Export DV AVIs without re-encoding in Premiere?

[moxiecat]

I'm a Mac/FCP user who was recently tasked with capturing AVIs using Premiere on Windows. I managed to capture full-quality DV AVIs in Premiere (720x480, 29.97 fps). All I need to do is make minor edits to the AVIs and join them where appropriate in a sequence in Premiere (some tapes were captured in sections). All of this I can do.

Question 1: Is it simple to export these joined AVIs without re-encoding? I have tried exporting the AVIs out of Premiere (Adobe Media Encoder) as Microsoft AVI files, with all the default DV settings. But I am concerned that I am re-encoding the files. I've done a lot of work with MPEG-2 files in Womble, and I love that graph that shows what is being re-encoded and what isn't. Not knowing what's going on here worries me.

Is this a legitimate concern? Should I use a program like VirtualDub instead? I read elsewhere on this forum that VirtualDub was capable of resaving AVIs without re-encoding them.

Question 2: Some of my clips captured as 32000 Hz files because 12 bit audio was the setting that had been used on the camcorder. The default export for Microsoft AVI is 48000 Hz. I don't know if I should change this to 32000 or not. It makes sense to change the export default to 32000 if that's what the original AVI captures were. But these finished AVIs will be going to a person who will probably be editing them in consumer-grade software. Would it be better to export these AVIs as 48000 to avoid compatibility issues for this user?

Thank you in advance. I'm new to Premiere and AVI capture/export, so I can use all the help I can get.

[guns1inger]

Premiere will smart encode DV-AVI, so if you are just joining or cutting you will not have to re-encode. If you add any transitions or filter the video then it will be re-encoded in those areas.

If some of your audio is 32KHz and some are 48 KHz, settle on 48 as a standard. It is more likely to suit what ever comes next.