I did a quick bit of googling and found the following links which might be useful:

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/arch...avi_to_dvd.cfm

http://www.boilsoft.com/aviconverter/

http://www.mp3towav.org/WinAVI-Video-Converter/

But what exactly is the issue with Nero as if you could fix that you wouldn't have to worry about trying to find another way of doing it?