Hi,
How can I export my Premiere project as a MPEG 2 file? Is there a plug-in I can use, or is there some free 3rd party software that will convert an avi file to MPEG 2? Thanks!

There is more than one solution (and probably even more than
I'm going to tell you here), as far as I know all of them will cost
you money (for the mpeg2 encoding).

1. upgrade to Premiere 6.5. It will include mpeg2 encoding (I
don't know how good it is). You might wanna try out there
demo first.

2. another NLE might offer mpeg2 output as well (I don't know,
since I only use Premiere at the moment myself)

3. Buy a Premiere plugin that allows for MPEG2 encoding. Ligos
LSX Encoder (www.ligos.com is available for Premiere
(quite expensive, not too good in final quality) and I think either
TMPGEnc (www.tmpgenc.net) or CCE (www.cinemacraft.com)
might have a plugin avaialble. Both offer a trial and very good
quality (TMPGEnc is quite cheap too).

4. Another thing you might do is frameserve to an MPEG2 encoder
like CCE or TMPGEnc with tools available at www.videotools.net

At the moment it is not available at the touch of a button (unless
you have Premiere 6.5)...

Good luck.

Rob,
Thanks for your help. I checked I checked the adobe web site, and there is no trial of premiere 6.5. They only have 6.0. I was looking to spend no money, so I will probably just have to download a trial version of the software you mentioned or just wait until I decide to spend the money and up to 6.5. Thanks!

contrary to what the box says premier 6.5 does not export mpeg-2 files. (on the MAC platform). I am fighting with the vendor to return my copy as I write this. The program only exports a quicktime file that idvd or dvdpro can read and then encode to mpeg2. I think they misrepresented the product.

Mpeg2 export is only available for the PC version as far as I know.
I should have included that, my appologies.

I second the TMPGENC option, best $48 I ever spent on software. It is slow, but gives you complete control and produces some of the best results, especially consideringt he procie. So just export your project back to DV AVI and let TMPGENC do the MPEG 2 conversion.