Ok, now I have had a chance to read these forums back to front (as opposed to searching) I have found the common terminology is called a "freeze".

So there appear to be two theories

1) Poor DVD media

This "could" apply to me as I have only ever used one brand of media. However most people say it happens towards the end of the movie (i.e. edge of the DVD) - but I have seen it any time, 10 minutes in, 30 minutes etc. Sometimes (when really bad) it happens every 10-15 minutes.

This also would make sense where non-transcoded DVD's work perfectly.

2) Labels

I have decided this is probably the most liekly culprit. I am totally organised and have labelled all DVD's with full colour.

DVD's that freeze don't appear to have labels worse than others that work (i.e. mis-aligned or bubbles etc), but it might be a good theory.

Also, DVD's I give to friends typically don't have labels yet...hmmmm

What does everyone think?

I picked out the worst labelled (misalligned badly) DVD and am playing it int he background as we speak. If it fails (more than once), i will strip the label and try the test again.

I will report back on the outcome, but would still love some feedback.

Thanks