How do I make foolproof, universally compatible video dvds?

[suppafreak]

It can't be done on your home PC.

Steps that might improve your chances include ditching Nero as your burner, and ditching BeSweet for either ffmpeggui, or preferably a certified AC3 encoder such as Sony or Surcode.

Other than that, the only path to a universally (or damn near) compatible disc is to create an image on DLT or DAT (or whatever your local presser takes) and having it thoroughly tested and then pressed. The vaguries of the manufacturing process for writable DVDs, the issue of formats and brands and write strategies mean you cannot produce a disc on your home PC and guarantee with any certainty that it will play in any given player.

This must be a personal opinion. I cannot vouch for BeSweet, but I have not encontered any problems with NERO. Infect the DVDs that I burned with NERO play on a lot more DVD players than the DVDs burned with ImgBurn. I also used either Verbatim or TY media.

[solarfox]

I'd have to agree -- I, personally, have never had any playback issues that I could directly tie to using Nero for burning DVD-R; all of my issues have pretty well been tied either to using suspect media, or to using sticky labels (my Apex doesn't seem to mind sticky labels at all, but some other friends' players balked at them from time to time)... and these problems would occur regardless of whether the disc was burned with Nero, ImgBurn, Prassi, or DVD Workshop's internal burning engine.

Once I switched to using strictly Taiyo Yuden inkjet printables, these problems went away. (At least for me -- as always, your mileage may vary. )

[Hockey Man]

I had compatibility problems when I used dvd-lab, and they all disappeared as soon as I switched to dvd maestro.