Cross platform DVD burning  - Mac/PC/home DVD player

All right, Geniuses, re: cross platform DVD burning, I have read and read and spoken to many people. Out of 6 1/2 billion people, NOBODY can answer this question. Shane Ross probably can't answer it with a straight face.
How, where, why, when, what do I use to burn a DVD - who knows, maybe up to 90 minutes - so that I can play the same DVD on my Mac, your DVD home player, your boss's PC, whether it's Real Player, Windows Media Player, QT, mmrphmm-mmrphmm, or quakiifrafermessendt (w/chrome) format.
I am running Mac G5, dual proc. 2Gig, 3.5 G. RAM, OS 10.3.9, Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 which includes FCP, Compressor Live Type, DVD Studio Pro 3, Cinema Tools.
The editing part is a cinch. Even with my eyes open. I've used Mac since 1978 and shoot broadcast. Oddly, dropped frames, A/V synch, phase shifting, etc are no problems.
Also, I have about 300 shows that I did on VHS, 3/4", Betacam, and DV. I have an A to D converter that works great converting these tapes to digital which I store on my hard drive. What I need to do, let me back up... about a year ago I had to buy a PC because Mac doesn't support Solid Works 3D program. So, there, I said it, I own a PC. And that's why I have a problem. Or more accurately, a quandry. Rather than tie up my Mac, I might as well use the PC to record my videos to, then burn to DVD, then to edit them or run them through DVD Studio Pro on my Mac for authoring, then back to my first problem, How, where, why, when, what do I use to burn a DVD - who knows, maybe up 90 minutes - so that I can play the same DVD on my Mac, your DVD home player, your boss's PC, whether it's Real Player, Windows Media Player, QT, mmrphmm-mmrphmm, or quakiifrafermessendt (w/ultrascuzzyectoplacticdefoid) format.
Of course, I want highest quality. Absolutely, my finished DVDs have to play on PC, Mac and home DVD players. If you've gone this far, someday I might need to put some of this on the web. I like options. It might be delivered as a stream, or a download. Another compression question?
Simple, huh? Is there anything else you need to know? Should I fire up my old wire recorder, or are you going to suggest another 3rd party peripheral? Which would make me wonder, why hasn't Apple addressed this obvious disfunction.
BTW/ I have found Memorex DVDs work best on my system. Any comments?
Regards.

Welcome to the forum!
Time for a reality check: burned DVDs (and even stamped DVDs) are NOT 100% compatible with all DVD-Video reading devices. Period. It just the Nature of the technology and that fact that player and drive manufacturers rush products to market that are not fully in compliance with the DVD-Video standard.
That said, I've had only two individual playback compatibility complaints in the last 6 years with well over 2000 DVD-R discs authored in DVD-SP and burned from my Macs on an external Sony DVD burner. Those two complaints were rectified by burning a DVD+R disc for the clients.
Things I have learned:
· Windows Media Player doesn't play nice with DVD-Video. ULead and other DVD players for the Windows platform do work very well (I have to WinXP systems to test on). PC playback compatibility is dependent on many, many things; the user's video card, RAM, drive type (and condition), processor speed ... the list goes on and on. It's impossible to predict if ANY disc will work in any given PC.
· Memorex is at the very bottom of the list for quality media. Don't get me wrong; they do have a wonderful warranty. If you send back any discs they will replace them with equally poor quality media at no charge. Memorex is simply a marketer - there's no telling what brand or quality of media you're actually getting when you purchase their brand ... but you can be assured it will be cheap.
That said; I'll agree that your workflow seems a bit backward. Authoring to DVD and then editing? Makes no sense. You're losing quite a bit of quality in that process as well as adding unneeded steps. If you must capture the footage with a Windows system and it needs editing, capture then convert to a QT codec that matches your FCP Sequence settings so when you move the files to your Mac for editing, everything actually plays nice.
If your program doesn't need editing and you just want to transfer it to tape, I'd recommend using a stand-alone DVD recorder so you don't have to tie up either computer.
-DH

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