diff --git a/mlx_video/conditioning/__init__.py b/mlx_video/conditioning/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f976035
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mlx_video/conditioning/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+"""Conditioning modules for LTX-2 video generation."""
+
+from mlx_video.conditioning.latent import VideoConditionByLatentIndex, apply_conditioning
diff --git a/mlx_video/conditioning/latent.py b/mlx_video/conditioning/latent.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1825e3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mlx_video/conditioning/latent.py
@@ -0,0 +1,196 @@
+"""Latent-based conditioning for I2V (Image-to-Video) generation.
+
+This module provides conditioning that injects encoded image latents into
+the video generation process at specific frame positions.
+"""
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from typing import Optional, List, Tuple
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+
+
+@dataclass
+class VideoConditionByLatentIndex:
+    """Condition video generation by injecting latents at a specific frame index.
+
+    This replaces the latent at the specified frame index with the conditioned
+    latent and controls how much denoising is applied via the strength parameter.
+
+    Args:
+        latent: Encoded image latent of shape (B, C, 1, H, W)
+        frame_idx: Frame index to condition (0 = first frame)
+        strength: Denoising strength (1.0 = full denoise, 0.0 = keep original)
+    """
+    latent: mx.array
+    frame_idx: int = 0
+    strength: float = 1.0
+
+    def get_num_latent_frames(self) -> int:
+        """Get number of latent frames in the conditioning."""
+        return self.latent.shape[2]
+
+
+@dataclass
+class LatentState:
+    """State for latent diffusion with conditioning support.
+
+    Attributes:
+        latent: Current noisy latent (B, C, F, H, W)
+        clean_latent: Clean conditioning latent (B, C, F, H, W)
+        denoise_mask: Per-frame denoising mask (B, 1, F, 1, 1) where
+                      1.0 = full denoise, 0.0 = keep clean
+    """
+    latent: mx.array
+    clean_latent: mx.array
+    denoise_mask: mx.array
+
+    def clone(self) -> "LatentState":
+        """Create a copy of the state."""
+        return LatentState(
+            latent=self.latent,
+            clean_latent=self.clean_latent,
+            denoise_mask=self.denoise_mask,
+        )
+
+
+def create_initial_state(
+    shape: Tuple[int, ...],
+    seed: Optional[int] = None,
+    noise_scale: float = 1.0,
+) -> LatentState:
+    """Create initial noisy latent state.
+
+    Args:
+        shape: Shape of latent (B, C, F, H, W)
+        seed: Optional random seed
+        noise_scale: Scale for initial noise (sigma)
+
+    Returns:
+        Initial LatentState with random noise
+    """
+    if seed is not None:
+        mx.random.seed(seed)
+
+    noise = mx.random.normal(shape)
+
+    return LatentState(
+        latent=noise * noise_scale,
+        clean_latent=mx.zeros(shape),
+        denoise_mask=mx.ones((shape[0], 1, shape[2], 1, 1)),  # Full denoise by default
+    )
+
+
+def apply_conditioning(
+    state: LatentState,
+    conditionings: List[VideoConditionByLatentIndex],
+) -> LatentState:
+    """Apply conditioning items to a latent state.
+
+    Args:
+        state: Current latent state
+        conditionings: List of conditioning items to apply
+
+    Returns:
+        Updated LatentState with conditioning applied
+    """
+    state = state.clone()
+    b, c, f, h, w = state.latent.shape
+
+    for cond in conditionings:
+        cond_latent = cond.latent
+        frame_idx = cond.frame_idx
+        strength = cond.strength
+
+        # Validate shapes
+        _, cond_c, cond_f, cond_h, cond_w = cond_latent.shape
+        if (cond_c, cond_h, cond_w) != (c, h, w):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Conditioning latent spatial shape ({cond_c}, {cond_h}, {cond_w}) "
+                f"does not match target shape ({c}, {h}, {w})"
+            )
+
+        if frame_idx >= f:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Frame index {frame_idx} is out of bounds for latent with {f} frames"
+            )
+
+        # Get the conditioning frames count
+        num_cond_frames = cond_f
+        end_idx = min(frame_idx + num_cond_frames, f)
+
+        # Replace latent at conditioning position
+        # state.latent[:, :, frame_idx:end_idx] = cond_latent[:, :, :end_idx - frame_idx]
+        latent_list = []
+        clean_list = []
+        mask_list = []
+
+        for i in range(f):
+            if frame_idx <= i < end_idx:
+                # Use conditioning latent
+                cond_idx = i - frame_idx
+                latent_list.append(cond_latent[:, :, cond_idx:cond_idx+1])
+                clean_list.append(cond_latent[:, :, cond_idx:cond_idx+1])
+                # Set mask: 1.0 - strength means less denoising for conditioned frames
+                mask_list.append(mx.full((b, 1, 1, 1, 1), 1.0 - strength))
+            else:
+                # Keep original
+                latent_list.append(state.latent[:, :, i:i+1])
+                clean_list.append(state.clean_latent[:, :, i:i+1])
+                mask_list.append(state.denoise_mask[:, :, i:i+1])
+
+        state.latent = mx.concatenate(latent_list, axis=2)
+        state.clean_latent = mx.concatenate(clean_list, axis=2)
+        state.denoise_mask = mx.concatenate(mask_list, axis=2)
+
+    return state
+
+
+def apply_denoise_mask(
+    denoised: mx.array,
+    clean: mx.array,
+    denoise_mask: mx.array,
+) -> mx.array:
+    """Blend denoised output with clean state based on mask.
+
+    Args:
+        denoised: Denoised latent (B, C, F, H, W)
+        clean: Clean conditioning latent (B, C, F, H, W)
+        denoise_mask: Mask where 1.0 = use denoised, 0.0 = use clean
+
+    Returns:
+        Blended latent
+    """
+    return denoised * denoise_mask + clean * (1.0 - denoise_mask)
+
+
+def add_noise_with_state(
+    state: LatentState,
+    noise_scale: float,
+) -> LatentState:
+    """Add noise to state while respecting conditioning.
+
+    For conditioned frames (mask < 1.0), adds noise proportionally
+    to allow some refinement while preserving the conditioning.
+
+    Args:
+        state: Current latent state
+        noise_scale: Scale for noise (sigma)
+
+    Returns:
+        Updated state with noise added
+    """
+    state = state.clone()
+
+    # Generate noise
+    noise = mx.random.normal(state.latent.shape)
+
+    # For fully conditioned frames (mask=0), we want to add minimal noise
+    # For unconditioned frames (mask=1), we want full noise
+    # noisy = noise * sigma + latent * (1 - sigma)
+    # But we scale sigma by the mask for conditioned regions
+
+    effective_scale = noise_scale * state.denoise_mask
+    state.latent = noise * effective_scale + state.latent * (1.0 - effective_scale)
+
+    return state
diff --git a/mlx_video/convert.py b/mlx_video/convert.py
index e251fc5..11491e0 100644
--- a/mlx_video/convert.py
+++ b/mlx_video/convert.py
@@ -291,6 +291,59 @@ def sanitize_vae_weights(weights: Dict[str, mx.array]) -> Dict[str, mx.array]:
     return sanitized
 
