Please Help... Video Bitrate Garbage

Question

This is long, but it is detailed. Please help.
So I have been working on the finalization of a film for broadcast for the past 2 months. I have gone through every step imagineable, even up to having a professional sound mix done. I finished the DVD last night and went to build it. And of course I get "Video Bitrate too High." I have been searching the forums for info on this and I got the bit about aifs are too big, etc. Which is ridiculous because if they are too big, why are they an option?
So...I Read I am supposed to use A.Pack to render my audio and export out AC3 files. So here's my question. I'll try and be as detailed as possible.
I have multiple exported audio clips. There's audio files for the menus, the film, extras, etc. Everything is in stereo. Some of the FCP files have audio tracks with 6 or so tracks. When I export them, they will be mixed into a stereo 2 track mix. Here's my question... when I use A.Pack, I'm assuming that I'm going to be using the "2/0 (L,R)" channels under "Audio Encoding Mode." Why? Because it's a stereo mix. But when I drop the aif on the left and right Input Channels in A.Pack, I have to choose Left or Right. Will A.Pack keep my left and right channels seperate or will it take the stereo mix and put both L/R channels on the Left and Both L/R channels on the right.
I did some tests and it seems to be mushing them all together. The only way I have been able to separate the tracks and make sure that the left audio is on the left track and the right audio is on the right track is to go into FCP, export an aif stereo mix, re-import it into my FCP file, take the left track and Pan Left and take the right track and Pan Right. That way keeping my stereo files seperate. Then export an aif through compressor. Then importing that aif file into A.Pack and export again.
This cannot be right. If this is the way we are supposed to be doing things, I'm just gonna end it now.
Can someone please give me a list of steps I should be taking to correct this problem. Also, everyone is talking about limiting their bit rates to 5 or 7 or whatever. Where are you guys finding this? I don't even know how you ste the limit or what program you do it in.
Thank you

Answer 1

Two things:
Uncompressed audio aiff coupled with a high maximum bit rate of 7.5 or higher will cause a bit rate too high error because combined they exceed maximum data throughput for DVD recordables.
You set the maximum bit rate by using a pre set in Compressor or creating your own.
Do a google search for a.pack tutorials:
http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~jmosley/tutorials/dvd/compressing.html