well I think some one else might know the answer to the Maya and AVI. Although I know Maya will animate a image sequence, and that it handles JPG the best, as fare as speed and not hanging.

To combine a sequence of images that you get out of Maya’s render. In Premiere just file>import>file and be sure to check the Image sequence on the file dialogue window. The files need to be numbered of coarse. and it will not combine JPG's but it will combine BMP, and some other formats. Look in your doc's for the list. Also in your preferences it will have a place to say how long you want each still to last for, you will need to set that to 1 frame. You might want to look in your doc's for that also. It's bean so long since I set that I forgot the exact place. I just set it and left it. I prefer to use afferEffects to do this part anyway.