[Kevo]

I have several short mpeg clips with ac3 audio 5.1

All I want to do is add a simple fade to black (and audio fade) at the end of each clip and then join the clips intto one mpeg and maintain ac3 5.1 audio
throughout. I don't want to any othdr fancy editing transitions, tites etc.

Is there any software that will do this without spending 100s or 1000's of pounds?

The best I can do is have ac3 2.0 channels (Ulead Video Studio & Media Studio) or fade video but not audio (Womble Video Wizard).

Does the dreaded Pinnacle Studio 9.0 re-encode in ac3 5.1 or is there an alternative?

[MarkE19]

I don't think that you are likely to find anything within your budget. AFAIK the only cheap(ish) software that can encode AC3 5.1 is Sony Vegus and that's not cheap. I would suggest trying the demo, but I'm sure you don't get the AC3 encoder as part of the demo version.
Perhaps your best bet will be to ask somebody on here with Vegus to do it for you (sorry I've only got Adobe Premiere else I would offer).

Mark.