I imagine your Boss sits in a relatively quiet office far removed from the noise and distractions you are required to endure. Perhaps your Boss should attempt some concentration intensive activity sitting where you are required to work [next years budget perhaps] to get an idea of the problem. Industrial ear plugs could provide a temporary [and obvious] solution. Have you considered another employer? If the company you work for has such little regard for their employees work conditions that it just crams everyone together to save money, then they they aren't worth working for. Find another company who cares.

I liked the look of Handbrake so downloaded it [Linux Mint] and installed it OK. Made sure the other required files were installed and did a test conversion using a random DVD. The process said it would take over 2 hours and when it had only achieved 75% in 3 hours I binned it. Sure I was using a Lap Top of recent vintage but 3 hours is of no use to me. I also downloaded the window$ version and ran a similar test concurrently with the Linux install. This time it was going to take 4 hours and I binned this version at 3 hours too. Dual Core processor and 4GB RAM this time so it looks like DVDFab has nothing to worry about, so far anyway. Chris.