Hi I don't know much about this, but am also trying to make .avi and MPEG2 output with DV500 in Premiere 5.1, all in NTSC, not PAL. I do know that if there is the slightest IRQ conflict problem with your computer and the DV500 card, Premiere makes occasional errors, some severe. Sometimes you can only open Premiere in 3 out of 4 tries, etc. Pinnacle recommends putting their card in the top slot, and leaving other slots empty. Have you done that? What is your setup?
Edwin