How Can I Verify My Final Project?

Question

I've completed my project and I'm about to send it to the replicators, but it turns out a check disk is too costly. And if it's wrong, I still have to pay to glass master again.
Can anyone please advise me on the following, as to verifying my project:
1) I encoded my video at 7.5kbps. Talking to a professional authorer today he told me he rarely encoded above 7 and aimed mostly for 6. (However his encoding is hardware based and I had to use the Quicktime conversion MPEG2 software in FC HD) He also said that if I get spikes then it could cause playback errors. Is 7.5 too high to encode in. My audio was all compressed in Apack, but how can I verify the final MPEG2 video stream to see if there are any spikes in it? How do I also check what the highest bit rate encode was on my video. I only used one pass by the way.
2) How do I calculate the kpbs of my audio streams and add it onto the final bit rate? Is there a way of checking my encoded Apack sound files to find out what the bit rate is of it?
3) As I am having to advance format all my files from DVDSP into the DDP format (as I don't have DLT so I'm submitting my project as two separate discs for each layer), I've been told that I should also verify my DDP files. How? What piece of software would I need.
One last thing, was that playing my video back by loading the VOB files into the Mac video player, I was getting choppy playback in full screen. In normal screen mode it was fine. This has nothing to do with too high a bit rate encoding on my MPEG2 file is it?
Sorry for all the questions and confusion, but I'm behind on the deadline on delivery and this will be my last chance to re-encode the video streams before it's too late.

Answer 1

I know you did not ask this part, but I would be remiss in not stating it - if you are going to a replicator you really should get check discs made, no ifs, ands or buts about it. And those should be QC'd on various players. I am not sure how large your run is or the scope of the project, but you do not want to be stuck later on.
1) I encoded my video at 7.5kbps. Talking to a professional authorer today he told me he rarely encoded above 7 and aimed mostly for 6. (However his encoding is hardware based and I had to use the Quicktime conversion MPEG2 software in FC HD) He also said that if I get spikes then it could cause playback errors. Is 7.5 too high to encode in. My audio was all compressed in Apack, but how can I verify the final MPEG2 video stream to see if there are any spikes in it? How do I also check what the highest bit rate encode was on my video. I only used one pass by the way.
Yes spikes can cause playback issues, less on replicated discs but can still happen. As to encode rates you should use the lowest rate that gives you acceptable quality. What is you footage? High action? DVD SP does not have a way to check in it for spikes. There are other tools out there for that, or some DVD players will actuallly show the rate as you play it from a menu selection.
Take a look here for some more info
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2215134&#2215134
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2206769&#2206769
2) How do I calculate the kpbs of my audio streams and add it onto the final bit rate? Is there a way of checking my encoded Apack sound files to find out what the bit rate is of it?
What were your encoding settings?
Here is a way to calculate
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1709532&#1709532
Or you can use http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm or similar items out there
3) As I am having to advance format all my files from DVDSP into the DDP format (as I don't have DLT so I'm submitting my project as two separate discs for each layer), I've been told that I should also verify my DDP files. How? What piece of software would I need.
dvdafteredit(.com) mastering edition should probably do what you want though I just tried to Compare to a Disc Image and it worked, but could not get it to compare to a DDP Tape Image for some reason, I would chalk that up to user error (mine) Others here may be able to confirm one way or the other
One last thing, was that playing my video back by loading the VOB files into the Mac video player, I was getting choppy playback in full screen. In normal screen mode it was fine. This has nothing to do with too high a bit rate encoding on my MPEG2 file is it?
The Apple DVD Player? Anyway when you start expanding to full screen, the player has to do more work to stretch it to the screen. View it actual size and see if the issue goes away