720p avis + standalone dvd players

is it possible to play 720p avis on a standalone dvd player? i'm asking because
i recenly got a temp job at an electric department of a hypermarket, selling hd
and full hd lcd and plasma tv-s, and in the empty minutes (well sometimes hours,
they ain't cheap in hungary) between talking to customers we usually watch some
dvd/bluray movies with the staff.

i wanna show them some battlestar galactica goodness, so how would i go about
making a 720p avi out of a .mkv (i can change the container format to avi with
tools, but i guess i have to reencode it from x264 to xvid or another codec)

can dvd players handle x264 or 720p? can a sony bluray player handle it?
if i have to reencode what's the right tool and codec to use?

go here: forums.afterdawn.com

popcorn hour can.

edit: oh wait, it doesn't have a dvd drive.

thanks for the replies, i think i'll try making a dvd with a 720p xvid avi, and
one downscaled to 720x405 (hdtv releases are usually 624x352), so maybe the sony
bd player at the sony display booth will play at least one of them

unfortunately i cannot burn bd's ☹️

but i was hoping a dvd player with a hdmi plug could decode and display a 720p avi
instead of just upscaling the source to hd (as it does with dvd's we have there)