I'm lost. I've done a lot of searching, but must be searing for the wrong terms.

Here's what I've got:
* DVD ripped to AVI, with Mpeg-1 layer 3 audio (confirmed with G-Spot)

Here's what I want to do:
* encode and burn AVI to DVD with 5.1 surround sound either preserved (if it's muxed), or split from 2 channel (if there's a good way to separate 2 channels to 6)

Tools I have:
* G-Spot
* Nero Vision Express (came with DVD burner)
* DVDFlick

First, is there a way to see if the audio layer in the AVI is 5.1 surround sound?

I'd really like to encode, author and burn entirely within the Nero suite if possible. I like the authoring features of Nero Vision Express compared to DVDFlick, which is pretty limited, even with the new beta version.

The problem is that Vision Express 3 doesn't show AC3 5.1 as an option for encoding sound. I only see AC3 2.0 and LCPM as options. I suppose I could encode in DVDFlick, which does show a 5.1 surround sound encoding option, then author with Nero. But that's a bit cumbersome.

Your help is appreciated.

Jimbo