What is the best program to use to convert avi to dvd?
Hi schilfy welcome to the forum, You can use a program called “FX MPEG Write” it also has Tutorials on how to convert Avi to MPeg and is located here http://www.jhepple.com/default.asp
or a program called “Easy Video Converter” that can also split, join and convert to most media formats from here http://www.amigoshare.com/index.html both the programs are easy to use, it’s best to first read the help files that are in the programs to get a idea on how to use it, but if you get stuck just feel free to ask, there are lot’s of members only to happy to help you out. 
I’ve actually been having very good success with NeroVision Express 2. It’s latest incarnation is very stable and doesn’t crash from what I can tell. I tried with a couple movies I had made DVD-Rips of before and have gotten 3 movies on 1 DVD while retaining pretty nice quality depending on the size of the flick. It’s worth checking into at least. 