Why exactly would you want to convert to DVD format?

Can anyone explain why you would want to go through all the trouble to convert any other format (AVI) to DVD if you have for example a DVD player that plays all other formats e.g. DivX, Xvid, MPEG-4 (AVI). What are the benefits if any in doing this. Why not just copy the AVI as it is to DVD or CD disc.
I would appreciate all thoughts.

Thanks for your time

 

One reason would be that no one else could view the video unless they had a capable player. Also, the excellent quality and speed of a good encoder. If I had to use something like TMPGEnc that is so slow, then I'd be looking into an Avi player. There are also 1 step programs like ConvertXtoDVD that are faster yet and give great quality.

 

@1970paul
Your right.There is no practical reason (as long as we all have DivX players).
However I might want to create a masterpiece with a nice animated menu complete with background music.
There does not seem to be an easy way to do that with AVI's burned to a data dvd.

 

One good reason: Video capturing. DV AVI is quite lossless so the files are horrendously huge. You'd get maybe 20 min on a DVD5.