Playback prohibited by area limitations...how to know?

Ok, so I'm fairly new to the DVD burning revolution. I've downloaded a few .avi files using Direct Connect and have converted and burned them to DVD. I first use DIVXtoDVD to decode/encode (?) them to VSO files and then use Nero 6.6 to burn them to DVD. I've had great success with most of them but a few I have run into problems with. When I put the DVD into my Sony home DVD player I get the "Playback prohibited by area limitations" error. I know that this has something to do with the region codes...my question is, how can I tell if an .avi file will be prohibited like this BEFORE I burn it to DVD and waste a disc? Is there a way to tell? I've installed AnyDVD to bypass region code problems but I assume that once a DVD is encoded to DivX you can't bypass the region codes and AnyDVD is only good for physical DVD's?

Thanks for the help!

 

Problem because you didn't choose an Area 1 (Area 2) for US (Europe).
Just to inform you, making a DVD from an AVI is a loss of time, unless it were 1.3 GB and very high (comparable to 720x480) resolution.

An AVI has NO region code, maybe you used the wrong settings (PAL instead of NTSC) when you built the DVD?