Need some confirmation on a few things:

If I shoot and edit HDV natively, I can export mpeg 2 to my DVD authoring program and it will burn a BR disc without the need to transcode the mpeg 2 into something like H.264? If so, then basically this method is the least degrading to HD content as it's shot, edited and put to disc without transcoding?

Using Sony Vegas 8 and DVD architect.

That's correct.

HDV is CBR if you use the Bluray compliant preset in Vegas this will be transcoded to VBR. I vary the average to make sure I get the time on the disc. IF the time is less than 2hours I use the preset if more I just alter the average a little. For 2 hours and 20min I have a preset I made of 15Mbps min, 23Mbps average and 30Mbps max. Transcode is very quick as most are not recompressed at all.

Ron Evans