Import DV AVI Files with 5.1 Audio

Question

To my surprise, Encore would not import DV AVI files from Premiere with 5.1 Audio. I much prefer to do my transcoding in Encore rather than in Premiere so I don't have to guess how much disk space will remain after menus and other content. Also, I think Encore transcoding is more efficient than Premiere.
Yet, cheaper and less sophisticated applications such as Nerovision will import DV AVI files with 5.1 audio, and give you 5.1 DVD's.
Which leads to another question, why does a cheaper application just give you the Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio, while a fee has to be paid to Surcode to get it in the Adobe applications?

Answer 1

You cannot create a 5.1 Dolby Digital file in Encore, so the answer is an emphatic "YES" to the planning & budgeting.
You really should be doing this anyway, as it is a real eye opener. There are some superb Excel spreadsheet bit budgeting tools, as well as a simple enough manual method. It should be detailed in the FAQ.
As far as DTS goes, you'll need an encoder again. The only plugin version I am aware of is for Steinberg's Nuendo & Cubase systems, but both DTS and SurCode make them.
The SurCode DTS-DVD encoder is dated now - 5 years or so - and the Nuendo one sounds better. Having said that, the DTS-PSE sounds even better, as well as having DTS-ES and DTS 96/24 capability (both of which are DVD Legal).
Even better are the soon-to-be-released DTS-HD SAS & MAS encoders.
These are primarily for the Blue-ish type discs, but also cater for so-called "legacy" encoding as well, and the detail is even better than the DTS-PSE version. You can hear the difference in the detail where the top end sounds more natural & open. Whatever version you get will make Dobly Dirgital sound dull & muddy by comparison.
Quality can be improved by feeding the encoder with 24 bit audio too - this also applies to Dolby Digital.
Bitrates for DTS are either 754 kb/sec or 1509 kb/sec, and come in 2 flavours:
Compact (.cpt) and Padded (.dts) - either can use the lower bitrate, and there is no difference in audio quality between the CPT and DTS flavours. I recommend using the higher bitrate personally.
Both types are supported in Passthrough mode in Encore - that is to say they import, and multiplex correctly but cannot be previewed.
Hope this helps.