 
+def sanitize_vae_encoder_weights(weights: Dict[str, mx.array]) -> Dict[str, mx.array]:
+    """Sanitize VAE encoder weight names from PyTorch format to MLX format.
+
+    Args:
+        weights: Dictionary of weights with PyTorch naming
+
+    Returns:
+        Dictionary with MLX-compatible naming for VAE encoder
+    """
+    sanitized = {}
+
+    for key, value in weights.items():
+        new_key = key
+
+        # Skip position_ids (not needed)
+        if "position_ids" in key:
+            continue
+
+        # Only process VAE encoder weights
+        if not key.startswith("vae."):
+            continue
+
+        # Handle per-channel statistics key mapping
+        if "vae.per_channel_statistics" in key:
+            if key == "vae.per_channel_statistics.mean-of-means":
+                new_key = "per_channel_statistics._mean_of_means"
+            elif key == "vae.per_channel_statistics.std-of-means":
+                new_key = "per_channel_statistics._std_of_means"
+            else:
+                # Skip other per_channel_statistics keys
+                continue
+        elif key.startswith("vae.encoder."):
+            # Strip the vae.encoder. prefix for encoder weights
+            new_key = key.replace("vae.encoder.", "")
+        else:
+            # Skip other vae.* keys that are not encoder weights
+            continue
+
+        # Handle Conv3d weight shape conversion
+        # PyTorch: (out_channels, in_channels, D, H, W)
+        # MLX: (out_channels, D, H, W, in_channels)
+        if "conv" in new_key.lower() and "weight" in new_key and value.ndim == 5:
+            value = mx.transpose(value, (0, 2, 3, 4, 1))
+
+        # Handle Conv2d weight shape conversion
+        if "conv" in new_key.lower() and "weight" in new_key and value.ndim == 4:
+            value = mx.transpose(value, (0, 2, 3, 1))
+
+        sanitized[new_key] = value
+
+    return sanitized
+
+
 def sanitize_audio_vae_weights(weights: Dict[str, mx.array]) -> Dict[str, mx.array]:
     """Sanitize audio VAE weight names from PyTorch format to MLX format.
 
diff --git a/mlx_video/generate.py b/mlx_video/generate.py
index 0c9e562..973fa60 100644
--- a/mlx_video/generate.py
+++ b/mlx_video/generate.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import argparse
 import time
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Optional, List, Tuple
 
 import mlx.core as mx
 import numpy as np
@@ -22,10 +23,13 @@ class Colors:
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.config import LTXModelConfig, LTXModelType, LTXRopeType
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.ltx import LTXModel
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.transformer import Modality
-from mlx_video.convert import sanitize_transformer_weights
-from mlx_video.utils import to_denoised
+from mlx_video.convert import sanitize_transformer_weights, sanitize_vae_encoder_weights
+from mlx_video.utils import to_denoised, load_image, prepare_image_for_encoding
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.decoder import load_vae_decoder
+from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.encoder import load_vae_encoder
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.upsampler import load_upsampler, upsample_latents
+from mlx_video.conditioning import VideoConditionByLatentIndex, apply_conditioning
+from mlx_video.conditioning.latent import LatentState, create_initial_state, apply_denoise_mask, add_noise_with_state
 
 from mlx_video.utils import get_model_path
 
@@ -115,17 +119,49 @@ def denoise(
     transformer: LTXModel,
     sigmas: list,
     verbose: bool = True,
+    state: Optional[LatentState] = None,
 ) -> mx.array:
-    """Run denoising loop."""
+    """Run denoising loop with optional conditioning.
+
+    Args:
+        latents: Noisy latent tensor (B, C, F, H, W)
+        positions: Position embeddings
+        text_embeddings: Text conditioning embeddings
+        transformer: LTX model
+        sigmas: List of sigma values for denoising schedule
+        verbose: Whether to show progress bar
+        state: Optional LatentState for I2V conditioning
+
+    Returns:
+        Denoised latent tensor
+    """
+    # If state is provided, use its latent (which may have conditioning applied)
+    if state is not None:
+        latents = state.latent
+
     for i in tqdm(range(len(sigmas) - 1), desc="Denoising", disable=not verbose):
         sigma, sigma_next = sigmas[i], sigmas[i + 1]
 
         b, c, f, h, w = latents.shape
+        num_tokens = f * h * w
         latents_flat = mx.transpose(mx.reshape(latents, (b, c, -1)), (0, 2, 1))
 
+        # Compute per-token timesteps
+        # For I2V: conditioned tokens get timestep=0 (mask=0), unconditioned get timestep=sigma (mask=1)
+        if state is not None:
+            # Reshape denoise_mask from (B, 1, F, 1, 1) to (B, num_tokens)
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.reshape(state.denoise_mask, (b, 1, f, 1, 1))
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.broadcast_to(denoise_mask_flat, (b, 1, f, h, w))
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.reshape(denoise_mask_flat, (b, num_tokens))
+            # Per-token timesteps: sigma * mask
+            timesteps = sigma * denoise_mask_flat
+        else:
+            # All tokens get the same timestep
+            timesteps = mx.full((b, num_tokens), sigma)
+
         video_modality = Modality(
             latent=latents_flat,
-            timesteps=mx.full((1,), sigma),
+            timesteps=timesteps,
             positions=positions,
             context=text_embeddings,
             context_mask=None,
@@ -137,6 +173,11 @@ def denoise(
 
         velocity = mx.reshape(mx.transpose(velocity, (0, 2, 1)), (b, c, f, h, w))
         denoised = to_denoised(latents, velocity, sigma)
+
+        # Apply conditioning mask if state is provided
+        if state is not None:
+            denoised = apply_denoise_mask(denoised, state.clean_latent, state.denoise_mask)
+
         mx.eval(denoised)
 
         if sigma_next > 0:
@@ -163,10 +204,15 @@ def generate_video(
     enhance_prompt: bool = False,
     max_tokens: int = 512,
     temperature: float = 0.7,
+    image: Optional[str] = None,
+    image_strength: float = 1.0,
+    image_frame_idx: int = 0,
 ):
-    """Generate video from text prompt.
+    """Generate video from text prompt, optionally conditioned on an image.
 
