Whenver I try to resize the resolution, and then click that big green button "validate this resolution", the program shuts down.

sometimes I get wierd things happening with PDXE also. I assume you have tried:
1) reboot
2) uninstall/reboot/install again
?

I have read some people who just couldn't get it to work, maybe a function of some hardware...

Once it would get to 90% of second pass and lock up, next time around, everything works. you get what you pay for I guess, but I've only encoded 3 movies so far. But, when it works, seems to work nicely.

nelj