hi there im a newbie too at this stuff but will tell you what i have found out so far...
if you burn your VCD file to a dvd(what burning software are you using?) it may work but this depends on your stand alone dvd player. ie. what type of discs it is compatible with.
also, i found that the dvd sometimes freezes part way through. You will also probably find that you have to forward all the way to the part in the movie you want to watch.
For these reasons it is best to make your file into a proper dvd file and then author it.
I put my video footage onto dvd by using Nero vision express, it is really easy to use and you can create a menu and chapters like a proper dvd. This program will transcode and burn your file all in one go.
The other alternative is to use TMPGEnc see the guide on this site for more info.
Either way you will then create a dvd recognised as DVD-VIDEO when inserted into yr player this will then be recognised by any player.
Hope i have been of a little help
@c2sellit1, it SHOULD play as MPEG-1 works with DVD. See on an NTSC DVD you should have a resolution of either 352x240 or 720x480, or on a PAL DVD you should have either 352x288 or 720x576. VCD is either 352/240 or 352x288. Only big difference is that VCD audio is 44.1HZ mp2, this is NON Standard! most authoring programs wont accept 44.1HZ audio so you have to re-sample the audio, which is displayed in this following guide - http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/vcd_to_dvd-r.cfm
There are many authoring programs, my personal favourite is DVD Lab Pro. Only problem with DVD Lab is that MPEG-1 will display as just a mess of colours instead of the picture while u author it but will play fine on your DVD player. As for chapters, you can just use Auto Chapters to add as many chapters as u want in seconds. Other alternatives are TMPGEnc DVD Autor or many of the Ulead programs.
@DumbBlond, I seriously would not recommend using Nero Products for anything related to authoring or encoding video. As an encoder, Nero is known to be terrible! Your best option is to find a good authoring program like DVD-Lab to build the DVD files, you can then burn them as DVD-Video in Nero. Trust me, in the end you'd be much better off!
@stamp44, Well authoring basically means building the DVD. It consists of adding whatever movies you want, whatever audio track you want, building your menu's, setting navigational parameters etc.. DVD-lab as I mentioned already is my favourite authoring program now because of its simplicity, also with the Pro version being able to create VGM menu's which work in pretty much all DVD Players as opposed to VTS that most other authoring software makes, DVD-Lab Pro is the best choice IMO. It also comes with a complete guide on how to use it, you'd teach yourself the whole program in little time!
