This is a short description how to produce a Video DVD from a video file under Linux.

The first step is to convert your movie file from the original format to MPEG-2:

avconv -i movie.{avi,...} -target pal-dvd -vb 8000k dvd.mpg

Depending on your TV, you have to choose between PAL and NTSC and between Video CD, Super Video CD, and Video DVD (e.g., ntsc-vcd, ntsc-svcd, ntsc-dvd,…). The option -vb sets the target video bitrate. 8000kbit/s is a guess that worked for me. (Note: avonv is the successor of ffmpeg)

From the MPEG-2 file, you now produce a file structure that is suitable for a Video CD/DVD using the appropriate command below. dvdauthor is known to have problems selecting the video format using the option -v, so the environment variable VIDEO_FORMAT should be used instead

VIDEO_FORMAT=PAL dvdauthor -o dvdfolder -t dvd.mpg
VIDEO_FORMAT=NTSC dvdauthor -o dvdfolder -t dvd.mpg

Then, you create a so-called titleset for your CD/DVD with:

VIDEO_FORMAT=PAL dvdauthor -o dvdfolder -T
VIDEO_FORMAT=NTSC dvdauthor -o dvdfolder -T

Now you are ready to burn your CD/DVD. Open k3b (or another burning tool) and choose “New Video DVD project” (or similar) and copy VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS into the root of the project folder.

Acknowledgments

Main ideas stem from here.