Final transcoded DVD video too bright

I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with this:

I've got a Quicktime .mov-file which is in PAL DV format(exported from Avid
Xpress). I'm importing this into Encore CS3, but no matter what I try the video
on the final DVD looks totally washed out. Like the gamma levels or something
are shot through the roof. I've tried color correcting it in Avid and making it
darker before I export it, but it doesn't matter. Encore still boosts the gamma
levels to a ridiculous amount. The final video is way too bright.
I tried importing the quicktime file to Premiere Pro CS3 and exporting to an AVI
from there, but the problem remains. Even tried making the transcode to MPEG2 in
Premiere and then building the DVD in Encore, but the result is the same.

Anyone with any suggestions on how I can fix this contrast/brightness problem
with the final transcoded DVD?

Well, I don't really trust the monitor I'm using on the computer I'm working
with at the moment, but the film was color corrected on a correctly calibrated
monitor in an editing suite with Avid Xpress. And I have not seen this problem
with any DVDs I've ever played on my stand-alone/TV setup.
So I doubt it has something to do with the calibration of my DVD player/TV.

Strange.
It sounds like the IRE setting was wrong, and things were at too high a level. I
am not a videographer at all, but I wonder if the original source has incorrect
IRE levels, will this be somehow responsible?
See
<http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/prodv/clips/blacksetup/JVC_DEMO.swf>

I do not know how relevant this is, especially in ligt of the colour correction
done on the Avid system.
However - it occurs to me that if the Black Levels were wrong to start with,
colour correction will only make matters worse.