iDVD 05: Encoded video freezes, audio OK

[Jodeo]

I have iLive 05, Mac OSX.3.9, QT 7.1.1 (latest update as of 3/20/07), and an iMac G4/800 w/768MB Ram and 250 GB drive w/65+GB free.

I have several movies created in iMovie (some from earlier versions but all in .mov format) I'm trying to burn to a DVD. iDVD says there's plenty of room on the disk, so it's not too full.

When I burn a DVD - or an IMG now to test, the video will freeze and the audio plays on. The spot where the video freezes changes with each encoding - it's not predictable.

The videos all play 100% OK in QuickTime (and in finder, presumably using the QT layer).

To troubleshoot, I have tried the following:
* Unplugged EVERYTHING except the power and apple keyboard and mouse. (No other USB, FireWire, Ethernet, etc. Nothing. No airport card).
* Using Activity Monitor, I've ended every non-essential process.
* Disabled screen saver/sleep/etc.
* Tried an archive-and-install of the OS. No luck there.
* Tried encoding with Console open; no errors were logged but got the same result.

For more background see these threads:
http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?4,2659429,2661352 and
http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?4,2635506,2638702

I am totally stuck here and really need to get memories of our once little girl on DVD soon. I have a backlog of tapes to convert so we can enjoy the memories and iDVD and the Mac are making that impossible.

Thank you.