very poor performance

Running transcode 1.0.7 on Fedora 10 i386 system. dvd::rip 0.98.9 runs
over the top of transcode. Intel quad core cpu with 2GB RAM on Gigabyte
mainboard.

Encoding a 1hr 35min NTSC DVD to a 700MB avi file. I am seeing less than
7% cpu utilization total on all four cpus (all four cpus are being used)
and less than 1MB/Sec disk throughput. Looks like first pass will take
about five hours. And there is a second pass.

Looks to me like I missed some key performance configuration somewhere.

Process nice level = -18 (in dvd::rip)

I purchased a quad core cpu because I want to use it for encoding.

Any idea?

Thanks in advance