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Handbrake is great after you get it working. Be sure to install the universal 32 bit binary of VLC player or you'll get an error. But be aware it takes a loooong time to encode videos on a G4.
 
It converts videos in real time on my 500Mhz Sawtooth.

Unless your working below 640*480 somehow I have significant doubts about that given that both my 450 Sawtooth and Dual 867 MDD can't go above that and get anything remotely close to real time unless Im just exporting from iMovie at raw resolution and in the original codec (ie exporting HD .dv files). Compression and Re-Encoding does not work in real time on a 500Mhz G4 across a modern range of digital media. Especially if your going near DVD ripping or anything thats highly encoded (eg h.264) or HD.
 
...ok, it did take a while! To be honest I was asleep when it completed, but I think it was about 7-8 hours to compress a 2hr 10min video dump. A while, but not taking up time on my mini, so overall a result! Nice that my quicksilver has something meaningful to do :) I may buy a G5 though...
 
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