     Args:
+        model_repo: Model repository ID
+        text_encoder_repo: Text encoder repository ID
         prompt: Text description of the video to generate
         height: Output video height (must be divisible by 64)
         width: Output video width (must be divisible by 64)
@@ -175,6 +221,13 @@ def generate_video(
         fps: Frames per second for output video
         output_path: Path to save the output video
         save_frames: Whether to save individual frames as images
+        verbose: Whether to print progress
+        enhance_prompt: Whether to enhance prompt using Gemma
+        max_tokens: Max tokens for prompt enhancement
+        temperature: Temperature for prompt enhancement
+        image: Path to conditioning image for I2V (Image-to-Video)
+        image_strength: Conditioning strength (1.0 = full denoise, 0.0 = keep original)
+        image_frame_idx: Frame index to condition (0 = first frame)
     """
     start_time = time.time()
 
@@ -188,8 +241,12 @@ def generate_video(
         num_frames = adjusted_num_frames
 
 
-    print(f"{Colors.BOLD}{Colors.CYAN}🎬 Generating {width}x{height} video with {num_frames} frames{Colors.RESET}")
+    is_i2v = image is not None
+    mode_str = "I2V" if is_i2v else "T2V"
+    print(f"{Colors.BOLD}{Colors.CYAN}🎬 [{mode_str}] Generating {width}x{height} video with {num_frames} frames{Colors.RESET}")
     print(f"{Colors.DIM}Prompt: {prompt[:80]}{'...' if len(prompt) > 80 else ''}{Colors.RESET}")
+    if is_i2v:
+        print(f"{Colors.DIM}Image: {image} (strength={image_strength}, frame={image_frame_idx}){Colors.RESET}")
 
     # Get model path
     model_path = get_model_path(model_repo)
@@ -247,6 +304,31 @@ def generate_video(
     transformer.load_weights(list(sanitized.items()), strict=False)
     mx.eval(transformer.parameters())
 
+    # Load VAE encoder and encode image for I2V conditioning
+    stage1_image_latent = None
+    stage2_image_latent = None
+    if is_i2v:
+        print(f"{Colors.BLUE}🖼️  Loading VAE encoder and encoding image...{Colors.RESET}")
+        vae_encoder = load_vae_encoder(str(model_path / 'ltx-2-19b-distilled.safetensors'))
+        mx.eval(vae_encoder.parameters())
+
+        # Load and prepare image for stage 1 (half resolution)
+        input_image = load_image(image, height=height // 2, width=width // 2)
+        stage1_image_tensor = prepare_image_for_encoding(input_image, height // 2, width // 2)
+        stage1_image_latent = vae_encoder(stage1_image_tensor)
+        mx.eval(stage1_image_latent)
+        print(f"  Stage 1 image latent: {stage1_image_latent.shape}")
+
+        # Load and prepare image for stage 2 (full resolution)
+        input_image = load_image(image, height=height, width=width)
+        stage2_image_tensor = prepare_image_for_encoding(input_image, height, width)
+        stage2_image_latent = vae_encoder(stage2_image_tensor)
+        mx.eval(stage2_image_latent)
+        print(f"  Stage 2 image latent: {stage2_image_latent.shape}")
+
+        del vae_encoder
+        mx.clear_cache()
+
     # Stage 1: Generate at half resolution
     print(f"{Colors.YELLOW}⚡ Stage 1: Generating at {width//2}x{height//2} (8 steps)...{Colors.RESET}")
     mx.random.seed(seed)
@@ -256,7 +338,25 @@ def generate_video(
     positions = create_position_grid(1, latent_frames, stage1_h, stage1_w)
     mx.eval(positions)
 
-    latents = denoise(latents, positions, text_embeddings, transformer, STAGE_1_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose)
+    # Apply I2V conditioning if provided
+    state1 = None
+    if is_i2v and stage1_image_latent is not None:
+        # Create state with conditioning
+        state1 = LatentState(
+            latent=latents,
+            clean_latent=mx.zeros_like(latents),
+            denoise_mask=mx.ones((1, 1, latent_frames, 1, 1)),
+        )
+        conditioning = VideoConditionByLatentIndex(
+            latent=stage1_image_latent,
+            frame_idx=image_frame_idx,
+            strength=image_strength,
+        )
+        state1 = apply_conditioning(state1, [conditioning])
+        latents = state1.latent
+        mx.eval(latents)
+
+    latents = denoise(latents, positions, text_embeddings, transformer, STAGE_1_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose, state=state1)
 
     # Upsample latents
     print(f"{Colors.MAGENTA}🔍 Upsampling latents 2x...{Colors.RESET}")
@@ -285,7 +385,24 @@ def generate_video(
     latents = noise * noise_scale + latents * (1 - noise_scale)
     mx.eval(latents)
 
-    latents = denoise(latents, positions, text_embeddings, transformer, STAGE_2_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose)
+    # Apply I2V conditioning for stage 2 if provided
+    state2 = None
+    if is_i2v and stage2_image_latent is not None:
+        state2 = LatentState(
+            latent=latents,
+            clean_latent=mx.zeros_like(latents),
+            denoise_mask=mx.ones((1, 1, latent_frames, 1, 1)),
+        )
+        conditioning = VideoConditionByLatentIndex(
+            latent=stage2_image_latent,
+            frame_idx=image_frame_idx,
+            strength=image_strength,
+        )
+        state2 = apply_conditioning(state2, [conditioning])
+        latents = state2.latent
+        mx.eval(latents)
+
+    latents = denoise(latents, positions, text_embeddings, transformer, STAGE_2_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose, state=state2)
 
     del transformer
     mx.clear_cache()
@@ -335,13 +452,18 @@ def generate_video(
 
 def main():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
-        description="Generate videos with MLX LTX-2",
+        description="Generate videos with MLX LTX-2 (T2V and I2V)",
         formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
         epilog="""
 Examples:
+  # Text-to-Video (T2V)
   python -m mlx_video.generate --prompt "A cat walking on grass"
   python -m mlx_video.generate --prompt "Ocean waves at sunset" --height 768 --width 768
   python -m mlx_video.generate --prompt "..." --num-frames 65 --seed 123 --output my_video.mp4
+
+  # Image-to-Video (I2V)
+  python -m mlx_video.generate --prompt "A person dancing" --image photo.jpg
+  python -m mlx_video.generate --prompt "Waves crashing" --image beach.png --image-strength 0.8
         """
     )
 
