Converting AVI and MPEG to play on TV DVD Player

[waitomo]

I'm new to the world of Apple and need some help.

I have some AVI and MPEG files that I'd like to burn to a DVD and be able to play that on a DVD player hooked up to a TV.

What is the simplest way to do this? I have iMovie, iDVD and Toast Titanium. Do I need anything else?

Is there a program I should download? Is it free?

Help! I'm lost.

 

[JediMeister]

The AVI files cannot be used with iMovie or iDVD unless converted to dv or mp4. You can accomplish this with any number of converters like iSquint/VisualHub (if still downloadable), MPEG Streamclip, or QuickTime Pro. Its probably the same story for the MPEG files unless its using the MPEG-1 or MPEG-4 codec already. To see what video codec its using either go to Movie Properties if the file is playable in QuickTime or Get Info on the file in Finder and see what it says in the More Info section.
iMovie would only be used to edit the video, like splicing clips together, adding transitions or removing certain sections, etc. If you're not planning on editing or combining video you can just drag the clips individually or as a group into iDVD where it'll create play buttons for each inserted clip and once encoded and burned to disc, should be playable on a set-top DVD player. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6655.html lists the file formats compatible with iDVD.

 

[waitomo]

Thanks, JediMeister. I downloaded and used iSquint. Then I used iDVD to burn the files and it works fine in the DVD player. iSquint is almost too easy to use.

I kept finding all these programs that just didn't work or if they did, they left watermarks unless I paid $$$. I wasn't that desperate and now I don't have to be at all.

Thanks, again.