I rendered a 14-minute video clip from Vegas Pro 8, selected Main Concept MPEG2, 1440 x 1080 60i 25 mbps, resulting in an m2v file of 2.5 GB. I used DVD Architect Pro 5.0 to burn the file onto a standard DVD.

[1] I was able to play this disc on a standard DVD player, why? I expected to NOT be able to, since it contains a Hi Def video clip.

[2] The resolution is listed as 720 x 480, why? It started out 1440 x 1080.

[3] The same 14-minute clip, rendered out as standard DVD MPEG 2, DVD Architect NTSC Widesreen, burned onto a standard DVD disc, fills out a 16 x 9 display MUCH more than the Hi Def disc, even though the video quality is clearly inverior, why?

[4] I think DVD Architect compresses my 1440 x 1080 resolution down to 720 x 480, can it be so?

Thanks!!!

You just answered yourself to question #4. If you want HD, you will need to set your project property in DVDA, select blu ray template.

You have to go to File - Properties and change your project type. By default, it will do an SD DVD which is exactly what you got. You have to tell it you did not want an SD DVD. Just giving it the HD file does not make it automatically create an HD disc.

Thank you Bruce and Edward!
I was able to produce a HD video on a standard DVD disc, when played on my PC, resolution was correctly listed as 1920 x 1080. The disc, however, could not be played on my Panasonic DMP-BD35, the player is from Panasonic's first generation of BD player. I want to try the disc on a recent model and see what happens.

Update: I burned the video to a BD RE disc, and it played fine on the Panasonic player. I'll looking for some BD blanks.