I've been having this problem for a few day's now and search the web and read just about everything I could but having no luck at all. The files from my Canon HFS20 with the Surround mic I edit in Adobe CS5 Premiere and when I export it to any type of file I loose the 5.1 and it converts to Stereo. I know about the Surcode plugin but don't want to spend the 300.00 at this time. I tried to export the audio to waveform to convert in audiocity but I don't get the option to export it at 5.1 just the stereo setting. This first started when I wanted to make my first Blu-Ray and after I was finished and played it back I notice it was just in 2 channel Stereo so thats when it all started. I even thought I can edit this and make a H264 file to play back on my media server but again I have no options for the 5.1 Surround sound when I export. Can anyone give me a few pointers or send me to a tutorial and how to make my footage ending up with the 5.1 surround sound intact?

Thank's
Chet

I'm using a MacPro

Premiere will let you edit 5.1 all you want, but you will not be able to export to 5.1 until you get the SurCode(?) plugin. There are no work arounds.

In AME you could change the audio to PCM uncompressed and export 6 channels then encode the audio to ac3 outside of Premiere. But you would need an external encoder with dolby digital. On the mac I export from premiere then encode using compressor's 5.1 encoder. I then author in Encore. remember to keep the audio name and video name the same.