Turning your home movies into DVDs is this year's killer application, and a number of excellent packages are available that look after all the tricky stuff for you.

The most intensive part of this process is turning your video clips into the mpeg2 format required by DVD. The trouble is that cheaper packages rarely give you much control over this process, while many of the professional authoring tools won't even do it at all.

TMPG encoder is a standalone utility that can convert standard avi video files into mpeg2. It boasts a vast array of encoding options, including a number of variable and constant bit rates, up to an incredibly high quality 8Mbps setting.

This is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants ultimate control and quality from their home movie projects.