I am having a problem with my DVD burner?

I have a DVD burner in my Gateway desktop which has Windows XP. Now I am trying to burn an avi file (approx 700mb-1.49gb) to a dvd with a program i downloaded from download.com but after the encoding it continually reads an error message or waits until after burning, the disc is ejected and reads an error to the file, cant remember specific error message, or when it happens particularly b/c i'm usually away while the dvd's burning but i need to know some dvd burning tips, help, and maybe a good free and/or trial program that burns avi files.