I agree with you on the use of Lithium batteries, especially in cold weather. The reason they last longer is they test 1.79 to 1.83 volt using a digital meter. Other batteries test 1.5 with Copper Top Durecell coming in at 1.55 to 1.6 volt. This is the difference. The Lithium are a higher voltage battery to start with.
For SD cards I recommend: SanDisk, Lexar, Adapta and Verbatim. Kodak will work but not as good.
Another couple of suggestions is: 1) camera placement: not facing east or west into the rising or setting sun as this will cause redness or white outs due to over exposure. 2)Trimming nearby vegetation will prevent pictures or videos of just that. 3)Random checking the battteries as any battery even new if it gets around 1.0 to 1.2 volt, the camera will not function properly, or not at all. 4)Format the SD card in the computer, then it is good for any trail camera providing it is not too large for that camera. Bushnell allows formatting in their camera. Viewing an SD card in a Digital camera, the card must be formatted or it may not work in the camera, due to format or file changes.