Just upgraded to Vegas Pro 8.o so I can begin to work in HD, but finding I'm highly confused on best settings to make it all work.

I have Googled the web for two days and read thru hours of CreativeCow Forum entries but haven't been able to find info or tutorials on the subject of format selection. Thus I turn to this direct question.

I have a Sony HDR-SR1 HD videocam, which yields .m2ts files. I import these into my computer using Sony's HDD Handycam Utility.

First issue:
What is the best Vegas Project setting to edit this video in? [If it makes a difference... until I get a Blu-Ray burner I want to output in Windows MediaPlay format so I can show HD video via my computer to LCD home theater projector (1024x768 resolution). Once the next generation of Blu-Ray computer burner drives are available then I will want to render output for Blu-Ray DVD's].

Second issue:
What is the best Render format for Windows MediaPlay and then the DVDs?

Background info. I set up my Projects for HDV 720-30p (1280x720, 29.970 fps) as I thought that was a better match for my projector and it is what I have my HD satellite receiver set at to use with the projector and it looks great. But when I try to Render a project for Windows Media Video at anything other than HD 720-24p, Vegas crashes 100% of the time at seemingly random transitions where there are media changes (non HD images, or snapshot images where the resolution is different from the vidcam). I assume this is because there is too much difference between image formats to blend in a transition, but having to use 24p doesn't make sense.

I think ideally I'd like to use a 720-30p format throughout, but is this possible or correct?

Any suggestions here, or pointers to a tutorial would be GREATLY appreciated and helpful.

Thanks.