Is there a way to create an AVI from a picture? Basically, I need to display a single image for 5 seconds.

I have had no luck creating DVDs and VCDs with proper proportions on screen (they end up either compressed horizontally or cropped). So I want to create a video disk that has just a with a series of test screens (consisting of still images) to determine what is the best method of converting movies to DVD. One image will be all white, with a thin red border to test if the edges are being cropped. Another image will have a red square in the middle, to test if the picture has been stretched on screen.

I will create the images in GIMP, but I need them to be converted to AVI. Then I will use ffmpeg to convert them to DVD and VCD formats.

This can be done with mencoder, which is part of mplayer.

The command you will probably need looks like

just fiddle the fps for the timing of the slides.