im jsut trying to take a folder of AVI files, and put them on a normal dvd for playing in a standard dvd player. is there any recommended software, for making dvd menus and stuff? running Windows 7 HP.

freeware?

Windows Live Movie Maker but you need Vista or 7

http://download.live.com/moviemaker

VSO convertxtodvd easy to use but not free.

avi files need to be converted to DVD compliant mpegs for most authoring software. to work. One of the best places to go for help is the site www.videohelp.com. They have a huge forum with thousands of participants and a tools section where you can access tons of freeware (and software for purchase) for just about any aspect of video/DVD.

I'm sure someone there can tell you the fastest, easiest way to get your avi's on to a DVD.

(Personally I use paid software: TMPGEnc Express to convert files to DVD compliant mpegs and TmpgDVDAuthor to author the DVD's.. But I'm converting VHS tapes to DVD.)

Edited December 17, 200916 yr by the xt guy

+1 for TMPGEnc. I'm still at TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring, and haven't needed any new funtionality (yet) that would force me to upgrade. Be aware that the vendor and your computer authenticate quickly over the internet when you fire up the program. No big deal.

DVDFLick is an open-source program, which will take a series of movie files and convert them into a std DVD Video disc, complete w/ a menu. It's actually a slick GUI front-end to a series of cmd-line utils, which do all of the conversion, encoding, etc. Very straight forward to use. My 1st attempt resulted in a working DVD Video disc, after which I've created about a dozen DVD Video discs w/ it.

A most excellent program and you can't beat the price: free !

Later....Jet