Tech Geeks HELP!

I'm trying to burn a DVD from existing videos (mpegs and avis) on my hard drive. My computer has a DVD-RW drive and I've got the right discs to use. I have some crappy software (mydvd by sonic) and it doesn't burn more than a few clips before crashing. I need something that will translate the files into TV language and burn them onto the DVD for me.

Any suggestions? I mean, free is good but I'll pay for something if you've used it and recommend it.

THANKS, I'm going NUTS!

ETA: I'm a PC girl, at least for now...sorry Molly. So no MAC suggestions!