@@ -426,6 +548,24 @@ Examples:
         default=0.7,
         help="Temperature for prompt enhancement (default: 0.7)"
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--image", "-i",
+        type=str,
+        default=None,
+        help="Path to conditioning image for I2V (Image-to-Video) generation"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--image-strength",
+        type=float,
+        default=1.0,
+        help="Conditioning strength for I2V (1.0 = full denoise, 0.0 = keep original, default: 1.0)"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--image-frame-idx",
+        type=int,
+        default=0,
+        help="Frame index to condition for I2V (0 = first frame, default: 0)"
+    )
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     generate_video(
diff --git a/mlx_video/generate_av.py b/mlx_video/generate_av.py
index 7551c51..f73998d 100644
--- a/mlx_video/generate_av.py
+++ b/mlx_video/generate_av.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 import argparse
 import time
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Optional
+from typing import Optional, List
 
 import mlx.core as mx
 import numpy as np
@@ -27,9 +27,12 @@ from mlx_video.models.ltx.config import LTXModelConfig, LTXModelType, LTXRopeTyp
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.ltx import LTXModel
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.transformer import Modality
 from mlx_video.convert import sanitize_transformer_weights, sanitize_audio_vae_weights, sanitize_vocoder_weights
-from mlx_video.utils import to_denoised, get_model_path
+from mlx_video.utils import to_denoised, get_model_path, load_image, prepare_image_for_encoding
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.decoder import load_vae_decoder
+from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.encoder import load_vae_encoder
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.upsampler import load_upsampler, upsample_latents
+from mlx_video.conditioning import VideoConditionByLatentIndex, apply_conditioning
+from mlx_video.conditioning.latent import LatentState, apply_denoise_mask
 
 
 # Distilled sigma schedules
@@ -141,13 +144,35 @@ def denoise_av(
     transformer: LTXModel,
     sigmas: list,
     verbose: bool = True,
+    video_state: Optional[LatentState] = None,
 ) -> tuple[mx.array, mx.array]:
-    """Run denoising loop for audio-video generation."""
+    """Run denoising loop for audio-video generation with optional I2V conditioning.
+
+    Args:
+        video_latents: Video latent tensor (B, C, F, H, W)
+        audio_latents: Audio latent tensor (B, C, T, F)
+        video_positions: Video position embeddings
+        audio_positions: Audio position embeddings
+        video_embeddings: Video text embeddings
+        audio_embeddings: Audio text embeddings
+        transformer: LTX model
+        sigmas: List of sigma values
+        verbose: Whether to show progress bar
+        video_state: Optional LatentState for I2V conditioning
+
+    Returns:
+        Tuple of (video_latents, audio_latents)
+    """
+    # If video state is provided, use its latent
+    if video_state is not None:
+        video_latents = video_state.latent
+
     for i in tqdm(range(len(sigmas) - 1), desc="Denoising A/V", disable=not verbose):
         sigma, sigma_next = sigmas[i], sigmas[i + 1]
 
         # Flatten video latents
         b, c, f, h, w = video_latents.shape
+        num_video_tokens = f * h * w
         video_flat = mx.transpose(mx.reshape(video_latents, (b, c, -1)), (0, 2, 1))
 
         # Flatten audio latents: (B, C, T, F) -> (B, T, C*F)
@@ -155,9 +180,22 @@ def denoise_av(
         audio_flat = mx.transpose(audio_latents, (0, 2, 1, 3))  # (B, T, C, F)
         audio_flat = mx.reshape(audio_flat, (ab, at, ac * af))
 
+        # Compute per-token timesteps for video
+        # For I2V: conditioned tokens get timestep=0 (mask=0), unconditioned get timestep=sigma (mask=1)
+        if video_state is not None:
+            # Reshape denoise_mask from (B, 1, F, 1, 1) to (B, num_tokens)
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.reshape(video_state.denoise_mask, (b, 1, f, 1, 1))
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.broadcast_to(denoise_mask_flat, (b, 1, f, h, w))
+            denoise_mask_flat = mx.reshape(denoise_mask_flat, (b, num_video_tokens))
+            # Per-token timesteps: sigma * mask
+            video_timesteps = sigma * denoise_mask_flat
+        else:
+            # All tokens get the same timestep
+            video_timesteps = mx.full((b, num_video_tokens), sigma)
+
         video_modality = Modality(
             latent=video_flat,
-            timesteps=mx.full((1,), sigma),
+            timesteps=video_timesteps,
             positions=video_positions,
             context=video_embeddings,
             context_mask=None,
@@ -166,7 +204,7 @@ def denoise_av(
 
         audio_modality = Modality(
             latent=audio_flat,
-            timesteps=mx.full((1,), sigma),
+            timesteps=mx.full((ab, at), sigma),
             positions=audio_positions,
             context=audio_embeddings,
             context_mask=None,
@@ -184,6 +222,11 @@ def denoise_av(
         # Compute denoised
         video_denoised = to_denoised(video_latents, video_velocity, sigma)
         audio_denoised = to_denoised(audio_latents, audio_velocity, sigma)
+
+        # Apply conditioning mask for video if state is provided
+        if video_state is not None:
+            video_denoised = apply_denoise_mask(video_denoised, video_state.clean_latent, video_state.denoise_mask)
+
         mx.eval(video_denoised, audio_denoised)
 
         # Euler step
@@ -317,8 +360,31 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
     enhance_prompt: bool = False,
     max_tokens: int = 512,
     temperature: float = 0.7,
+    image: Optional[str] = None,
+    image_strength: float = 1.0,
+    image_frame_idx: int = 0,
 ):
-    """Generate video with synchronized audio from text prompt."""
+    """Generate video with synchronized audio from text prompt, optionally conditioned on an image.
+
+    Args:
+        model_repo: Model repository ID
+        text_encoder_repo: Text encoder repository ID
+        prompt: Text description of the video to generate
+        height: Output video height (must be divisible by 64)
+        width: Output video width (must be divisible by 64)
+        num_frames: Number of frames
+        seed: Random seed
+        fps: Frames per second
+        output_path: Output video path
+        output_audio_path: Output audio path
+        verbose: Whether to print progress
+        enhance_prompt: Whether to enhance prompt using Gemma
+        max_tokens: Max tokens for prompt enhancement
+        temperature: Temperature for prompt enhancement
+        image: Path to conditioning image for I2V
+        image_strength: Conditioning strength (1.0 = full denoise)
+        image_frame_idx: Frame index to condition (0 = first frame)
+    """
     start_time = time.time()
 
     # Validate dimensions
@@ -333,9 +399,13 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
     # Calculate audio frames
     audio_frames = compute_audio_frames(num_frames, fps)
 
