The 'manual' method...
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic120021.html
The "automatic" method...
Nero / DVD Shrink / DVD Santa (etc)
Basically if the film needs any converting (eg. from avi/divx/xvid), or compressing (i.e. to fit a 8.5Gb film to a 4.7Gb DVD), then this takes a long time depending on the speed of your computer. If the video file is already small enough for a 4.7Gb disc, the whole process can actually take less than 30 mins.
You can burn to CD but that nearly always requires alot of recompressing etc and a reduction in quality.
Enjoy