What is the Impact of Large Stills on the Timeline

[solarblast]

I have about 100 stills that are between 2M and 4M in size. I can spend a lot of effort paring them down to 300K, or just put them on the timeline as they are. I suspect Vegas simply makes some small file out of the still when it is read, and the effect is minimal. That is, when the still (and its repetitions) are shown on the time line, the impact is minimal--it is not referencing the large file. I would guess the same is true when completing a DVD of the timeline in DVD Arch 3.0. Comments.

Out of curosity, I gave the time line a 28K image to see if anything odd would happen. It didn't but perhaps upon projection to a 5' screen it will.

[lordsmurf]

File size doesn't really mean anything here. It's all about resolution and original quality of the still (noise, grain, digital over-processing, posterization, etc). If this is for DVD-video, then the final image will be no larger than 720x480 anyway.

[solarblast]

Then I can expect to be penalize for using a 20K file which probably is 200x300 pixels, correct? That is, the resolution will be a mismatch and the projected image quaility will generally be impacted. I have a suspicion that during rendering, the presence of large files will slow down the rendering process.

The viewing in my case will likely be on a laptop and on a video projector (5' or so) screen.

[edDV]

For Vegas try to import a file 854x480 or larger for 16:9 or 720x540 or larger for 4:3 (1024x576 or 768x576 for PAL). This assures the program will downsize to fit which is always higher quality than expansion interpolation.

Remember that DVD (720, 704 or 352 x 480 or 576) pixels are never square. Let Vegas scale it.

[solarblast]

I have two books on Vegas, the 400 or so page user's guide, and the hand-on book. Neither do an adequate job of explaining the pan/crop. Although, the guide is good, it has a mediocre index. Perhaps experienced users can home in on the pan/crop detail. So I'm left to experiment of try the Vegas Help feature, which is no piece of cake either. Is there something more thorough on the web for understanding all the intracies of the preset?