Hello,

Okay, here's where I am, please bear with me:

I am making DVD-Rs with five 44 minute Stargate SG-1 episodes per disc. After doing the math I came up with the bitrate of 2257 kbps to cram all I could into each episode while sticking to five movies per disc. I have succeeded, to a point. At this juncture I have 5 completed discs. I didn't catch the problem until after creating the last two DVD-Rs.

The first three discs play smooth and clear. Very happy with them. Now on my fourth and fifth discs I have experienced a new problem. The video playback appears to have dropped frames, but almost seems to pause for split seconds in random spots. The audio remains smooth and synchronized.

I have played them in my Panasonic stand-alone DVD player, my laptop and my desktop machine. I experience the same problem across all platforms.

SOFTWARE & METHODS:

The episodes are Divx AC3 files. Not sure what Divx version. They play back smooth. I am encoding them to DVD MPEG-2 format using TMPGEncoder 2.58.44.152 Plus @ 2257 kbps. I want to retain the 16x9 aspect ratio and the DVD authoring progs I use don't support it.

After encoding I checked the videos for smoothness. They are as smooth as the original Divx files.

NEXT I import the MPEGs into Ulead DVD Workshop. So far it's the only DVD authoring prog that I can find that can recognize the low bitrate MPEGs. Dazzle DVD Complete doesn't recognize them.

I create a the VIDEO_TS folder and VOB files.

NOW HERE IS WHERE THE IRRITATION BEGINS: The videos played back from the VOBs created in DVD Workshop are "choppy" (like I described earlier). What's even more odd is that trying to recreate the VOBs produces the same choppiness IN THE SAME EXACT SPOTS!!!

I have used 2 different computers. A 850Mhz PIII and a P4 2Ghz Mobile. Both machines produce the EXACT same results. I tried DVD Movie Factory, same results (I assume the encoding engine in Workshop and MovieFactory are the same).

So is this a problem with the initial Divx files? The MPEGs? Could it be some hidden flaw in the MPEG that is being caught cut out by DVD Workshop in order to be compatible on a DVD player?

I NEED THE GURUS ON THIS PRONTO!

Thanks everyone,
Acqtrekker