$pid = fork();	
$timeout = 3;
	
if($pid) {
	local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "TIMEOUT" }; 
        alarm $timeout;
		
        eval { 
            waitpid( $pid, 0 ); 
        };         
	alarm 0; 
        
	if ( $@ && $@ =~ m/TIMEOUT/ ) { 
            $output = "";
        }
} else {		
	$output = qx("Encoder.exe -i test -o _test -t4 $t4 2>&1");
	
	exit(0);
}