Remember the Problem "All" of Us Had Earlier with iDVD?? SOLVED! (for now)

Question

This is a follow-up to a forum which I posted to and was going to reply today but found it archived.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1206408#1206408
Tonight, I had a new project to burn to DVD via, iDVD 5, and knew nothing would work since all attempts to do so would fail.
Due to the infamous "audio encoding" problem some of us had. And no one has been able to find a solution, nor has Apple. My assumption from the get go was that the original project I had created in iDVD 2 or 3 (can't exactly remember) was now somehow incompatible with iDVD 5.
Because I was able to burn DVDs fine until I upgraded my software to iLife '05. And that's when my troubles started.
I could not even burn projects from scratch, created new in iDVD 5. So that showed that my assumption was incorrect! Even a 2 minute length test project did not work. (My original project was an hour in length).
I had a second project that I was doing for a colleague/friend, and I tried later again, this now being early 2006. (The problem we faced, or at least my problem if you see my posting in the original thread, now archived, was back in November 2005).
I figured maybe that problem had cleared up by now, with all the OS updates to Mac OS X since then.
No such luck. After the unsuccessful audio encoding process, it spit out the unburned DVD, and gave me an error message. (This was a 15 minute video by the way, this project I did for my colleague/friend).
But??? Tonight? Well, actually, last night, with another new project on my hands, I was hoping for the best. I was very skeptical, but I knew that I would have to let the project run overnight to see what would happen.
The next day? SUCCESS. I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe it was too good to be true, but no, the DVD burned, no error messages given, and it played back on the TV.
What was different? The past projects I'd attempted ever since I had the problem were set to "best quality" since they were all an hour or under an hour. And that's the preferred setting since it gives you the best of everything.
I had no choice but to use "best performance" since my current project is 1 hour and 6 minutes in length.
And there in lies, I think, one solution. It fixed mine, so what else can I say? Though I will have to test it out when I get the chance, to see if the same hold true for any project under one hour, but using the "best performance" setting.
Again to note, it is recommended by Apple (along with it being a personal preference) to use the "best quality" setting with any videos 1 hour in length or less.
I'm currently burning the 5th copy of the DVD with no problems. Of course, since I did not bother to stay in front of the computer-- as entertaining as that would have been --while the process worked overnight, I wasn't able to observe what happened.
I did just recently, and can see, that... oddly enough? It still hangs during the audio encoding process, but the caveat here is that it resolves itself after a few minutes (few is an overstatement, since it takes longer, but in the scheme of things-- considering some of us would wait 16 hours crossing our fingers to hope that the audio encoding process would clear itself up and didn't --it is a "few" minutes).
The progress bar is unresponsive and the nuclear burn button doesn't spin during the audio encoding process, but rest assured, it starts moving again.
So, those of you original posters in that forum who STILL haven't been able to figure out a solution, go into your preferences and set your quality to "best performance" not "best quality" and see if it works out for you.
And remember, don't panic if the progress bar stops moving and the nuclear burn button doesn't spin. (Wouldn't you know it, I'm staring at the exact thing right now!! I'm not kidding... this is the 5th DVD I've burned remember? So trust me, it works). Even if you get a spinning beach ball cursor when you mouse over to iDVD's window.
Good luck!!
=)
P.S. I will point out that maybe, just maybe, some software update in recent months since November 2005 may have fixed it? Though I highly doubt it because there have been no software updates to the iLife '05 suite that I can recall. I wonder if users of iLife '06 are having this problem with audio encoding?
P.S.S. Also, shame on us for thinking that Apple has left us out of the loop. Since the problem isn't that widespread, I'm sure that's why they haven't made it an issue. Though I'm sure I can understand everyone's frustration, because I've been going through it since November. Until today, that is!
PowerMac G4 1.42 GHz DP   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2 GB RAM / ATI Radeon 9700 / USB 2.0 PCI / Serial ATA 150 + IDE 133 PCI
PowerMac G4 1.42 GHz DP   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2 GB RAM / ATI Radeon 9700 / USB 2.0 PCI / Serial ATA 150 + IDE 133 PCI

Answer 1

Heh heh, I'm replying to my own topic.
I forgot to mention that looking through the support forums at the time (November 2005 and weeks later), it was suggested as a run-around, to instead burn your project without actually using iDVD.
First suggestion was to "Archive Project"-- THAT did not work for me.
Second suggestion was to create a "Disc Image" directly from iDVD-- nope.
So that adds only to the fact that there was really something wrong for some of us, whatever the problem was. Be it the "audio encoding" problem, or whatever.
Again, when I get the chance, I will try those too. Seeing if I can archive my project and/or create a disc image with the settings at "Best Performance"-- the solution I came upon --instead of set at "Best Quality."
I'll report back here when I can.
PowerMac G4 1.42 GHz DP   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2 GB RAM / ATI Radeon 9700 / USB 2.0 PCI / Serial ATA 150 + IDE 133 PCI