INSANELY SUPER SLOW conversion times for MP4 to Quicktime Movie..HELP!!!!!!

Question

Hi folks...
I am frustrated.
I am a student in a Film Editing class.
I have an assignment where I have to take a classic film and create a movie trailer for it using the original film and editing in FinalCut Pro.
I started off by using Handbrake to change the original DVD of the film into an MPEG-4. This took about 3 hours, which was long....but Handbrake did a very good job and the conversion was completed.
So, I have a high quality MPEG-4 of the movie.
However, as many people know, you cannot import an MPEG-4 file into FinalCut.
You have to first convert the MPEG-4 to a Quicktime Movie (a.k.a. "mov file")
HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM HAS STARTED
I have been trying for almost two weeks to convert one movie- the 1979 movie "Alien"- over from MPEG-4 to Quicktime.mov, as I keep running into problems.
Right now, at home, my computer (a PowerMac G4) is converting the file using MPEG Streamclips...
At the current rate it is going (I timed it and used a calculator)...it will take approximately 80 HOURS (!!!!) for MPEG Streamclips to convert this film from MPEG-4 to Quicktime MOV.
I literally started the conversion at 8 o clock last night. I went to sleep. This morning I was getting ready to go to my job. The file was still only 10% COMPLETE...(THIS IS INSANE)...
I got upset with this, as my professor in the editing class says he may dock me points for a late assignment.
So, I PURCHASED Quicktime Pro for Windows.
I have downloaded it onto this PC I am using.
In almost 2 hours, it has only gone from "8% completed" to "9% completed"... there is no way this will be done in any less than 48 hours. NOTE- I am not using a 3rd party, free, unpredictable sortware...I am using the official Quicktime 7 PRO that I bought straight from APPLE....and it is THIS SLOW.
This is absolutely crazy. IS THIS NORMAL? People running their computers 24 hours a day for 3 to 4 DAYS to convert a film from MPEG-4 to Quicktime Movie?
What can I possibly do to make this go faster? I was afraid I was going to crash this PC (the fan has been running loudly on high non-stop since I started this...I know this will take more than 8 hours at this rate, so I shut it off)
What are tips/shortcuts that anyone can give to help with this.
I dont think I should have to go to the United States Government to the Pentagon (or to Steve Jobs's house!) to get a computer with enough RAM and computing power to change an MP4 to a Quicktime movie.
I have even used the newest and most powerful G5 computers here at the university, running OS 10.5 with Quicktime Pro as the converter....and still seen extremely slow conversions (as in, it will take 48 hours of continuous computing to complete this)
Is this normal? Does everyone actually do this when they need to convert a film?
Or, are there shortcuts, slight drops in quality, or special shortcuts I can take?? What do KNOWEDGEABLE people do to convert an MPEG-4 file to a Quicktime Movie?
3-4 hours is long, but reasonable.... 80 HOURS IS INSANE......
.....Please HELP out a struggling film student!!! Thanks and God Bless
Message was edited by: JonCapogrossi
Message was edited by: JonCapogrossi

Answer 1

I restarted the conversion, only this time I am seeking to convert the MEPG-4 over to "Apple DV/DVC PRO- NTSC format"
An instructor here at the school gave that as a suggestion...
Now, at the current rate of THIS conversion, it will STILL TAKE about 40 hours of continuous processing to convert this film. THe computer will need to run 24 hours a day for almost 2 days to convert this.
The instructor told me he thinks the ludicrous time frames needed have something to do with the fact that I am converting this film from MPEG-4. He thinks that this could be what is causing it to be this slow.
I am just not used to this type of thing....I have never used a computer to do ANYTHING that takes 40 to 80 hours to complete.
I think that director Ridley Scott likely filmed the actual movie itself much faster than this conversion is taking (!!!)