Producing DVDs from HDV footage

[lasereyes]

Apologies in advance if this question has been answered elsewhere -- I have scanned the forum and found bits and pieces, but I'm still not quite clear. So please bear with me.

I recently bought my first HD Camcorder (HV30) and made some movies in HDV of our vacation. I am now looking to make a DVD. I have a good PC, Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus, a regular (non-Bluray) DVD burner and a regular DVD player. Once I have edited my movie, I intend as a first step to save it back to a miniDV tape so i preserve the original HDV quality in case I upgrade to all-HD equipment later. But in the mean time, I would like to make the best quality DVD possible with my standard equipment. A few questions:

1. If I select Make Movie, Best Quality (720x480 at 8500kbs) with Dolby-2 as I found on another post, is that my best option? Will the results look any better than SD footage burnt to a regular DVD?

2. How long can the movie be in the above case?

3. Any alternatives to the above to produce better quality?

4. Is there any benefit from upgrading as follows:
(a) Buying a Bluray DVD player? Will I get better quality? Or do I need a Bluray burner to get better quality?
(b) Using Bluray DVDs?

5. I have heard there are problems with Menus in the above process. Is that true?

many thanks in advance.

[jagabo]

1. If I select Make Movie, Best Quality (720x480 at 8500kbs) with Dolby-2 as I found on another post, is that my best option?

Yes.

Will the results look any better than SD footage burnt to a regular DVD?

Well, you're turning it into SD footage. But it will probably look better than if you had shot the video in SD to start with.

2. How long can the movie be in the above case?

About an hour. Exactly how much depends on the audio bitrate.

3. Any alternatives to the above to produce better quality?

Not for regular DVD players.

4. Is there any benefit from upgrading as follows:
(a) Buying a Bluray DVD player? Will I get better quality? Or do I need a Bluray burner to get better quality?

You can convert to AVCHD -- basically HD video on a DVD. That will give you HD resolution but limited running time and compression artifacts.

(b) Using Bluray DVDs?

You can increase the running time and reduce artifacting.

5. I have heard there are problems with Menus in the above process. Is that true?

You mean HD on DVD/Blu-ray? I don't have experience in this but I think the menu options are limited. Menus on SD DVDs will be no problem.