[Sherwin Akbarzadeh] “Two Pass VBR
average bit rate: 7.7
max bit rate: 9”
That will cause a ton of playback issue way too high, even the average is too high.
With high average bitrates I always recommend using CBR over VBR, every time.
If you are burn the project onto a DVD-R never go over 7.5Mbps for CBR
or
7.0Mbps MAX for VBR
Audio needs to be ac3 if video is this high. (it should be ac3 for most things anyway)
Make sure you are encoding as progressive and not interlaced. You can try to turn on Frame Control and turn to best.
HD DVD is for a dead format and can only be played back on fast Macs.