This is kind of a double question...

Q1: Why is it when I render a movie (I did just a practice run of frames 40-60) it's less than half a second, while in the Pose room it takes 2 or 3 seconds? How do I slow it down?

Q2: I realize Poser isnt very good for animations, but I really like the models (and have a decent investment in them), are there other softwares that can use poser models to animate well? Specifically, can Lightwave? My uncle has it and he would be a great resoruce if I did start using it.

Thanks 

The preview animation will be dependent on the power of your computer. The more powerful the smoother and faster it will be. There is also a frame rate setting in the keyframe editor. The rendered animation will primarily be dependent on the frame rate you set in the render setting. This nay be different to the one on the keyframe editor.

"I realize Poser isnt very good for animations"

I would disagree. Specifically what is it that you are not able to do in it?

I animate in Poser... Some of my work:

http://youtu.be/59cZ-xclCsg

it's the distinction between rendering and animating IMVHO. if it's difficult for a new user to animate in poser, it may be even more difficult to animate in everything else. some poser users find it easy to do preview animations, but they are flabberghasted (sp?) when it comes to fully rendered animations in poser.  at this point wolf usually mentions D|S.

If you use Lightwave to animate Poser figures you will have to build rigs for them in Lightwave.  Having done that just a bit I am certainly no expert, and I found it ironic that Poser actually has some decent animation tools, like  the Walk Designer, IK, body symmetry, and saving your animated poses for use on other figures. 

Attached Link: http://img812.imageshack.us/i/m0s.mp4/

If you take a look at the top of this page. There is a sales banner where you can buy Ipi Desktop Motion Capture. I use that too and makes animating in poser much easier.

The only downside to Poser animations is the amount of time they can take - a 510 frame (1280 x 720) animation I recently did took a little more than 50 hours. But they're usually worth the wait. Here's one I did last year - http://youtu.be/tqg7h3R6ST0 as a test of Poser Pro and a Stonemason set.

"Q2: I realize Poser isnt very good for animations, but I really like the models (and have a decent investment in them), are there other softwares that can use poser models to animate well?" Specifically, can Lightwave?"

Have you learned to properly use your POSER graph editor&Dope Sheet???
if you dont  MASTER the rather primative CA tools of poser then moving to Lightwave will be a dumb founding Experience for  you I promise !! ..and yes We own poser and Lightwave 9.6 over here

"at this point wolf usually mentions D|S."

Errrr...This has Nothing to do with poser vs DS  animation tools
as Philc  inferred the OP simply is not familiar with the difference between his  on screen playback speed(limited by his graphic card)
and full rendered frames playing back from his HD.

Cheers

dont use preview playback to time the action. you need to work from the frame rate and calculate the timing from that or render the movie using preview render setting to get a properly timed file.

30 fps for video is common , 24 fps for film, you can go as low as 18 for slow action  but never try to mix frame rates.

OldGreyCat: Liked the animation video. Is the music score original?

I have some Poser-made animations on YouTube, such as this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJn-dmzuOpc

Quote - OldGreyCat: Liked the animation video. Is the music score original?

I wish it was an original! One day I plan to teach myself MIDI (or whatever it is) to create my own scores. Youtube has an audioswap feature that allows you to replace copyrighted material with music they have rights to. That piece was almost the right length, and kinda fit, so I went with it.

Very nice choice. Thought you may have been on a Mac and composed it with GarageBand.**