Videobox *has* to download the file, yes. There's no way it can convert a file remotely, i.e. on the server. Now, Videobox uses the same mechanism as your browser to download files - no voodoo going on there. So that's why I said Videobox can't be responsible for the download speed: it just asks your Mac to download the file. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why it took 7 minutes to download that Youtube movie... Or maybe it took 7 minutes to download *and* convert it? The process is a two step process: first download the original file, then convert it - the progress bar changes color to reflect this: blue while downloading, purple while converting... Conversion will *definitely* be linked to the amount of RAM installed on your computer, and the settings you use could make the process longer too.