I was wondering if anybody could tell me a programe to download that converts AVI files to DVD that i can burn straight onto disk and watch in a dvd player!?
AVI isn't a codec; it's merely a wrapper for many different codecs. So depending on the actual codec involved, Toast should be able to do just what you want.
...should be able to convert your video to whatever you want. You can download it for free -- check versiontracker.com. You could convert to DV or MP4 and then burn to DVD using iDVD. THis would be slower than Toast (because of the rendering time), but at least it's all free.