Just been reading Teeb's great tutorial on burning AVI files to DVD and thought it was missing two things:
1. Burning more than one AVI file and adding a menu
2. Adding chapter markers to the AVI files

Ingredients:
1. One or more AVI files downloaded onto your PC
2. Nero Burning ROM's Nero Vision
3. DVD Shrink (optional)
4. Enough HD space on your PC

Method:
First, load up Nero Vision and select "Make DVD" then "DVD-Video" and when the window changes, select "Add Video Files" to open a file requester. From here navigate to where your AVI files are on your HD and select either one or multiple select by clicking one then holding down CTRL and clicking some more. Once you've selected the file(s) click "Open" and wait a few minutes while Nero reads the files and checks their integrity and adds them to the project. Now as AVI files you won't know for sure how much disc space they'll take up once converted to DVD format to this is a bit of hit & miss. Don't worry if you go over the 4.2GB capacity (DVD5) as we can use DVD Shrink to compress the data down. If you're using dual layer 8.4GB (DVD9) then you can add more movies.

If they've all read in OK you'll see them appear in a list in the left side and they'll appear selected. If you have more than one movie you can change the order they'll appear in the menu by clicking on one and dragging it up and down until you're happy. You might want to rename them as they'll currently have the names of the files listed - just right-click and select "Rename".

The capacity bar along the bottom will be Nero's guess (which seems to be pretty accurate) as to how much of the DVD will be used, these are the options open to you:
1. Movies fit onto a DVD (aka DVD5) disc
If you want to add more movies then click "Add Video Files" until the bar is full. If you're burning only one movie then carry on.

2. Movies are over DVD (aka DVD5) capacity
You can either let Nero do the work taking the data down to DVD5 capacity or select "DVD9" from the drop-down box to write a dual layer image (more on how we do this later)

While you have this list you can also create the chapter markers and there are two ways to do this, manually (where you want them) or automatically (if you're lazy or not bothered where they go). Just right-click one of the movies and select "Create Chapters" to open the chapter editor window. The chapter editor has a preview window on the left, controls along the bottom and thumbs of where the chapters are added down the right.

Creating Chapters Manually
You'll notice a small slider under the preview pane with a vertical bar - drag this to where you want to add a chapter and click the blue icon that has a small folder with a "+" symbol next to it. Once you click this button a new thumbnail will appear in the list on the right. Add another chapter by clicking to the right of the chapter you just added and drag the vertical bar to where you want your next chapter - repeat this process until you've added all your chapters.

Creating Chapters Automatically
For this you need to click the icon second in from the right - has a folder icon with what looks like a "?" on its side. This will open a small window and will start running through looking for scene changes. You can control this to a certain extent by moving the two sliders. When done you'll have a list of chapters.

If you want to rename the chapters just right-click the thumbnail in the list on the right and select "Rename".

Once your chapters are all added, click "Next" which will return you to the original window listing your movies where you can create chapters for all or just a few select movies. If you're happy with everything we can continue to the next part by clicking "Next".

Creating a Menu
If for whatever reason you don't want a menu and want the movie to start playing automatically select "Do not create a menu" from the top-right selection box and skip this part (you can still create chapters for it though!) otherwise click the "Edit Menu" button near the bottom-left to enter the menu editor.

Again, the preview pane is on the left and the list of options you can change are listed on the right:
Layout
This is the number of buttons to appear on the menu along with the position of the preview thumbnail (blue) and the text (grey).

Background
The default blue "My disc" backdrop screams "Nero" and you can change that here to nothing (a color of your choice) or select a picture.
TIP: If you want a backdrop containing the DVD label edit it in Photoshop first or other editing software and lighten or darken it by quite a bit. Otherwise with a label with lots of detail the button text may appear lost.

Buttons
Choose how the buttons look like on the menu where your thumbnails appear for each movie or chapter.

Font
This affects all of the text in the menu (title, footer, button text) to any font installed into Windows.

Header/Footer Text
Change the default "My disc" to what you want and add an optional footer. You can also remove the header and have your title at the bottom if you wish.

Shadow
This adds a drop-shadow to all of the text and you can change the color if you wish to help make the text stand out a little more.

Automization
Use either a still image selected from the movie/chapter or play a clip of the movie/chapter when the item is selected.

Interaction Colors
When the movie/chapter is selected which color is used to highlight it.

You can customise the preview thumbnail for your movies/chapters by right-clicking the item in the preview pane and selecting "Properties" to open a small window. You can rename the item and/or select the thumbnail you want to appear from the movie/chapter. Just drag the slider to show the frame and once done click "OK".

Once you're happy with the menu(s) you can jump onto the next part by clicking "Next" in the bottom right...

Previewing Your DVD
Click "Next" again to give you a picture of a remote control on the right and the preview pane on the left. Play with the controls and see how your menu will appear. If happy, click "Next" and jump to the next part...

Creating/Burning Your DVD
The preview pane has now changed to detailed information about your DVD and the right panel now has some options listed.

Burning Straight To Disc
1. If you have more than one DVD writer installed select the one to use with "Burn To"
2. Give the disc a name by selecting "Volume Name"
3. To change the write speed select "Recording Settings"
4. Click "Write" and go make a coffee or have another beer

Writing To A Folder On Your HD
If like me you want to make an image of your DVD on your HD before burning it to DVD click "Write To Hard Disk Folder" and choose where the image will be made.
1. Give the disc a name by selecting "Volume Name"
2. Click "Write" and go make a coffee or have another beer

Once finished you can preview the DVD in the movie player of your choice, I use WMP as it works for me.

All that's left now is to fire up DVD Shrink, load the movie into it and burn to disc.

Job done!

How long did it take to type all that?

Not very long. When I was at [secondary] school I used to type faster than my typing teacher did as I'd been typing since I was 7.

you could add the video_ts.ifo file from each dvd to convertxtodvd.

i would not suggest more than 3 converted episodes per dvd5.

if you make dvd9(dual layer) of course add more.

thanks foe the info...

Wow! Very helpful! Thank you muchly!

Hey sorry this may be the wrong place to post this, but on this forum I can only find posts that explain how to convert avi,divx,mp4,etc. to dvd using windows, any idea on a good program to use for mac?

just a quick question about this guide,
is this the same thing that convertxtodvd does? by adding avi's then clicking convert??

the reason i ask is that i im burning about 5 avi's to data dvd, and watching them on my dvd player, by title of the guide i assume i can add chapters to my avi's, but by reading this guide it seems i will end up with video_ts folders right?

thanx for your time, peace!

thats just how i put my Avi's on to dvd, i get 2 , 3 and somtimes 4 films on 1 dvd5 ...however the more u put on them ..the quality goes down ..so i reconmend no more than 2 films per dvd.

To be perfectly honest I've never used ConvertXtoDVD and maybe can't answer your question in full.

This method with Nero helps you make a custom menu. Say you put 3 or 4 episodes of a series onto a DVD you can make a menu for it. With this menu you can change the background, style of icons and much more. This would allow you to select which programme you want to play.

ok dokey thanx for the quick reply zeb, i appreciate it, peace!

p.s. good job on the guide.

Thank You - I am trying this now.
I have been trying to figure out how to hane a menu for my .AVI files and have been using divx author, but it crashes lot. This may be my answer!!!

Great Tutorial, but why not get a DVP player and put, say 6 movies unconverted onto a DVD, It just takes a few minutes, with none of the Inevitable quality loss or multiple steps/processes when doing the above.... or did I miss something?

I'm hoping my new PS3 will play my mp4 stuff the same way, putting several on a DVD, or flash drive, if I'm not keeping them.

I'm always ready to learn something new, so convince me..