
Audio
Track 1 - English (AC3) (2.0 ch)
Track 1 Mix - Stereo
Sample rate 48
Bitrate 160