Re: 1080i to dvd looks like VHS
 

bottom line, NLE's downrez poorly compared to other tools freely available. if you're going to use something like cineform intermediates, then you'd be best served by rendering out of Vegas to huffyuv .avi's and use vdub with a lanscoz3 resize filter back to huffyuv .avi into DVDA. Results will be spectacular assuming your input footage is up to snuff.