encoding tv recordings

Hi,

I use my Windows media center PC to record TV (in DVR-MS format), and I use Visual Hub on my iMac to encode the video to a smaller file size. I have been encoding to MP4 format as I thought I would be able to edit the new file in iMovie to get rid of the adverts etc, but this takes forever to publish/export. Is there any easier/quicker program out there for the Mac that will handle the editing? I can of course encode the original into any of the formats supported by Visual Hub. Would Final Cut Express 4 be any good for this?

Matt

TV / Video / DVD are all large files, so will of course take a long time to encode/export, only faster hardware will speed that up.

While I don't use Final Cut Express and can't answer the original question....
Only faster hardware is not necessarily the case either.

Personally am still doing most of this stuff in XP. Have found a vast difference in encode times between software. They are not all created equal. Ex. - TMPGEnc DVD Author for editing commercials and re-encoding a recorded show beats the pants off any of the boxed software commonly available in the stores by 50 - 400%.

And while DVD Shrink and Handbrake don't do exactly the same thing (since Handbrake will not re-encode to the same resolution of a DVD at 720 x 480), DVD Shrink completes the task in fully 1/2 the time on my MBP and cuts it's own time by another 50% on my now almost 4 yr old P4 running even at the stock speed of 3.4.

I would really like to move all of this same type of activity away from my win machines and to the Mac. But when you're talking about encode time differences of 60 minutes on the Mac side vs 30 minutes on the Win side - makes it hard.

I also would be interested in the different software folks have tried for editing commercials out of recorded TV shows. Which ones do you like?
Which ones provide the best quality with the fastest encode times. Or are our choices just that slim?