Still Images Combing but Video Perfect. Why?
 

As it says on the tin folks, I have come across an annoying quirk.
I rendered my downconverted HD footage for DVD and used all the recommended Sony settings. No problem with that.
I then created a photo montage with Ultimate s and used the pan/crop tool across all images and rendered to Mpeg but Vegas only gave me the choice to render to PALDV widecreen rather than PALDVD widescreen. I rendered accordingly.
However, when I burned both projects to the same DVD, the video looks great but the photo montage (including the title clip created in vegas) looks very comby indeed.
If I play the same photo montage file through to my external monitor from the same DV timeline, it looks perfect. Only the DVD version is combing.
I thought it may be my DVD player but I viewed in both 575p, 720p and 1080i (upscaled) all with the same result.
Any ideas what could be wrong with the photo montage render?

Was the original image interlaced? Or, if at any step in your process, you rendered to an interlaced intermediate, then the final will show interlace artifacts. With still images, one needs to be especially careful. I've mistakenly rendered intermediate renders to an interlaced format, it's easy to make this mistake.

Hi Bill
I believe the deinterlace preset was set to Blend for the DVwidescreen render out. However, I didn't think it matterred for stills because they have never been interlaced in the first place. I simply imported them en masse as BMP files and then rendered to mpeg. Rather strange to say the least.
Am I correct in assuming that if I don't change the default from blend to none, my video will be deinterlaced automatically.
I have never deinterlaced any of my footage before because I am not overly concerned about offering clients the progressive look. It seems that in this case I have inadvertently rendered my video as blend deinterlaced; and likewise the stills when rendering to mpeg.

That's precisely the error I made with stills. I left the interlace method to blend. You MUST set it to NONE, or it will interlace the stills.

Correct me if I am wrong then Bill.

The dropdowns are choices for deinterlacing not interlacing. If that is correct then what you are saying is that setting deinterlace to blend will INterlace stills. That seems rather odd.
When working with interlaced footage:
If I set deinterlace to none, my video footage will remain interlaced.
If I set it to blend or interpolate, my footage will be deinterlaced according to which one I select.
However,
If I put stills on the time line which have never been interlaced, I must select none to ensure Vegas does not interlace them.

This may get a wee bit confusing, gary. Are you referring to the PROJECT PROPERTIES or the RENDER AS settings?

The PROJECT PROPERTIES settings affect what you're using for the PROJECT and what you're seeing in the PREVIEW window. They do not affect the qualities of the rendered file.

In the RENDER AS settings, in the VIDEO tab, you want to select NONE(progressive scan), or else you will render the still images as interlaced.

It's a good practice to make the PROJECT SETTINGS match the RENDER AS settings, but you don't have to.

Bill, you are absolutely right. I was confusing the project properties with the render as options. I was so used to just leaving LFF that it did not cross my mind that the photo montage should have been rendered as "none."

On that note though.
What if I have a project with interlaced video AND imported stills together. You know what I mean; if I am shooting a wedding and want still images mixed into the video for effect; my only option would be to render the whole project as "none (progressive)" to stop the stills combing but it would also mean my video footage would also become progressive even though I want it to remain as interlaced.
I do not have this problem with Ulead MSPro or Pinnacle. Is this just a Vegas quirk or am I missing something here.