i make my dialup clips 100k. it's not too slow loading for them, and looks better. i make my broadband clips 384k and 768k.

if all you're doing is encoding and splitting, you can either download tmpgenc for free if you're only doing mpgs or you can buy a copy of ulead video toolbox for a whopping $50 - and then buy the boilsoft splitter for the splitting. it's like $19.