AVI to DVD

here’s 6 basic steps to convert a .AVI to DVD so you can watch your movies on your home player, not just your computer. . .But first we need to figure out if it’s a fullscreen movie or letterbox movie. . .Movies normally come in two sizes: 4:3 (fullscreen) or 16:9 (letterbox) which they call aspect ratio. . .They also come in two formats PAL (Non-US) and NTSC (US). . .The following examples are for NTSC Only!

what you need first:
transcode
mplayer
Mjpegtools
ffmpeg
dvd+rw-tools
Dvdauthor
some hardrive space

in this example I will be using a 16:9 movie.avi for our conversion. . .

1.) Split the .avi file into 2 separate files, one for video and one for audio:

transcode -i movie.avi -y ffmpeg --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o movie -D0 -s2 -m movie.ac3 -J modfps=clonetype=3 --export_fps 29.97

this will make:
movie.m2v (video)
movie.ac3 (audio)

note: if you’re doing a fullscreen (4:3) movie then simply change –export_asr 3 to –export_asr 2

2.) (optional) Extract 5.1 Audio:

tcextract -d2 -i movie.avi -a0 -x ac3 | tcextract -d2 -x ac3 -t raw > movie.ac3

This is an extra step if you know your .avi file actually has 5.1 surround sound. (Step one only produces a stereo .ac3 file !)
How can you tell? Do this first:

mplayer -vo dummy -identify movie.avi 2> /dev/null | grep "5.1 ("

if you get this output then you have 5.1:

AC3: 5.1 (3f+2r+lfe) 48000 Hz 384.0 kbit/s

if you don’t, just ignore this step!

3.) Put the video & audio file back together:

mplex -f 8 -o dvd_movie.mpg movie.m2v movie.ac3

this will make dvd_movie.mpg ready for DVD authoring. . .

4.) open your favorite text editor and paste the following:

<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
<vmgm />
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="dvd_movie.mpg" chapters="0,15:00,30:00,45:00,1:00:00"/>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

save the file as: dvdauthor.xml
in the same directory as your movie files
(you can also change the chapters to fit the times of your movie)

5.) Create a DVD directory where your movie files are and do this:

dvdauthor -x dvdauthor.xml

this will create two AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories in your DVD directory. . .

6.) Test it & Burn it:

to test it:

xine dvd:/full/path/to/DVD/VIDEO_TS/

to burn it:

growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -dvd-video DVD/

note: I like to use DVD-RW discs for a test before I use a real disc. . .
If all goes well, the above will produce movie with no menus, just the movie that should play when you put in your disc. . .and if there’s more than one .avi then simply do this in your dvdauthor.xml file:

<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
<vmgm />
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="dvd_movie_part1.mpg" chapters="0,15:00,30:00,45:00,1:00:00"/>
</pgc>
<pgc>
<vob file="dvd_movie_part2.mpg" chapters="0,15:00,30:00,45:00,1:00:00"/>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

Source: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/AVI_to_DVD