This SHOULD qualify as "Newbie question of the Year". I (think/hope) I've just used Nero Vision to transfer AVI to an MPEG. Nero is asking where I want to burn the file to. Want to burn to CD so I can play on my DVD player. Which of the two presets offered will do this: _NEC NR-7900A or IMAGE RECORDER
You can burn directly to your burner, or you can burn to the image recorder on your HD, then to the burner(some prefer this method cos NVE can get squirrely or so they say, I've never had problems going directly to the dvd writer). If you are using "cd" and not "dvd" be sure to click on cd at the top right corner of startsmart before opening NVE.