I used this for the first time today to convert 'The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants' from AVI to DVD format. First impressions are that it is a very easy and user friendly program to use.
I must admit to being a huge fan of DVD2SVCD mainly because it uses Cinema Craft Encoder, which in my opinion is the best available. The Film Machine can also use CCE as an option, even though it comes complete with 2 other encoders, namely HC and QuEnc.
After loading it up with whatever AVI file you wish to convert, the first thing that appears is a panel on the right hand side which tells you all you need to know about the conversion specs. e.g. Pal or NTSC, widescreen or fullscreen etc.
I usually use AVI Codec for that information but with The Film Machine you don't need to.
After setting up the output folder and making any other changes you see fit, you can just click go and forget about it.
I was very pleased with the results. The movie quality was as good as DVD2SVCD and it even changed the audio to AC3 which is always a good thing.
For you technical buffs out there, the version of CCE I used was SP 2.5 but I believe any version can be used.

Agent-k