Yep, test disk was mute.
No sound in Encore at all: I did what you suggested with a short clip created as a PR project. Imported sequence into a new Encore project and it was mute straight after import. I ran 'transcode now' and — whoa! — have a new error. Adobe Encore Debug Event: [..\..\Src\Win\WinFile.cpp-758]. Causes program to crash. That's a new one. Does it mean anything to you?