Secret to creating DVDs that play on DVD players

Since I am just two weeks into this Mac with Snow Leopard and trying to learn all the tricks and trying to forget Windows. I am still in the stressful phase of converting to Mac.

I was able to download some videos I shot last week. I was able to get them into the iMovie and edit them (but one scene on the camera was excellent but in iMovie the head of the subject got cut off) and then I wanted to create DVD for some friends. I was able to burn the DVD but when I tried to play it on the DVD player, the player cannot read it. I tried it in my old Windows PC and it could not read it either, even though it said right there on the burn DVD page it could. The file extension on what iMovie made appears to be .m4v whatever that is. Could this be the problem? I have a converter, what to convert to is the question.

Okay, I said all that to ask my question. What do I do to burn a DVD that can play on a DVD player, my Mac and even my old Windows PC? I tried both -R and +R, neither works.

Thanks

Can anyone give me a clue.

.m4v is not the DVD format for video.

Look into buying an App named TOAST.

If you're using your Mac, look into iDVD which comes with iLife.

I like using Handbrake to convert all my movies ... Simple and free .

If you are going to do your own DVD's, as baggss states Toast Titanium 10 is the ultimate tool.