Your error is changing the default resolution. MPEG-2 for SVCD under NTSC is 480x480. PERIOD! That does not mean you want or should change the resolution of the images you use to 480x480. I'm referring to the resolution of the video you're trying to make. For best results the images in your slide shows should be preprocessed to 655x480 size. Also leave the bitrate at the default!

Your DVD player will expand the images all by itself so they will not look blocky.

>>>it turned out fine, except some images had some pulsating pixelation. There is no motion going on here, only still images. If you want to see a sample of it, I put a 10 sec(~3 megs) clip of it on my website, http://funkygrue.com/trees.mpg

I haven't seen your sample but have some experience with your problem.

despite the advice given here, I see no reason to resize your still pictures to 655x480. I have created many many of these types of slide shows, and have never resized my pictures to 655x480. your results will not be any better if you resize your source stills. Vegas's scaling engine will take care of that. it's up to you to make sure your aspect ratio's come out right (people don't look too fat or skinny.) it's a good idea to keep your stills at a reasonable resolution so they don't bog down Vegas, but your final quality will be the same either way.

but it sounds like your only complaint is the pulsating pixels. this is a normal effect of mpeg compression when using stills. mpeg was designed to compress motion and doesn't handle stills nearly as well, but you can still get good results.

try adding a quick-blur filter to your images track. increase the blend amount until your pictures just start to look a bit blurrier. this will help the mpeg compression a lot, and will reduce the pulsing.

if you are really picky, you should experiment with the actual compressor settings. increasing the DC coefficient to 10 is a good idea.

instead of the quick-blur, you should try using the median filter with very low settings. this filter is much much slower and will increase your render time quite a bit, but for the absolute best results it is worth experimenting with.

finally, the best way to avoid that pulsating pixel effect is to have actual motion in your movie. panning/zooming on your pictures creates a lot of interesting and dramatic effects. that will open a whole new can of worms for you, but Vegas is especially good at that.

as for progressive vs interlace, I would *definitely* render to progressive. your source material is progressive, so there is no good reason to interlace it.

- ben (cheesehole!)

Thanks for the tips. I think you understand the problem I am having. I will definitely look closer at the different things you suggest.

Yes, it's not the problem of blocky pictures, but pulsating (I guess my initial header of pixelation wasn't the best description) and it only occurs on pictures with a lot of variation (my example showed a hill covered with bark ground cover).

Thanks!

Tom