First, sorry for taking so long to reply. crazy busy at my boring, un-fun 9-5, which for most of the summer has been 6-9...
It takes me approximately 1/2 an hour from import of footage to finished product(DVD). Most of this time is rendering, encoding, and a little burning. When I time it right, I can start my editing, go do a jump, land, burn, and start the process over again. most of the time, Our customers leave with their stills, and we mail out the vids....
So, If I skip the encoding and burning, this speeds me up significantly, and its a better end product.
I too will be doing some experimenting this winter....
if you don't mind, keep me posted on what you figure out.