Video freezes, audio continues in Nero

[lj01]

I'm fairly new at video editing, and not sure if I'm using my software correctly...

I have a VOB file that I downloaded and converted to avi. The file itself is approximately 20 minutes long. I split into 3 parts. I used Nero SmartStart (version 6 I believe) to create a project in which I interspersed other avi material around the 3 parts I created.

After transcoding and burning, I noticed the following...when I play the burned DVD, it is fine on the first of the three parts of my original video, and it's also fine on the short material that I interspersed. However, when it gets to the second part of my original video, it will freeze an initial image on the screen for several minutes. The audio continues on correctly, however. Somewhere in the middle (probably 5-7 minutes into the 10-minute part), the video unfreezes but of course is now way out of sync with the audio. Then, once I get to the interspersed material, it plays video and audio fine, but then when I get to the third part of my original, same thing happens, it freezes on a beginning frame while continuing to play out the audio.

This is the first stab I have taken at doing this, so I'm sure I'm doing something that's fairly simple incorrectly, but if anyone can help point me in the right directly I would appreciate. Thanks!

[Baldrick]

How do you convert it to avi? How do you split it? What tool(s)?

Cutting and joining can cause strange problems.

[lj01]

I use a free program called vdownloader to convert from vob to avi. Then, I use Nero's StartSmart (the video-editing tool within Nero) to do the splits. I create a project within Nero, I browse and pull the file in to my project list. Is it possible that I need to browse and pull the file in multiple times, since I am splitting it into 3 parts?