I would author the project to a standard DVD rather than authoring to Blu-ray and having the replication house re-author it to SD.......Don't waste your money on a duplication machine unless you plan to burn just a few copies of many different projects, duplication is more unreliable to work on most desktop players than replication is.

Sony Vegas is a good program for PC, if you go with a Mac system, final cut is the way to go.