[Vincent Rosati]

Hmmm. Does the white and dark issue appear on your monitor, or on a television monitor? If you’re seeing this on a TV, it’s possible that your whites & blacks are outside of the “legal” limits for that type of display.
Perhaps you have a Broadcast Limits filter you can apply to your video, before encoding. There’s more on that subject in the After Effects forum.
I usually use Nero to burn DVDs. I’ll author with Encore and save as a DVD Folder – So, I’m unsure if Nero will perform 1-gig. splitting??

[Vincent Rosati]

np

[Vincent Rosati]

I just noticed you’re using AE.
Create an Output Module Preset: Format: MPEG2-DVD, Quality: 5.0, VBR 4/6/8 Mbps, PCM audio, Multiplex: DVD. Save the preset, than render out your MPEG.

When you bring the resulting MPEG into Encore you should be blessed with a Transcode Status of “Don’t Transcode”. 🙂

Of course you can use even higher bitrates, and in my version of AE I can only do a 1-pass encoding, MainConcept in Premiere allows 2-pass.

[Vincent Rosati]

Can you encode your assets with your editing app. If you get a chance, fill out your profile with your hardware/software versions.
I never allow Encore to transcode, but you have to encode into a format that Encore will accept. Trial & error, than save or note your presets.
I always encode out of Premiere with MainConcept MPEG Pro, than test the validity of the MPEG in Endore with a “dummy” project. Than, when I go to build the actual DVD it takes only a few minutes, even for a full length DVD.

Also, check to make sure the lengths of your Audio and Video tracks are the same, in your timelines.

[Vincent Rosati]

Try setting the project to “All Regions”. If you can, use brand-name media. Burn with dedicated burning software at the slowest speed, and if the software allows it, change the bitsetting to DVD-ROM.
Just some ideas.
The Encore transcoding shouldn’t have any effect in playability.

[Vincent Rosati]

I’m sorry that you have to deal with multiple formats. It can make a project very time consuming.
The 16:9 clips should drop into your 4:3 Timeline with the sides cropped, with no letterboxing.
Is the “16:9” footage true 16:9 or is it actually letterboxed?

If it is letterboxed, than you will need to upscale 🙁 to fill your fullscreen project. If you need to upscale, you must first deinterlace the footage – a wholly different issue.

Don’t scale the height of interlaced footage.
Make sure “Scale Clips…” is NOT checked in Project/Project Settings/General-Video settings.
Click on the “16:9” clips in the Project window and see if a 1.2 PAR is indicated in the movie’s properties.

If you have true 16:9 files, I recommend that you select all of them in the Project window and right-click/Interpret Footage – Conform to PAR 0.9, than use the Transform filter to scale the width to 133.3. You may need to manually keyframe in some pan & scan with the Transform/Position setting, as well.

[Vincent Rosati]

Check your Project Settings/General/Playback Settings and make sure you’re set to playback on desktop. Do you get playback on your DV hardware?

[Vincent Rosati]

Try using Effects/Video Effects/Distort/Transform instead of resizing with Effect Controls/Motion.

[Vincent Rosati]

I’ve heard of issues using different brand cams – say, Sony DV recording captured through a Panasonic cam, for instance.
Are you “capturing” DV or some other format into DV?

[Vincent Rosati]

Fill out your profile so we can see your system specs. The error probably indicates that you are low on RAM, how much do you have installed?