This novice sure could use a bit of help, 'cause I don't know what to do on several things.

I've been trying to figure this out for myself, but can't seem to get
it right so any help will be appreciated.

Here's what I want to do:

I have a number of AVI, Divx, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files I want to burn
to DVD in a certain order to play on my DVD/TV setup. I've tried a
couple of Shareware programs but they seemed to not be Vista
"friendly," ...if anything is Vista "friendly." I haven't tried it on
my XP due to limited HD space.

So, my first problem is I need to convert these to VOB, I guess, but
as of yet I haven't seen any programs which do this.

Any suggestions?

What would be ideal would be a converter and burner combo program, if
there is such a program.

I should be able to fit 3-5 of these on each DVD. I would like to try
my abilities at authoring animated menus when the "menu" button on
the remote is pushed when watching on the TV. Since I'm going to be
giving some of these to a doctor friend of mine, I thought I'd have a
doctor walk in from the left side of the screen and move his
stethoscope to the selected clip. I'd also like to put a little bit
of audio in the menu, if possible - something like "What 'cha' wanna
watch, Doc?" (or something like that, something simple)

Any suggestions here?

I also have a lot of VHS "stuff" I want to capture to my HD via my TV
card on my Vista unit. I know Windows Media Player has this function,
but knowing Windows/Gates, there are probable a lot of other programs
which a far superior at capturing streaming TV via cable. I just
don't know what they are.

Any suggestions?

Also, I have some clips which have multi-language subtitles I'd like
to get rid of and then burn these as a backup for my "good" copy. Is
this what a DVD ripper is used to accomplish? If so, could anyone
recommend a couple of good ones?

If anyone can offer some help in any area of what I want to
accomplish, I would be very thankful.

I'm not in a big hurry, as I've got several other projects going and
am working on this when I need a break from the other more important
things. And, I'm sure I'll have other questions as I get into this
project learning experience, and would like to be able to ask for help
here if I can't figure it out on my on.

To anyone who can reply, I offer my sincerest "Thank You."

Snowman