I'm not sure why anyone in the year 2012 would ever need a VCD at all, but whatever:

1. How long is the running time of the AVI file? VCDs, just like DVDs have a time limit (in the case of VCDs, that's 74 minutes, no exceptions). You cannot get around converting the file to MPEG-1, that is the format that VCDs *require.* Same deal with DVDs -- no matter what format the source file is, it HAS to be converted to MPEG-2 to be part of a "movie" DVD.

2. I think what chscag was trying to suggest is that you forget about VCDs altogether (and I agree!) and instead convert the file to MPEG-2/DVD format so you can use DVD-Rs. What he didn't clarify was that a VCD, by its nature, burns to a CD (thus the name Video CD).