"Tthe choppy pauses are actually at the end of videos just before the next one."

I seriously doubt that it is the media. The fact that it gets "choppy" at the same place tells me that you may be encoding at too high a bitrate. The pause at a trasnition is normal. Different players handle the transition differently - some buffer the transition and it's hardly noticeable, others don't buffer at all and can pause for a second or two as the laser head mves to the next media asset on the DVD.

FWIW & No offense....
DVDA limits the bit rate -- wants to even re-encode mpg2 that plays fine, but has the max bit rate listed at the beginning of the file rather than the average. Not saying excessive bit rate won't cause problems, but that to do it is a bit harder using DVDA than some other apps.

OTOH, I don't know what else would/could cause total read failure over a variety of players. I have seen them get confused & freeze if the Next button is pressed rapidly, but not when playing normally -- assuming I'm reading the original post correctly.

I hadn't even thought of bit rates. I encode to separate MPEG-2 and AC-3 so DVD-A4 doesn't normally re-compress. I use default bit rates in Vegas and defaults in DVD-A4, and recall them being fairly conservative, so it would surprise me if that's the cause. None the less I will try... this is too frustrating otherwise. I can't burn with any confidence.

What is too high of a bit rate for DVD Players? My defaults in DVD-A4 were 8.38Mbs overall, with 10.08 max. Re-compress is set to no, and normally doesn't unless I don't do DVD-A4 stream in Vegas.

I did not optimize, and although the Disk Space Used showed 4.0GB in lower right hand corner of DVD-A4 window, the optimize window showed 110% used. When optimized that 8Mbs bit rate dropped to 6.98Mbs, and the optimize showed 95% use, yet the bar on bottom right when up to 4.6GM. These seem to be contradictory results.

I gave it a shot with higher compression in DVD-A and got worse results. I'll probably stick with creating one large file from Vegas (multi-projects in one). At least that way I have predictable transitions.

rbi:

I'm curious how long your video project is? Time/Length?

I'm having the same issue with Vegas + DVD studio (1 version back). I don't know what causes it, but here's a clue if you guys can figure something out from it. All the DVD's I burn I play back on my PS2 and they all get choppy and eventually freeze. These same DVD's I can play on my computers, my parents' DVD player, my friend's DVD player, but not in an Xbox - i get the same choppy video + a crash. Have you tried playing those DVD's in anything besides your PS2?

On a side note... Anyone know why it seems the game consoles can't play these back? I have been able to use DVDXCOPY to copy DVD's and all of these played fine on the playstation.

tonuch, I would suggest looking at the media...

Usually a problem with a DVD freezing IMHO usually seems to be caused by the player not being able to read from the disc, or in some cases seeming to get confused by the directions the DVD contains for the player. In the latter, I have seen some cheaper players without a lot of memory just get bogged down when a DVD has a bit of scripting or whatever that I *think* just exceeds its capacity -- going simply title video in those cases has seemed to work.

RE: reading from disc, it is more difficult for a player to read from a burned DVD than a pressed one. Additionally there are drives that burn discs that are less *readable*, & quite a range of readability among blanks of different manufacturers. Most burners make better discs at lower speeds, & some players are very finicky.

Browse the player reports at videohelp & elsewhere & you'll find that players having problems reading discs (freezing etc.) is unfortunately somewhat common. I just replaced one of my players that still worked fine on pressed discs, but had slowly started having more and more problems with burned DVDs -- the replacement doesn't have *any* problems with discs that were unplayable on the old player.

I have read of mpg2 from some DVDRs that couldn't be read by some players, & not because of media, so I suppose it's possible for the encoding to be way out of spec & cause problems, but not using the MC software from Sony Media (or else these forums would be filled with angry complaints).

Nero Speed & similar software can give you an idea of the quality of your burns. There are also DVD blank identifying programs that will tell you the manufacturer codes & that will help you research compatibility & problems. tonuch, you could also check out & post in forums geared to the Xbox. RE: your side note: You might find some clues checking out & posting in forums concerned with ripping & associated software.

The project I referenced here is about 1 hour 30 minutes, but now I'm finding trouble with more and more burns... even at 30 minutes.

I think one issue is my PS2 player since I'm able to play the disks on some other players (although not all) and some disks play on nothing. I don't think it's entirely the player because I can take previous disk burns and they work fine in PS2.

I never had this issue in past couple years, and have bought 4 new burners ove past 4-6 months.
1 Sony External worked terrible
1 LG internal that has frequent problems
1 LG external that has worked well
1 Microboard which is producing bad disks.

I'm going back to LG external at this moment. I have a project due and just cranked out another new project (30 minutes) and it's bad. Used Microboard first time, so trying LG now.

Rbi, If it helps...
If you look at the VSO database listing drive popularity & success LG is at the top of the list. I'd still suggest looking up the exact model of drive(s) you're using and check the media compatibility reports for a particular drive. I'd also suggest burning at a lower than max speed - perhaps 8X -- from known good software like Nero or ImgBurn. If you're using +RW make sure Nero or ImgBurn is setting the disc type to other than +RW [might find this words better on the LGs]. Don't overlook simple stuff like cleaning player laser lens.

Those are the basics at any rate -- there are loads of similar reports online, complaints of discs burned using whatever software & burner don't play on whatever players. In fact it's so common, in many forums posting about this sort of thing only gets you replies to Check compatibility lists, along with related tips and FAQs.