Whats your Avi. Converting method?

For AVI to DVD I use a couple of programs.

First I'll throw the AVI into VirtualdubMOD to demux the audio, normally this will either be an mp3 or AC3 file, plus a wav file.

Then I'll author to MPEG2 using TMPGE 2.6. This is where the wav audio file comes in, for some reason if you don't use a wav audio file it takes a long time to convert, and also complains about the file size.

Once I have the MPEG2 file I'll author a DVD using TMPGE DVD Author 1.6, and use the AC3 file stripped from VirtualdubMOD.

If the audio file was mp3 then I'll convert this to AC3 in Soundforge. I find if I author a DVD with an MP3 file it has sync issues.

The above is a bit drawn out, but it gives good results.

BUT - for mkv to DVD I did use ConvertXtoDVD. This was a quick way to achieve quite good results, although I found some of the converted files had slight glitching, as though it had dropped a frame here and there.

I then switched over to the Film Machine. I find this a very good program and the author keeps regular updates on his site and is always ready to answer questions on his forum. I use CCE with Film Machine on 4 pass. For an mkv file this can take about 12 hours, but as most mkv files are 720 high resolution it does return excellent results without noticable loss of image quality, a part from the resolution changes to DVD compliant. Another good thing in the Film Machine is the NTSC to PAL. The audio engine with the Film MAchine is able to match the change in frame rate well, thus no out of sync issues.

But I don't like the final authoring so I then author the converted files using TMPGE 1.6.