Worthwhile: Saving the HDi platform for non-HD DVD media.
MS Don’t Kill HDi! An Open Letter from Format War Frontline
On a technical implementation level HD-DVD was farther along than Blu-ray, even at the time of its death. HDi comprised a powerful tool and a competitor that raised the stakes on its rival, especially because it was [...]

Dave Helmly’s blog at Adobe has a really nice, fairly in-depth primer on authoring a simple Blu-ray (BD-R) disc with Encore.

Besides the limited (or outrageously expensive) production tools available to non-studios for producing Blu-ray discs, the Finishing Line breaks down the costs for developing your first project:
_$2,500 : License Fee to author and distribute Blu-ray
_$3,000 : One-time fee to AACS. (I think this is billed per production company / individual)
_$1,585 : Per complete Blu-ray project
_$.04 [...]