Allrighty then - thanks for your help moth3r, g-force, arnie & OSJ (That's what I love about this forum, it truly is a community), apparently I was running an old version, it reported back v 2.50. After upgdating that (to 2.58), stepping up to CCE 2.70 and installing a missing ffttw3 DLL (into the system32 folder mind) i'm just 4 days away from fanboy heaven. I initially ran a CBR version with only took 22 or so hours, but now I'm on a 3 pass VBR which will take a lot longer. I must say g-force you've done an absolutely stunning job with this script, I find it hard to believe this is indeed the GOUT I'm watching here.