Can I convert a file created by microsoft media center labeled Recorded TV to an avi file so that I can import it into Premiere Pro 1.5? Premiere will not recognize the file as it stands now

I'm not sure if this will work, but you could try to convert it using Windows Media Encoder, which is free from Microsoft. Somehow I doubt they'd have this feature, but you never know.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx