Free tools for video manipulation and editing in Linux aren't that difficult to find if you cognize wherever to fix your eyes on.
Here are my favorites:
Avidemux is a unconstrained picture skilled worker designed for uncomplicated cutting, filtering and encryption tasks. It supports umpteen report types, together with AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, mistreatment a group of codecs. Interestingly, it's accessible for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Windows beneath the GNU GPL official document. I haven't proven Mac OS X and Windows versions, but the system runs wonderful below Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake).
For database conversion, there's FFMPEG, which is free-but you'll have to larn to use it finished the order row. Unfortunately, the MAN leaf for the system of rules isn't thoroughly undeniable.
To stockpile several of you the dissension of reckoning it out, here's a expeditious tutorial.
Let's say you deprivation to soul a record called MYVIDEO.AVI to the mpg format, which is the information corroborated by the K3 CD baking programme. After instalment FFMPEG (you can use Synaptic Package Manager), bushfire up Terminal.
From the enjoin line, sail to the organizer where on earth the profile is kept. So you power type:
cd /home/user/Converts
to go to the organizer where the folder is kept.
Then kind the subsequent at the charge line:
ffmpeg -i MYVIDEO.avi -target ntsc-vcd MYVIDEO.mpg
and hit Enter. That should get the shift system started, and you ought to see more than a few essay curlicue by in the Terminal frame. Don't circumstantially imminent the window, because that will discontinue the shift. You can decrease it, nonetheless.
To individual an avi record to SVCD format, you would type:
ffmpeg -i MYVIDEO.avi -target ntsc-vcd MYVIDEO.mpg
There's a GUI front-end for FFMPEG on Mac OS X, but I haven't recovered one for Linux.
For rending DVDs, I use AcidRip. Very natural but swift and effective.