Well I start with DV so 720x480. with a screen resolution of 1600x1200 I haven't found lag to be a problem at all. p4 2.4 w/512 win2k -mx440 w/64 Typically if there is any, poser lags in time with my bg avi but thats in playback and thats never a good judge anyways so what lag i get i ignore. Also work in wireframe -outlined, not mesh. Use the animation palette to move frame by frame and you can bracket a series of frames (the one move or twitch your wroking on) that will only playback and loop. (without comiting the entire timeline to playback) When you think you have something worth seeing in realtime, render out with the document settings instead of a full render. I suppose you should have a decent system that will not lag out tremendously when working with an avi in the bg. Although the lag can probably be dropped down a bit if you process your background avi to something that isnt taking up too many resources. (lower quality avi)