What I'm describing here, I've successfully accomplished many, many times using Premiere Pro CS5 and now Premiere Pro CS6. Now, for the first time ever, it's not working and I'm completely baffled. (This is a high-end Windows 7 64-Bit machine with 16GB RAM running Premiere Pro CS6.)
Here's a basic summary of my workflow. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
1. I shoot my video using a high definition camcorder (the same one I've been working with for the past year or two.
2. I import my high definition video into a 1920x1080 sequence in Premiere Pro CS6.
3. I edit my sequence until I'm happy.
4. I enter and name my Encore chapter markers in the sequence.
5. I create my Encore project and import the sequence as a timeline and set up my menus and such.
6. I build my Encore project, first into a standard definition DVD image file (so I can later burn SD-DVDs) and then build it again into a high definition Blu-ray image file (so I can later burn Blu-rays).
The Blu-ray burn is turning out just fine.
But the video in the DVD burn is all black. I can jump around from chapter to chapter and I can hear the sound, but the video doesn't show up!
I tried this a couple times thinking that maybe Encore just messed up the SD-DVD creation process but I got the same result each time. When I preview the project in Encore, it all looks just right.
So I figured, okay, something's not working when I import the sequence.
I went back to Premiere Pro thinking I'd just export my 1920x1080 sequence into a widescreen standard definition AVI and create a new sequence just for the standard definition DVD.
The exported AVI is black as well!!
I don't get it. Why on earth won't my high definition video convert properly to standard definition?
The high definition sequence looks completely normal in Premiere Pro. What could I possibly be overlooking??
One final note. Just as another test, I copied and pasted the sequence in Premier Pro, truncated it to a couple minutes (the full sequence is 90 minutes long), and exported to a widescreen AVI again.
It just finished, I tried playing it back in Windows, and it, too, is all black, sound but no video.
Like I said, this is nothing new for me. I've done it countless times with other projects. I could really use some assistance with this one.