1280x720p to put on Blu-ray
 

My footage is 1280x720 25p. The format is HDV in a .m2t file. To what format should I render from Vegas Pro 8 in order to have a compliant Blu-ray disc?

There should be render presets in the render window. Did you check? Look in mpeg2.

My problem is which preset to choose. There is one which is "HDV 720-25p". This will produce a .m2t file which I don't think is Blu-ray compliant. In the blu-ray preset list there is no 720-25p. Should I use 1440x1080 50i? Would this produce a lesser quality image since it is at a higher resolution then my original 1280x720 25p?

For 1280x720, you will need to convert 25p to 50p for Blu-ray compliance. The official Blu-ray Disc specification does not support 25p or 30p at any resolution. Some studios have managed to successfully convert 25p to 24p - but that would have required specialized equipment to do the job correctly.

Specialized equipment? In most cases you would just declare the video to be 24p (so an hour's worth of video will play in an hour plus two and a half minutes, a difference no one will ever notice) and resample the audio to match.

I mean, didn't the PAL DVDs just speed up film by 4% (much to the annoyance of sound people)? This would just do the same but in the opposite direction.

Here is the math behind it: One hour (60 minutes) of 25p played at 24p will take 60 * 25 / 24 = 62.5 minutes to play.

Randall I totaly agree with you that 25p is not blu-ray compliant. And in fact that is my problem!! Can anyone please tell me which preset to use in Vegas Pro 8 to convert my 1280x720 25p in order to put the video on Blu-ray?