Why does it take my computer HOURS for a DVD to burn, but people tell me it takes...

...them minutes? The burning part is pretty fast...but it's the encoding that takes hours upon hours. Putting two 2 hour movies (avi) takes about 3-4 hours to encode. Is there anyone way to make it go faster? It's so annoying! By the way, I use a free burning software (DVD Flick).

Not familiar with DVD Flick, but 2 things:

1) Make sure the encoding isn't running in a 'low priority' mode. Check the options or preferences menu.
Or
2) Get a better (faster) CPU