I've only done a couple of DL DVDs and so far so good but only really tested them on my own players. The break point ideally should be at a point that will not distract the viewer if there's a brief pause. A fade to black would seem logical.

The skipping problem may have nothing directly to do with it being a DL disk. One mistake I fell into a while back was setting the minimum bitrate too low. The default value that Vegas uses is way too low. From a lesson learned the hard way it should be no less than 1/3rd the average.

Bob.

ok so how do you determine the birate.... and how do you manually set it?.....and thanks for the help guys!

I do not have very many happy memories with DL discs. I got some Memorix DL discs, but they always get errors halfway through the DL portion on my NEC DVD+-RW drive. Never had problems with Sony DL discs - except I can't find them nowadays. As my Sony DVD-ROM drive just died, I got a LG burner as a replacement - not tested it out yet. I always have two drives - you can never have too many! Clearly reading discs is not an exact science.

Anyways, moving swiftly on, I tend to render my DVD Architect streams from Vegas using the standard profile with the following modifications: I do 2-pass VBR, with a max of 8 mbit/s and an average of 4.7 mbits. If it will not fit on a DVD-R (4.7GB) I will get DVD Architect to build a 8.5GB folder. I will then use DVD Shrink to make that fit on a DVD-R. Using VBR is important for maintaining the quality using DVD Shrink. However, if your percentage reduction is due to be more than 30%, you should probably be using a DL disc, which brings me back to my first point.

I recently did a DL project, because I wanted to include a lot of "Hollywood-type" extras (commentary tracks, subtitles, picture galleries, etc.) and not squash the bejeezus out of my main video to make it fit onto a 4.7G platter.

The main issue I found is that different DVD players react differently to burned DL disks -- and then again, react differently to different DL disk brands. Sometimes playback would freeze up at the same (or different) points. Sometimes the player wouldn't even recognize the disk, while another deck would run it just fine.

I had a friend's PS3 game deck which, when it hit the layer-break point, began replaying the video from the beginning.

I had two players (including my own portable unit) that would start playing the movie at double-speed when you switched to one of the alternate audio tracks.

I understand that if I were to professionally replicate the disk, rather than burn it on my computer, many of these problems would disappear. Unfortunately, I didn't have the anticipated sales volume to justify a replication run.

I haven't given up on DL projects, but now I know what I'm up against...

Whether it's brand of media or player (or both) I think the consensus is that burned DL disks are not nearly as compatible as DVD-R using TY or the like. I've only used DL media with a dup house on large runs; any time it's a short run wedding-type production I always use 2 discs if it's longer than 90 minutes or so. Using 2-pass VBR is another option that might get you down to one disc, still keeping high quality. There've been lots of threads here about that, search on VBR and 2-pass for more info.

I use Verbatim DL disks with DVDA 5 (and Nero) and I've never had a complaint. However, you really need to look at the things you can control and the things you can't control.

You can control:

1) Bit rate, already noted (and the best advice). Lower it enough and you can get everything on a SL disk.
2) Layer split, ditto.
3) DVD burner. Mine is a Pioneer and it has an excellent track record for burning SLs and DLs.
4) Media. The Verbatim DLs are fine. I wouldn't consider this a problem.
5) Burning software. DVDA is good for authoring, but for burning, it isn't exactly the world's best.
6) Check your burned disk for errors with DVDInfoPro:

http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

You may be surprised at what you find out.

You can't control (only one item):

1) The client's brand and model of DVD player. This accounts for most of the problems, especially with DL disks. There are a lot of garbage/legacy DVD players out there.

Since most modern DVD burners burn even a DL disk in a fairly short time, my advice is, if you really want to be safe, you should make both a DL and a lower bitrate SL disk (or alternatively, two higher bitrate SLs). Then you'll get no complaints and the clients might even be happier with a second copy. It cuts into the profits, but then it eliminates the hassle of having someone call you up and complain.