Help with ripping avi files to disc

Hi all,
have been using LW for a few years with no problems. Thought i would try downloading a movie, have done that with no problem ( very informative info on these forums) but now i have tried to convert avi files so i can burn to disc. What is a FREE good converting program. I tried Cursoft? but it has a watermark. I have installed DVD santa, and it is ok, but i cannot seem to watch the disc on my dvd player, it will play on my poratable dvd player, but not my normal one. I am using the same discs i use to copy dvd to dvd ( using dvd shrink) but these downloaded movies will not play. I have also tried dvd+RW,s but they will not work. My player does support dvd/supervcd/mp3/vc/cd............
So is it my discs, my player or is it me, what am i doing wrong?
What is a good converting program (free)?

Thanks in advance for your help


Happy new year to all

Happy new year to you cajhagan,
I do not believe that you will find a free copy and/or converting programs and you don't seem to be doing anything wrong.
You may want to change player - try playing your DVDs on somebodyelse player some programs work well together, some don't and it's not always obvious.