[Bill Chen] "The media can't be bad if it plays fine on my dvd player right?"
Wrong. Try using a known better quality media - such as Taiyo Yuden. Please excuse me for being anal about it, but where I'm from, Maxwell makes coffee - Maxell makes discs :-)
[Bill Chen] "Average bitrate 6.2 and max bitrate 7.7 with the two pass VBR best mode. I think I'll lower the average/max bitrate a bit to see if it works."
You should also try setting the bitrate at 6 or7 and use the CBR setting instead. It could be that the DVD player can't handle any spikes in the VBR on the disc.
[Bill Chen] "-Build in DVDSP and burn in Toast. That way I can adjust the burn speed."
That's a good option to try as well. Burning as slow as you can offers more playback compatibility.
HTH
Gary
This is me - this is what I do -
http://web.mac.com/garymmw