-    print(f"{Colors.BOLD}{Colors.CYAN}🎬 Generating {width}x{height} video with {num_frames} frames + audio{Colors.RESET}")
+    is_i2v = image is not None
+    mode_str = "I2V+Audio" if is_i2v else "T2V+Audio"
+    print(f"{Colors.BOLD}{Colors.CYAN}🎬 [{mode_str}] Generating {width}x{height} video with {num_frames} frames + audio{Colors.RESET}")
     print(f"{Colors.DIM}Audio: {audio_frames} latent frames @ {AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE}Hz{Colors.RESET}")
     print(f"{Colors.DIM}Prompt: {prompt[:80]}{'...' if len(prompt) > 80 else ''}{Colors.RESET}")
+    if is_i2v:
+        print(f"{Colors.DIM}Image: {image} (strength={image_strength}, frame={image_frame_idx}){Colors.RESET}")
 
     model_path = get_model_path(model_repo)
     text_encoder_path = model_path if text_encoder_repo is None else get_model_path(text_encoder_repo)
@@ -400,6 +470,31 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
     transformer.load_weights(list(sanitized.items()), strict=False)
     mx.eval(transformer.parameters())
 
+    # Load VAE encoder and encode image for I2V conditioning
+    stage1_image_latent = None
+    stage2_image_latent = None
+    if is_i2v:
+        print(f"{Colors.BLUE}🖼️  Loading VAE encoder and encoding image...{Colors.RESET}")
+        vae_encoder = load_vae_encoder(str(model_path / 'ltx-2-19b-distilled.safetensors'))
+        mx.eval(vae_encoder.parameters())
+
+        # Load and prepare image for stage 1 (half resolution)
+        input_image = load_image(image, height=height // 2, width=width // 2)
+        stage1_image_tensor = prepare_image_for_encoding(input_image, height // 2, width // 2)
+        stage1_image_latent = vae_encoder(stage1_image_tensor)
+        mx.eval(stage1_image_latent)
+        print(f"  Stage 1 image latent: {stage1_image_latent.shape}")
+
+        # Load and prepare image for stage 2 (full resolution)
+        input_image = load_image(image, height=height, width=width)
+        stage2_image_tensor = prepare_image_for_encoding(input_image, height, width)
+        stage2_image_latent = vae_encoder(stage2_image_tensor)
+        mx.eval(stage2_image_latent)
+        print(f"  Stage 2 image latent: {stage2_image_latent.shape}")
+
+        del vae_encoder
+        mx.clear_cache()
+
     # Initialize latents
     print(f"{Colors.YELLOW}⚡ Stage 1: Generating at {width//2}x{height//2} (8 steps)...{Colors.RESET}")
     mx.random.seed(seed)
@@ -412,12 +507,30 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
     audio_positions = create_audio_position_grid(1, audio_frames)
     mx.eval(video_positions, audio_positions)
 
+    # Apply I2V conditioning for stage 1 if provided
+    video_state1 = None
+    if is_i2v and stage1_image_latent is not None:
+        video_state1 = LatentState(
+            latent=video_latents,
+            clean_latent=mx.zeros_like(video_latents),
+            denoise_mask=mx.ones((1, 1, latent_frames, 1, 1)),
+        )
+        conditioning = VideoConditionByLatentIndex(
+            latent=stage1_image_latent,
+            frame_idx=image_frame_idx,
+            strength=image_strength,
+        )
+        video_state1 = apply_conditioning(video_state1, [conditioning])
+        video_latents = video_state1.latent
+        mx.eval(video_latents)
+
     # Stage 1 denoising
     video_latents, audio_latents = denoise_av(
         video_latents, audio_latents,
         video_positions, audio_positions,
         video_embeddings, audio_embeddings,
-        transformer, STAGE_1_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose
+        transformer, STAGE_1_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose,
+        video_state=video_state1
     )
 
     # Upsample video latents
@@ -449,11 +562,29 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
     audio_latents = audio_noise * noise_scale + audio_latents * (1 - noise_scale)
     mx.eval(video_latents, audio_latents)
 
+    # Apply I2V conditioning for stage 2 if provided
+    video_state2 = None
+    if is_i2v and stage2_image_latent is not None:
+        video_state2 = LatentState(
+            latent=video_latents,
+            clean_latent=mx.zeros_like(video_latents),
+            denoise_mask=mx.ones((1, 1, latent_frames, 1, 1)),
+        )
+        conditioning = VideoConditionByLatentIndex(
+            latent=stage2_image_latent,
+            frame_idx=image_frame_idx,
+            strength=image_strength,
+        )
+        video_state2 = apply_conditioning(video_state2, [conditioning])
+        video_latents = video_state2.latent
+        mx.eval(video_latents)
+
     video_latents, audio_latents = denoise_av(
         video_latents, audio_latents,
         video_positions, audio_positions,
         video_embeddings, audio_embeddings,
-        transformer, STAGE_2_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose
+        transformer, STAGE_2_SIGMAS, verbose=verbose,
+        video_state=video_state2
     )
 
     del transformer
@@ -549,13 +680,18 @@ def generate_video_with_audio(
 
 def main():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
-        description="Generate videos with synchronized audio using MLX LTX-2",
+        description="Generate videos with synchronized audio using MLX LTX-2 (T2V and I2V)",
         formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
         epilog="""
 Examples:
+  # Text-to-Video with Audio (T2V+Audio)
   python -m mlx_video.generate_av --prompt "Ocean waves crashing on a beach"
   python -m mlx_video.generate_av --prompt "A jazz band playing" --enhance-prompt
   python -m mlx_video.generate_av --prompt "..." --output my_video.mp4 --output-audio my_audio.wav
+
+  # Image-to-Video with Audio (I2V+Audio)
+  python -m mlx_video.generate_av --prompt "A person dancing" --image photo.jpg
+  python -m mlx_video.generate_av --prompt "Waves crashing" --image beach.png --image-strength 0.8
         """
     )
 
@@ -587,6 +723,12 @@ Examples:
                         help="Max tokens for prompt enhancement")
     parser.add_argument("--temperature", type=float, default=0.7,
                         help="Temperature for prompt enhancement")
+    parser.add_argument("--image", "-i", type=str, default=None,
+                        help="Path to conditioning image for I2V (Image-to-Video) generation")
+    parser.add_argument("--image-strength", type=float, default=1.0,
+                        help="Conditioning strength for I2V (1.0 = full denoise, 0.0 = keep original, default: 1.0)")
+    parser.add_argument("--image-frame-idx", type=int, default=0,
+                        help="Frame index to condition for I2V (0 = first frame, default: 0)")
 
