> Well, *you* try finding software that will encode it. (Without paying 
> money.) Plenty of decoders, no (free) encoders.

I have always used open-source decoders and encoders after my TMPGEnc 
trial period finished. Finding MPEG2 encoders is easy.

> And it's not just MPEG-2. A playable DVD requires a particular file 
> structure and lots of metadata. (And a root menu...) I hear it's 
> possible to build a usable video DVD using k3b, but after the first 
> dozen pages of the HOWTO I decided it was just way too complicated.

Now, *that* is the hard part. And this is the reason why it's hard to 
find good and cheap software:

To develop a DVD application (software or hardware), one must first 
licence the particular book of DVD specifications from DVD Format/Logo 
Licensing Corporation, a Japanese corporation. The different DVD formats 
have different books; each book contains hundreds of pages and costs 
approximately $5000. After obtaining this licence, the developer is 
required to become a licensee which requires an additional fee. Without 
becoming a licensee, the book can be used only for reference, not for 
actual creation of DVD applications.

(source: wikipedia/"DVD authoring")

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