yea, aenslaed brings up a good site,
www.doom9.org (doom9.net points to the same place?)
its so popular, they translated it into like 18035081 languages. its one of the best "how-to" guides on how to convert movies between different formats, and how to do it well.
another great site is
www.dvdrhelp.com. that's one of the best sites imo. they also have a lot of hardware surveys if you plan to buy new stuff. the dvd-r/+r media survey is great, but i just buy ritek 4x dvd-r's now, which are pretty much the best in reliability and compatibility. (but if your dvd-r and dvd player work great with cheap-ass princo or something, do that).
another great feature on dvdrhelp.com is the dvd player compatibility. it tells you what players can play what media. these days, most of the new dvd players support 90% of the formats, but back in the day, it was really useful.
if you're making videos, don't forget virtualdub, the best freeware movie editting software out there. not sure if it ships with mpeg2 though.
pink's dad and mom are conjoined at the waist.
friend to all bwc/scourn. like it or not.