I am recording shows directly from my television to my dvd recorder. I am
using DVD-R disks. I have tried TDK DVD-R 16X and Ritek DVD-R 4X. The TDK
starts to play, but after 5 seconds, just freezes. I don't recall the
Ritek problem, but needless to say it does not play either.

I called Honda directly and the person acknowledged that it's a hit or miss
when it comes to playing burned DVDs in the vehicle. She could not tell me
what particular brand or type would or would not work.

Has anyone had luck with a particular brand or type of DVD disk that will
consistently play in the player? This is a real frustrating problem. I've
tried searching on the Internet, but have not found any resolution.

My last road trip, I ended up bringing a DVD player into the car, plugging
it into a power inverter and connecting it via the RCA jacks to interface
it into the DVD screen.

Yes, the disks are "finalized" and will play on other DVD players connected
to other televisions.