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
@@ -605,6 +747,9 @@ Examples:
         enhance_prompt=args.enhance_prompt,
         max_tokens=args.max_tokens,
         temperature=args.temperature,
+        image=args.image,
+        image_strength=args.image_strength,
+        image_frame_idx=args.image_frame_idx,
     )
 
 
diff --git a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/__init__.py b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/__init__.py
index 208d8f5..d620f17 100644
--- a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/__init__.py
+++ b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
 from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.video_vae import VideoEncoder, VideoDecoder
+from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.encoder import load_vae_encoder, encode_image
+from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.decoder import load_vae_decoder, LTX2VideoDecoder
diff --git a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/encoder.py b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/encoder.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c90a4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/encoder.py
@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+"""Video VAE Encoder for LTX-2 Image-to-Video.
+
+The encoder compresses input images/videos to latent representations.
+Used for I2V (image-to-video) conditioning by encoding the input image
+to latent space, which can then be used to condition video generation.
+"""
+
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import List, Tuple, Any, Optional
+import json
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+import mlx.nn as nn
+
+from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.video_vae import VideoEncoder, LogVarianceType, NormLayerType, PaddingModeType
+
+
+def load_vae_encoder(model_path: str) -> VideoEncoder:
+    """Load VAE encoder from safetensors file.
+
+    Args:
+        model_path: Path to the model weights (safetensors file or directory)
+
+    Returns:
+        Loaded VideoEncoder instance
+    """
+    from safetensors import safe_open
+
+    model_path = Path(model_path)
+
+    # Try to find the weights file
+    if model_path.is_file() and model_path.suffix == ".safetensors":
+        weights_path = model_path
+    elif (model_path / "ltx-2-19b-distilled.safetensors").exists():
+        weights_path = model_path / "ltx-2-19b-distilled.safetensors"
+    elif (model_path / "vae" / "diffusion_pytorch_model.safetensors").exists():
+        weights_path = model_path / "vae" / "diffusion_pytorch_model.safetensors"
+    else:
+        raise FileNotFoundError(f"VAE weights not found at {model_path}")
+
+    print(f"Loading VAE encoder from {weights_path}...")
+
+    # Read config from safetensors metadata
+    encoder_blocks = []
+    norm_layer = NormLayerType.PIXEL_NORM
+    latent_log_var = LogVarianceType.UNIFORM
+    patch_size = 4
+
+    try:
+        with safe_open(str(weights_path), framework="numpy") as f:
+            metadata = f.metadata()
+            if metadata and "config" in metadata:
+                configs = json.loads(metadata["config"])
+                vae_config = configs.get("vae", {})
+
+                # Parse encoder blocks
+                raw_blocks = vae_config.get("encoder_blocks", [])
+                for block in raw_blocks:
+                    if isinstance(block, list) and len(block) == 2:
+                        name, params = block
+                        encoder_blocks.append((name, params))
+
+                # Parse other config
+                norm_str = vae_config.get("norm_layer", "pixel_norm")
+                norm_layer = NormLayerType.PIXEL_NORM if norm_str == "pixel_norm" else NormLayerType.GROUP_NORM
+
+                var_str = vae_config.get("latent_log_var", "uniform")
+                if var_str == "uniform":
+                    latent_log_var = LogVarianceType.UNIFORM
+                elif var_str == "per_channel":
+                    latent_log_var = LogVarianceType.PER_CHANNEL
+                elif var_str == "constant":
+                    latent_log_var = LogVarianceType.CONSTANT
+                else:
+                    latent_log_var = LogVarianceType.NONE
+
+                patch_size = vae_config.get("patch_size", 4)
+
+                print(f"  Loaded config: {len(encoder_blocks)} encoder blocks, norm={norm_str}, patch_size={patch_size}")
+    except Exception as e:
+        print(f"  Could not read config from metadata: {e}")
+        # Use default config
+        encoder_blocks = [
+            ("res_x", {"num_layers": 4}),
+            ("compress_space_res", {"multiplier": 2}),
+            ("res_x", {"num_layers": 6}),
+            ("compress_time_res", {"multiplier": 2}),
+            ("res_x", {"num_layers": 6}),
+            ("compress_all_res", {"multiplier": 2}),
+            ("res_x", {"num_layers": 2}),
+            ("compress_all_res", {"multiplier": 2}),
+            ("res_x", {"num_layers": 2}),
+        ]
+        print(f"  Using default encoder config with {len(encoder_blocks)} blocks")
+
+    # Create encoder
+    encoder = VideoEncoder(
+        convolution_dimensions=3,
+        in_channels=3,
+        out_channels=128,
+        encoder_blocks=encoder_blocks,
+        patch_size=patch_size,
+        norm_layer=norm_layer,
+        latent_log_var=latent_log_var,
+        encoder_spatial_padding_mode=PaddingModeType.ZEROS,
+    )
+
+    # Load weights
+    weights = mx.load(str(weights_path))
+
+    # Determine prefix based on weight keys
+    has_vae_prefix = any(k.startswith("vae.") for k in weights.keys())
+
+    if has_vae_prefix:
+        prefix = "vae.encoder."
+        stats_prefix = "vae.per_channel_statistics."
+    else:
+        prefix = "encoder."
+        stats_prefix = "per_channel_statistics."
+
+    # Load per-channel statistics for normalization
+    mean_key = f"{stats_prefix}mean-of-means"
+    std_key = f"{stats_prefix}std-of-means"
+
+    if mean_key in weights:
+        encoder.per_channel_statistics.mean = weights[mean_key]
+        print(f"  Loaded latent mean: shape {weights[mean_key].shape}")
+    if std_key in weights:
+        encoder.per_channel_statistics.std = weights[std_key]
+        print(f"  Loaded latent std: shape {weights[std_key].shape}")
+
+    # Build encoder weights dict with key remapping
+    encoder_weights = {}
+    for key, value in weights.items():
+        if not key.startswith(prefix):
+            continue
+
+        # Remove prefix
+        new_key = key[len(prefix):]
+
+        # Handle Conv3d weight transpose: (O, I, D, H, W) -> (O, D, H, W, I)
+        if ".weight" in key and value.ndim == 5:
+            value = mx.transpose(value, (0, 2, 3, 4, 1))
+
+        encoder_weights[new_key] = value
+
+    print(f"  Found {len(encoder_weights)} encoder weights")
+
+    # Load weights
+    encoder.load_weights(list(encoder_weights.items()), strict=False)
+
+    print("VAE encoder loaded successfully")
+    return encoder
+
+
+def encode_image(
+    image: mx.array,
+    encoder: VideoEncoder,
+) -> mx.array:
+    """Encode a single image to latent space.
+
+    Args:
+        image: Image tensor of shape (H, W, 3) in range [0, 1] or (B, H, W, 3)
+        encoder: Loaded VAE encoder
+
+    Returns:
+        Latent tensor of shape (1, 128, 1, H//32, W//32)
+    """
+    # Add batch dimension if needed
+    if image.ndim == 3:
+        image = mx.expand_dims(image, axis=0)  # (1, H, W, 3)
+
+    # Convert from (B, H, W, C) to (B, C, H, W)
+    image = mx.transpose(image, (0, 3, 1, 2))  # (B, 3, H, W)
+
+    # Normalize to [-1, 1]
+    if image.max() > 1.0:
+        image = image / 255.0
+    image = image * 2.0 - 1.0
+
+    # Add temporal dimension: (B, C, H, W) -> (B, C, 1, H, W)
+    image = mx.expand_dims(image, axis=2)  # (B, 3, 1, H, W)
+
+    # Encode
+    latent = encoder(image)
+
+    return latent
diff --git a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/resnet.py b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/resnet.py
index f6d7c1b..d93754c 100644
--- a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/resnet.py
+++ b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/resnet.py
@@ -141,9 +141,10 @@ class UNetMidBlock3D(nn.Module):
 
