Thanks all for your suggestion.
Alex, I checked the encoder. MC is in "standard" mode, Should I use the "Secure" Mode? I certainly hope V11 final will fix a lot of this. Following the thread you suggested quickly got me lost.
risingDamp: I checked the advanced option for MP3 codec, but it only has "Normal", "High Speed" and "high Quality" seetings. I was using "high Quality" which runs at slow 1x to 1.3x speed. Switch to "Normal" really speed things up. I can get 7x to 8x. This is a speed I can live with.
Here is my system info from MC help:
Media Center Registered 10.0.173 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2593 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1308 MB, Free - 837 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2573 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.041130-1729) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2578 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.041130-1729) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.57 (1008) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.57 (1008)
Ripping / Drive E: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive F: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None