TMPGenc setting question for encoding a slideshow .avi

[wonderbobs]

I am trying to produce slideshows in SVCD format from digital photos.
I am using Pinnacle Studio 8 to author the slideshow. I have transitions and several music backgrounds which is why I am producing a movie.
The output of Studio is a NTSC 525 line AVI file that is encoded with Indeo 5.10. The .avi looks perfect on the PC in Windows Media Player.

Currently I am using TEMPGenc to encode to MPEG2. I am using the "out-of-the-box" settings for producing the SVCD from this source, i.e. CBR, 2520 bitrate, 408x408, ...

Two questions:

1. Seeing as I am encoding a series of stills (approx 100 stills per movie, 8 sec per still) is there some settings I can tweak in TMPGenc to take advantage of this? My main goal is quality of final product. I tried 2 pass VBR but it took much longer and the quality was noticeably worse (lots of shimmering or twinkling of sections of the still picture!).

2. The standard SVCD template (CBR, etc.) is producing an excellent picture (detail wise) but there is one annoying problem - when viewed on my TV there is a fair bit of shimmering, flickering, twinkling, whatever present on many pictures. It is only noticeable in those ares of the still that have alot of detail, e.g. leaves on the ground ,etc. No problem in the flat areas. I changed the setting to "source non-interlaced" and have also tried "output non-interlaced" but neither seems to make a difference.

TIA

[wonderbobs]

I have tried a bunch of settings in TMPGenc to reduce the twinkling that I see when I play my SVCD on the TV. The only thing I have found that reduces it is if I blur the image. This is clearly an interlace artifact and a result of the fine detail I have in some portions of the stills.

It would seem like there should be some sophisticated filtering/transformation that TMPGenc or Avisynth could do to preserve much of the detail and yet generate interlaced lines that do not "beat" against each other and create this artifact but I guess not. I have found many postings in this forum related to this topic but no one has ever offered a solution that I have seen. I have probably gone down that rat hole of getting too critical about the end product.

[wonderbobs]

Updating my own post one last time just in case anyone ever searches and finds this post and has the same question.

The solution to my slideshow "twinkling" effect in the SVCD was to use the TMPGenc Sharpen filter set to -64 for both X and Y (negative Sharpen = Blur). I know that -64 sounds like a lot but it really is not. This filter setting does not introduce any noticeable blurring and eliminated almost all of the twinkling that I was getting in the detail areas of my pictures on the TV.