         self.num_layers = num_layers
 
-        # Create ResNet blocks
-        self.resnets = [
-            ResnetBlock3D(
+        # Create ResNet blocks - use dict for MLX parameter tracking
+        # Named res_blocks to match PyTorch weight keys
+        self.res_blocks = {
+            i: ResnetBlock3D(
                 dims=dims,
                 in_channels=in_channels,
                 out_channels=in_channels,
@@ -154,8 +155,8 @@ class UNetMidBlock3D(nn.Module):
                 timestep_conditioning=timestep_conditioning,
                 spatial_padding_mode=spatial_padding_mode,
             )
-            for _ in range(num_layers)
-        ]
+            for i in range(num_layers)
+        }
 
     def __call__(
         self,
@@ -164,8 +165,8 @@ class UNetMidBlock3D(nn.Module):
         timestep: Optional[mx.array] = None,
         generator: Optional[int] = None,
     ) -> mx.array:
-        
-        for resnet in self.resnets:
+
+        for resnet in self.res_blocks.values():
             x = resnet(x, causal=causal, generator=generator)
 
         return x
diff --git a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/sampling.py b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/sampling.py
index f672e4d..6ca3d41 100644
--- a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/sampling.py
+++ b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/sampling.py
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@ from mlx_video.models.ltx.video_vae.convolution import CausalConv3d, PaddingMode
 
 
 class SpaceToDepthDownsample(nn.Module):
+    """Space-to-depth downsampling with 3x3 conv and skip connection.
+
+    PyTorch-compatible implementation:
+    1. Apply 3x3 conv: in_channels -> out_channels // prod(stride)
+    2. Space-to-depth on conv output: channels * prod(stride)
+    3. Space-to-depth on input with group averaging for skip connection
+    4. Add skip connection
+    """
+
     def __init__(
         self,
         dims: int,
@@ -17,7 +26,6 @@ class SpaceToDepthDownsample(nn.Module):
         stride: Union[int, Tuple[int, int, int]],
         spatial_padding_mode: PaddingModeType = PaddingModeType.ZEROS,
     ):
-        
         super().__init__()
 
         if isinstance(stride, int):
@@ -25,61 +33,74 @@ class SpaceToDepthDownsample(nn.Module):
 
         self.stride = stride
         self.dims = dims
+        self.out_channels = out_channels
 
-        # Calculate the multiplier for channels
+        # Calculate channels
         multiplier = stride[0] * stride[1] * stride[2]
-        intermediate_channels = in_channels * multiplier
+        self.group_size = in_channels * multiplier // out_channels
+        conv_out_channels = out_channels // multiplier
 
-        # 1x1x1 convolution to adjust channels
+        # 3x3 convolution (not 1x1)
         self.conv = CausalConv3d(
-            in_channels=intermediate_channels,
-            out_channels=out_channels,
-            kernel_size=1,
+            in_channels=in_channels,
+            out_channels=conv_out_channels,
+            kernel_size=3,
             stride=1,
-            padding=0,
+            padding=1,
             spatial_padding_mode=spatial_padding_mode,
         )
 
-    def __call__(self, x: mx.array, causal: bool = True) -> mx.array:
-        
+    def _space_to_depth(self, x: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        """Rearrange: b c (d p1) (h p2) (w p3) -> b (c p1 p2 p3) d h w"""
         b, c, d, h, w = x.shape
         st, sh, sw = self.stride
 
+        # Reshape to group spatial elements
+        x = mx.reshape(x, (b, c, d // st, st, h // sh, sh, w // sw, sw))
+
+        # Permute: (B, C, D', st, H', sh, W', sw) -> (B, C, st, sh, sw, D', H', W')
+        x = mx.transpose(x, (0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6))
+
+        # Reshape to combine channels
+        new_c = c * st * sh * sw
+        new_d = d // st
+        new_h = h // sh
+        new_w = w // sw
+        x = mx.reshape(x, (b, new_c, new_d, new_h, new_w))
+
+        return x
+
+    def __call__(self, x: mx.array, causal: bool = True) -> mx.array:
+        b, c, d, h, w = x.shape
+        st, sh, sw = self.stride
+
+        # Temporal padding for causal mode
+        if st == 2:
+            # Duplicate first frame for padding
+            x = mx.concatenate([x[:, :, :1, :, :], x], axis=2)
+            d = d + 1
+
         # Pad if necessary to make dimensions divisible by stride
         pad_d = (st - d % st) % st
         pad_h = (sh - h % sh) % sh
         pad_w = (sw - w % sw) % sw
 
         if pad_d > 0 or pad_h > 0 or pad_w > 0:
-            # For causal, pad at the end of temporal dimension
-            if causal:
-                x = mx.pad(x, [(0, 0), (0, 0), (0, pad_d), (0, pad_h), (0, pad_w)])
-            else:
-                x = mx.pad(x, [(0, 0), (0, 0), (pad_d // 2, pad_d - pad_d // 2),
-                              (pad_h // 2, pad_h - pad_h // 2), (pad_w // 2, pad_w - pad_w // 2)])
+            x = mx.pad(x, [(0, 0), (0, 0), (0, pad_d), (0, pad_h), (0, pad_w)])
 
-        b, c, d, h, w = x.shape
+        # Skip connection: space-to-depth on input, then group mean
+        x_in = self._space_to_depth(x)
+        # Reshape for group mean: (b, c*prod(stride), d, h, w) -> (b, out_channels, group_size, d, h, w)
+        b2, c2, d2, h2, w2 = x_in.shape
+        x_in = mx.reshape(x_in, (b2, self.out_channels, self.group_size, d2, h2, w2))
+        x_in = mx.mean(x_in, axis=2)  # (b, out_channels, d, h, w)
 
-        # Reshape to group spatial elements
-        # (B, C, D, H, W) -> (B, C, D/st, st, H/sh, sh, W/sw, sw)
-        x = mx.reshape(x, (b, c, d // st, st, h // sh, sh, w // sw, sw))
+        # Conv branch: apply conv then space-to-depth
+        x_conv = self.conv(x, causal=causal)
+        x_conv = self._space_to_depth(x_conv)
 
