It all depends on the picture. Sometimes there will be lines in the picture that can cause problems in an interlaced project. What I usually do is add it to the project and render it out at best (the best setting can make a big difference on photo movements). When I find trouble spots on pictures I either selectively add motion blur (90 degree) in Photoshop or in Vegas add a linear blur 90 (angle) and 0.001 (amount).

Regards, Marc

If the photo has fine, light-colored detail, you may get some shimmer or flicker when displaying the project on a CRT television. Once the photo is on the timeline, right-click and select Switches, then make sure "Reduce Interlace Flicker" is enabled. But this is only an issue on CRT type TV's -- shouldn't be necessary on LCD or Plasma screens.

Also, you will probably achieve much more pleasing results with zooms and pans if you resize the photo (if needed) before bringing it into Vegas. If you have a 5 MP photo, for example, and are making a std def DVD, resize the photo down to something closer to the final project size [i]before[i] you bring it into Vegas.

For simplicity in the calculations, consider only the vertical dimension -- i.e. 576 pixels for PAL. If you are going to zoom a maximum of 20% on the photo, then resize the photo to something thats roughly 20% bigger than 576 before you bring it into Vegas -- maybe something thats 700 or 800 pixels high. Zooms and pans will have a lot less "sparkles" in them, and your previews in Vegas may be faster and smoother.

However, if you are making a Hi-Def video (you mention HDV) this resizing might not be necessary.

Thanks, guys - gives a lot to work with :-)

/Ulf