The new Sylvania's (I have the Sylvania DVC-840E VCR/DVD combo) rock as far as playing skip free movies. I burnt a movie onto a Fake TY with sky PI Errors (1200+) and that thing played it flawlessly. All the other players laughed at that movie and promptly displayed "Disc Error". Of course I didn't keep that burn but the Sylvania's are awesome readers.

i'v read all wot you guys posted, i must say it kinda help but i'm still at a loss. i use a ulead moviefactory 2 bundled with my pioneer writer and of late my dvds are freezing up badly, the way i see it it really mit be a problem with the dvds i'v bn using of late. i ran out of memorex and verbatim now i use sumvision and i think its just a uselessbrand

Use good quality media, it is worth (Fuji, Verbatim, Ricoh, etc.).
Try other software also ( DVDShrink, CloneDVD2).

Used Any DVD and Clove DVD 4 times using my Sony K35 Laptop/ 3.06 ghz/ Pioneer DVDRw - DVR K 14L/Verb DL 8.5 Media. Backedup 4 movies - 1 had the hangup problem. Any solutions using DL media ??

What brand (plus firmware version number) is your standalone?

Well if the problem is due to the transcoding then yes, using dual layer mdeia will solve the problem.