Best medium for mixed content - High quality pictures and SD video Should I try to output family movies/slideshows to a DVD or a Blu-ray, if my video content is mostly SD, and some of my images from are high-quality RAW photos?  I'm thinking on just going the DVD route if the quality potential won't matter much?  Thanks for your opinions.

Please also suggest the best authoring software to use at a good price if you have opinion as well.
It depends on your goal:

If you must deliver to viewers with only a classic DVD player then make it a DVD.
If they only have a Blu-Ray player then make it a Blu-Ray.

For content preservation I would recommend to basically write all original content onto a disk with highest possible quality in wrappers/containers that are widely supported (high-quality JPEG for photos and MPEG4 or MPEG2 for videos). Then most modern players will be able to present the content, as well as allowing you to keep good mezzanine quality.