I usually render to MPEG 2 DVD ARchitect NTSC - I've been rendering these for YouTube and DVDs - until about 2 weeks ago, it worked fine - then all of a sudden every image I import renders at very very low res

sorry - Hi Marco - thank you so much for your help

So it's solved now?

Hi, Marco - no. It's strange. If I save a still photo from a video, it renders in hi res. But if I import one of my photos which is actually 4-5x as high a resolution, it renders at very low res

Then again I'd ask which quality setting you selected. You didn't answer that yet.

Not sure where I'd find that - but if it's where I think I chose "good" then chose "best" - both came out the same

What are your projectsettings and which rendertemplate do you use?

Template: HD 1080-60i (1820x1080) Width: 1920 Height: 1080 Frame Rate 29.970 (NTSC) Pixel - 8-Bit Rendering quality: Good

1. 60i means interlaced, for photos not needed, 30p will do
2. That are normal dimensions, but VPro 16 can do higher for big screens.
3. You gave not your projectsettings

where do I find project settings? Thank you for your help.

One issue you might be having, if I understand, is your images are 4 or 5 times more resolution than your video project. In this case, you are relying upon Vegas to reduce your images. In my experience, this is not its strong point. I usually have my images be around 2 times larger than project in order to allow for zooms or moves. Anything bigger I will use a photo program to reduce resolution.

Hmm - I'll give that try. My surprise is that I've been creating videos using these photos for years, then all of a sudden about 2-3 weeks ago, all photos started rendering at low res.

where do I find project settings? Thank you for your help.

Rendering quality: Good

If any resizing is involved, which is the case, use "Best" only.

This is my project setting:

Than for only pictures you need this one, but those dimensions can be doubled.
For rendering you have to use the same settings

Dude...480? Really?

I usually render to MPEG 2 DVD ARchitect NTSC

Template: HD 1080-60i (1820x1080)

Project video resolution 720 x 480

With the information you provided your project resolution is too low. VP resizing images to project resolution and then upscaling it to your render template resolution. [Edit: this is wrong, see @Marco.'s comment below]

If you use the same project to render twice -- for DVD and for YouTube, then you need to increase your project resolution (Alt + Enter) to 1920 x 1080.

@fifonik @Dot

"VP resizing images to project resolution and then upscaling it to your render template resolution."

This is a common false assumption. Actually Vegas Pro will not resize your source image size until the render process, no matter which project size is used.

Thus you can use a gigapixel photo such as 60000x20000 pixel, put it into an 8x8 pixel project than render to 4k. The result would be exactly same as if you had used a 8192x8192 pixel project (even if you had used FX like Unsharp Mask, Sharpen, Pixelate, no matter if the FX is used as Media FX, Event FX, Track FX, Master Bus FX or Output FX).

This is a common false assumption.

WOW! (I double checked and confirming that rendered files are exactly the same regardless the project properties image size).

Thanks.

Only the Generates Media get the projectsize

@fifonik If you watch your preview window when you render you should see VP change it to the render template settings as it renders.