Hey,
thanks for your feedback.
The audio silence is audioblack, so I do have 'data' there. Currently I render everything as MPEG2-Audio and at least for the length of the files everything seems to be OK. I will try other formats again, such as WAV and AAC, but if I am not mistaken, Encore would transcode that to MPEG anyways?
As far as NTSC / PAL DVD is concerned.
Our DVD (we will have to produce 1000 :/) will all be PAL DVDs. We are not that concerned that the footage will not play on (all) NTSC TV/DVD Players - or audience will watch these DVDs on the computer.
Having said that, I think (and I hope, I am right), the DVD will play correctly anywhere in the world. Some of our 'competitors' also went PAL and have no issues with customers in the US.
Maybe if someone has some experience about PAL DVDs on PCs, any help would be appreciated.