For the normal DVD player, it can only play DVD with a formal format, named DVD-Video, which you need some special DVD authoring software to make the DVD before you burn. Some of the DVD player from China and play avi files with Divx format, hence you can burn the DIVX format avi files directly to the DVD.
There are so many video format we can use, name as codec. Basically if you want to play the video with using DVD player, you don't need to bother anything about codec. Just may the formal format of DVD / VCD, then it's fine. Try to look at
www.videohelp.com and learn more about the format of DVD and other codec.
