Ann -- before going much futher with this otherwise quite helpful exchange, I think I should correct an obvious and very fundamental misunderstanding on your part.
First, you are obviously capturing from a mini-DV digital video camera -- correct? Hopefully, you are capturing in DV format using your Firewire connection from the camera to a Firewire card on your computer. But can you confirm this. (Firewire will guarantee the highest quality capture. If however you are using USB, your captured video will be much lower quality.)
This is where your project property comes from, but your error was to call it DVD Type 1. In reality, it is DV Type 1. And this is a fundamental error because in effect DV format and DVD format are chalk and cheese (though as Black Lab later suggests, there is no reason why high quality DVD files should not be of similar quality to the original DV video).
DV is a slighly compressed version of uncompressed AVI format, but uses an algorithm which does not cause any loss in quality through the compression which is applied. DV creates large files: around 13 GB for one of your 1 hour mini DV cassettes that go in the camera.
DVD format is a specific version of mpeg-2, which is a much more compressed format than DV and unfortunately, the algorithm it uses means that it is included in the 'lossy' category i.e. it loses some quality each time it is re-encoded. This gives rise to considerable debate as to whether, or how far, it can or should be edited. Basically, though, converting your original 13GB DV to DVD-compatible mpeg-2, using high quality settings with a bitrate of 8000 kbps, should provide you with a file which should fit on a single-layer 4.3 GB DVD and be of the same quality as your original DV.
What is more, this conversion has to be done before you can produce a video DVD. DV is not a DVD-compatible format, so you always have to convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 before it can be burned to disc.
You should still continue to capture in DV format, and do your edits in that format. This will maintain the original high quality of the footage in your camera.
Once you finish your editing, you look at your project and in particular its length. If it is around an hour, or even a little over, then you say to yourself: "OK. I can fit this onto a single layer DVD if I convert it to an mpeg-2 which uses 8000 kbps bitrate. And if I use Dolby AC-3 (or mpeg layer 2) audio, this will allow me to squeeze a little more video on the disc than if I used standard, though large, LPCM audio." Or else, you realise that you have around 90 minutes of video you need to eventually squeeze onto your 4.3 GB DVD. So you say to yourself: "To do this, I need to produce an mpeg-2 which uses a lower bitrate of around 6000 kbps. I might even be able to squeeze a bit more video on if I use AC-2 or mpeg layer 2 audio." If your project is 2 hours or over, then as Trevor has outlined, your would need to use a bitrate of around 4000 kbps, though the quality, while decent, will certainly be no better than decent VHS quality.
The other important thing here is that before even thinking of going into the burning module (Share > Create Disc > DVD), you should be doing the thinking I have outlined above i.e. working out what size mpeg-2 you will need, with what bitrate and other settings, if it is eventually to fit into a 4.3 GB DVD. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, do the conversion straight after you have finished editing: Share > Create Video File > DVD, and making sure the properties of this DVD file have the properties you have worked out will fit on the DVD. Rendering this new DVD-compatible mpeg-2 file will take the sort of time you have already experienced.
(I suspect you may be going straight from your DV project in the timeline to the burning module. This may work, but it is a big ask for any computer, which has to do the DV > DVD conversion on the fly, plus all the other things associated with the burning process itself. Many people find their computer is not up to the job, and this could be one reason why your final product is not of good quality.)
When you have the new mpeg-2 file, hopefully it will be under 4.3 GB in size. If not, you might have to reduce the bitrate a little, and go back and produce another file. When you have a file which your think will fit, then close your project, and then select Share > Create Disc > DVD, insert the new file, create your menu and burn.
If for some reason, the file is still a bit too large, then you could try using 'fit to burn'. From the reports of others, it seems that this function will only work well in VS if the file is only a little bigger than 4.3 GB. If it is a much larger file, apparently fit to burn in VS will simply not work.
An alternative would be to use your larger file in the VS burning module and instead of actually burning a disc, produce a DVD folder (Video_TS) instead. This is a folder which contains the exact structure of a final DVD. Since you already have Nero, you can then use Nero Recode, point it at this folder, and it will produce a new folder which has exactly the right size to fit on your DVD. Quality is usually excellent. Another program which will do this is DVD Shrink whose quality is also excellent.
But the basic message is to try to get the size right in the original conversion from DV to DVD formats.
Here endeth the lesson!!
