Error during movie encoding - tried all the common things, any suggestions?

Question

HI, Attempting to burn a DVD from iDVD 7.11
I'm getting the "Encoding Error: There was an error during movie encoding" dialogue at the end of an attempted burn. Tried several times and many of the suggestions already on the forum
I have "shared" the movie from iMovie. When it first opens iDVD I have to change the default setting of "best Performance" to "Professional Quality" and the video mode to PAL (I'm in Australia). I change it both in the preferences pane (a change which seems to be ignored when I restart the program) and in the project info.
- I'm trying just to make a disc image, but haven't got past this first step to getting it to DVD...
- There is only the movie in my project (I've not added audio or pics in iDVD)
- I've used the "Modern" theme and deleted the default drop zones and menu audio,
- I've checked the chapter markers are not at the start of the movie or near any transitions,
- There are no special characters in the titles,
- All titles and menus are within the TV safe zone,
- I've deleted the com.apple.iMovie.plst files and emptied trash,
- I've tried deleting encoded assets,
- Repaired permissions, restarted the computer, checked for updated software,
- (tried a "safe boot" as someone suggested somewhere, but the program couldn't find the movie or audio files),
- I have 660GB free on the main hard drive,
- I've disconnected external drives,
- no error appear in map view,
- I preview the project and all appears fine,
The original footage was filmed for me. I was given a DVD which I ripped into an MP4, import into iMovie, edited the audio, added AIFF audio, added a jpeg image and 2 transitions. (Unfortunately the audio on the original I was given is unusable, else I could just copy the DVD I was given.)
So if anyone has further suggestions as to what might resolve this issue, please let me know!

Answer 1

Thanks for your post F, much appreciated
The project is 123 minutes, 4.16GB and it's being broadcast on TV, so I need max quality I can get (without spending money!)
I think I have sort of solved the problem - addressing what you've identified in a slightly different way.
Since my previous post, I noticed that clicking on the "Media" tab in the side pane, and selecting "Movies", my project was listed, but when I clicked on it, rather than the thumbnail I get on other movies I've processed, I got this text:
"This iMovie project can't be used because it hasn't been prepared for sharing yet. To prepare it for sharing, open it in iMovie and choose Share > Media Browser.... "
I did that (7 hours processing) then successfully created the disc image (2 hours processing). I have now burnt the DVD using disc utility (1 hour processing). It plays OK on the computer, but I'll need to check it on a normal player before marking this as thread solved (I don't have one here at home).
Unfortunately somewhere in all this processing the video has significantly lost quality. I thought I'd used all the highest quality setting, but will have to go back and check each step again. Unless someone reading this post has noticed anything I've done so far that would compromise video quality. The audio is fine - which for this project is the most important aspect.
So in regard to my initial problem; it seems there is a problem in iDVD not recognising/remembering the set preferences when using the "Share > iDVD " function in iMovie.
To summarise my solution for anyone else who experiences the same issue,
When sending a project from iMovie using "Share > iDVD " it seems you must also choose "Share > Media Browser.... "
This may be specific only to the case where PAL is required.
PS
I should also note, incase it made any difference, that I found the default headings in the chapter menus had dashes in them (i.e. it defaults to "Scenes 1 - 6", so I changed to "Scenes 1 to 6"). The only other modification I made since my original post was using stills instead of moving thumbnails for the chapter selection.