I'm going to attempt to try some chroma key stuff in Vegas. What I'd like to know is if I want to replace the background behind the person I'm shooting with a still image, what should the resolution of that image be so it looks good in the end?
Depends on whether you are zooming in on the image or not. If not, and it's at least 655 x 480 in origin, then 72 dpiis fine, most of our non-zoomed stills are done at 90 just to have a little extra clarity.
Of course, you'd probably like more of an answer than that. ;)
DV pixels are rectangular, slightly narrower than they are tall, in fact 0.90909... times as wide as they are tall. Still image pixels are square. So, multiplying 720 x 0.90909... is 654.545454... which means that the shape of the DV frame is 655 (about) / 480 times as wide as it is tall. If you want to fill a 655x480 rectangle with square pixels (which is what still images use) then you need a 655x480 image.