Free tools for video manipulation and editing in Linux aren't that tough to find if you know where on earth to outward show.
Here are my favorites:
Avidemux is a aweigh visual communication skilled worker designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many a profile types, plus AVI, DVD agreeable MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, victimization a mixed bag of codecs. Interestingly, it's gettable for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Windows beneath the GNU GPL permit. I haven't proved Mac OS X and Windows versions, but the program runs dry low Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake).
For profile conversion, there's FFMPEG, which is free-but you'll have to learn to use it done the bid vein. Unfortunately, the MAN leaf for the programme isn't thoroughly wash out.
To free whatever of you the upset of problem solving it out, here's a high-speed tutorial.
Let's say you privation to somebody a file called MYVIDEO.AVI to the mpg format, which is the information corroborated by the K3 CD fire system of rules. After instalment FFMPEG (you can use Synaptic Package Manager), forest fire up Terminal.
From the order line, journey to the case where the profile is kept. So you mightiness type:
cd /home/user/Converts
to go to the case where on earth the database is kept.
Then form the pursuing at the direct line:
ffmpeg -i MYVIDEO.avi -target ntsc-vcd MYVIDEO.mpg
and hit Enter. That should get the transmutation programme started, and you ought to see quite a few course book gyre by in the Terminal framing. Don't circumstantially near the window, because that will come to an end the transmutation. You can minimize it, notwithstanding.
To mortal an avi database 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 saved one for Linux.
For rending DVDs, I use AcidRip. Very uncontrived but hasty and economic.