.avi to *real* DVD

If one would like to burn his .avi files to a DVD-+R/RW, so that he can then watch it with his DVD player on his TV.

What do you then need to do this?

Thanks.

Sonic MyDVD for relatively simple stuff-the-files-in-one-end-get-a-working-DVD-out-the-other type stuff, Adobe Encore with TMPGEnc for super controllability (multiple audio, soft subtitles, custom animated menus, seamless branching, etc).

Any free alternatives?

No. I don't think there's a single free DVD authoring package out there, because licensing the code for MPEG-2 compression costs big bucks. Either learn to pirate or cough up the dough for one.