Ran home at lunch to check on status, and again, the Windows dialog "program has stopped responding". No crash per-se.

My backup plan is to export the individual chapters to files, and then use disc authoring tools from some other brand of software from these chapter files. I can find no combinations of settings that will export NTSC Widescreen DVD disc image in PS 17.2, and have spent days trying. I give up. PS 17 disc authoring is just dead as far as I can tell. Based on previous PS experiences, no one who can do anything about it is listening, and a fix may never come.