-        # Permute to move stride elements to channel dim
-        # (B, C, D', st, H', sh, W', sw) -> (B, C, st, sh, sw, D', H', W')
-        x = mx.transpose(x, (0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6))
-
-        # Reshape to combine channels
-        # (B, C, st, sh, sw, D', H', W') -> (B, C*st*sh*sw, D', H', W')
-        new_c = c * st * sh * sw
-        new_d = d // st
-        new_h = h // sh
-        new_w = w // sw
-        x = mx.reshape(x, (b, new_c, new_d, new_h, new_w))
-
-        # Apply 1x1 conv to adjust channels
-        x = self.conv(x, causal=causal)
-
-        return x
+        # Add skip connection
+        return x_conv + x_in
 
 
 class DepthToSpaceUpsample(nn.Module):
diff --git a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/video_vae.py b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/video_vae.py
index 2375650..cc3ec3a 100644
--- a/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/video_vae.py
+++ b/mlx_video/models/ltx/video_vae/video_vae.py
@@ -273,9 +273,9 @@ class VideoEncoder(nn.Module):
             spatial_padding_mode=encoder_spatial_padding_mode,
         )
 
-        # Build encoder blocks
-        self.down_blocks = []
-        for block_name, block_params in encoder_blocks:
+        # Build encoder blocks - use dict with int keys for MLX parameter tracking
+        self.down_blocks = {}
+        for i, (block_name, block_params) in enumerate(encoder_blocks):
             block_config = {"num_layers": block_params} if isinstance(block_params, int) else block_params
 
             block, feature_channels = _make_encoder_block(
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ class VideoEncoder(nn.Module):
                 norm_num_groups=self._norm_num_groups,
                 spatial_padding_mode=encoder_spatial_padding_mode,
             )
-            self.down_blocks.append(block)
+            self.down_blocks[i] = block
 
         # Output normalization and convolution
         if norm_layer == NormLayerType.GROUP_NORM:
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ class VideoEncoder(nn.Module):
         sample = self.conv_in(sample, causal=True)
 
         # Process through encoder blocks
-        for down_block in self.down_blocks:
+        for down_block in self.down_blocks.values():
             if isinstance(down_block, (UNetMidBlock3D, ResnetBlock3D)):
                 sample = down_block(sample, causal=True)
             else:
diff --git a/mlx_video/utils.py b/mlx_video/utils.py
index c6840bd..4b50536 100644
--- a/mlx_video/utils.py
+++ b/mlx_video/utils.py
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 import math
+from typing import Optional, Tuple, Union
 
 import mlx.core as mx
 import mlx.nn as nn
+import numpy as np
 from functools import partial
 from pathlib import Path
 from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
+from PIL import Image
 
 def get_model_path(model_repo: str):
     """Get or download LTX-2 model path."""
@@ -160,3 +163,122 @@ def get_timestep_embedding(
         emb = mx.pad(emb, [(0, 0), (0, 1)])
 
     return emb
+
+
+def load_image(
+    image_path: Union[str, Path],
+    height: Optional[int] = None,
+    width: Optional[int] = None,
+) -> mx.array:
+    """Load and preprocess an image for I2V conditioning.
+
+    Args:
+        image_path: Path to the image file
+        height: Target height (must be divisible by 32). If None, uses original.
+        width: Target width (must be divisible by 32). If None, uses original.
+
+    Returns:
+        Image tensor of shape (H, W, 3) in range [0, 1]
+    """
+    image = Image.open(image_path).convert("RGB")
+
+    # Resize if dimensions specified
+    if height is not None and width is not None:
+        image = image.resize((width, height), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+    elif height is not None or width is not None:
+        # If only one dimension specified, resize preserving aspect ratio
+        orig_w, orig_h = image.size
+        if height is not None:
+            scale = height / orig_h
+            new_w = int(orig_w * scale)
+            new_w = (new_w // 32) * 32  # Round to nearest 32
+            image = image.resize((new_w, height), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+        else:
+            scale = width / orig_w
+            new_h = int(orig_h * scale)
+            new_h = (new_h // 32) * 32  # Round to nearest 32
+            image = image.resize((width, new_h), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+    else:
+        # Round to nearest 32
+        orig_w, orig_h = image.size
+        new_w = (orig_w // 32) * 32
+        new_h = (orig_h // 32) * 32
+        if new_w != orig_w or new_h != orig_h:
+            image = image.resize((new_w, new_h), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+
+    # Convert to numpy then MLX
+    image_np = np.array(image).astype(np.float32) / 255.0
+    return mx.array(image_np)
+
+
+def resize_image_aspect_ratio(
+    image: mx.array,
+    long_side: int = 512,
+) -> mx.array:
+    """Resize image preserving aspect ratio, making long side = long_side.
+
+    Args:
+        image: Image tensor of shape (H, W, 3)
+        long_side: Target size for the longer dimension
+
+    Returns:
+        Resized image tensor
+    """
+    h, w = image.shape[:2]
+
+    if h > w:
+        new_h = long_side
+        new_w = int(w * long_side / h)
+    else:
+        new_w = long_side
+        new_h = int(h * long_side / w)
+
+    # Round to nearest 32
+    new_h = (new_h // 32) * 32
+    new_w = (new_w // 32) * 32
+
+    # Use PIL for high-quality resize
+    image_np = np.array(image)
+    if image_np.max() <= 1.0:
+        image_np = (image_np * 255).astype(np.uint8)
+    pil_image = Image.fromarray(image_np)
+    pil_image = pil_image.resize((new_w, new_h), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+
+    return mx.array(np.array(pil_image).astype(np.float32) / 255.0)
+
+
+def prepare_image_for_encoding(
+    image: mx.array,
+    target_height: int,
+    target_width: int,
+) -> mx.array:
+    """Prepare image for VAE encoding by resizing and normalizing.
+
+    Args:
+        image: Image tensor of shape (H, W, 3) in range [0, 1]
+        target_height: Target height for the video
+        target_width: Target width for the video
+
+    Returns:
+        Image tensor ready for encoding, shape (1, 3, 1, H, W) in range [-1, 1]
+    """
+    h, w = image.shape[:2]
+
+    # Resize if needed
+    if h != target_height or w != target_width:
+        image_np = np.array(image)
+        if image_np.max() <= 1.0:
+            image_np = (image_np * 255).astype(np.uint8)
+        pil_image = Image.fromarray(image_np)
+        pil_image = pil_image.resize((target_width, target_height), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+        image = mx.array(np.array(pil_image).astype(np.float32) / 255.0)
+
+    # Normalize to [-1, 1]
+    image = image * 2.0 - 1.0
+
+    # Convert to (B, C, 1, H, W)
+    image = mx.transpose(image, (2, 0, 1))  # (3, H, W)
+    image = mx.expand_dims(image, axis=0)  # (1, 3, H, W)
+    image = mx.expand_dims(image, axis=2)  # (1, 3, 1, H, W)
+
+    return image