Just made a Bkup myself...same disc - "The Polar Express" R1-NTSC...no problems, plays ok in burners as well as standalones. Used Express (platinum v. 2.9.5.6)...main movie option. Original file - movie only = 4362MB, so that the video quality was about 89%.

One odd finding was that when I opened express and took a look at the files, three separate identical files were listed: 4295 MB ea. (running 1:39:45 ea). This, obviously makes no sense, and leads me to believe that something is a little strange with this release. I previewed each, they appear to be identical. If I have some time, I may play around with it a bit...

Just an FYI, v. 2.9.5.6 was released on 11/16...the three subequent versions caused random crashes with some users with os xp sp2.
V. 2.9.6.0, released 11/22 is ok per most fab forum members.

I don't know which version of freeware you have, but the decrypter is the same, respective of the version.

Hope this helps.