Don't know what all the fuss is about, and not being able to add menus to discs? Seriously?

Haven't had any problems on an old core duo (2GHz) can handle 10 serious effects/motion tweens before it starts to drop frames, and can do anything you'd want for titles/menus etc. FCP studio for the win!

And yes you do get a better quality SD video/dvd if you start with HD content.

Also, a HD DVD player will play HD content burnt on a standard DVD if it has the correct codecs in it, and the disc is encoded properly.