[J.R. Ewing]

if the DVD player has the DivX logo printed on it, then it can play most .avi.
the more modern the player, the more up to date the codec inside will be, and so you'll find that most .avi files will play.
there are some ridiculously cheap machines around now that play DVD/DivX, it's amazing.
and it's great to be able to get 5 or 6 films on one DVD.