By the way, I downloaded CynCee's "Chapter 12" file to make sure that it has 0.5 second of silence at the beginning, but it's way less than that. I have also double checked a few other files and they barely have any silence at the beginning as well. Since they're all PL OK, should I leave them alone, or can I download them and add some silence instead?
From what others have said, the 0.5 seconds isn't a requirement and should be considered a maximum. I've also DPL'd sections that start straight away but that seems to be accepted.