That is the highest resolution for a standard dvd in the U.S. See this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video . Higher resolution disc use AVCHD and Blu-Ray.

Thanks so burning to 720x480 is really the only option to play on a standard DVD player? Is there any others ways to increase the quality? saving as a certain file extension/codec before burning? Would that do anything?

It may be possible for you to burn an avchd disc to a dvd without a Blu-ray burner. You need to go to the internet and hunt down the UDF 2.60 drivers from Toshiba that may still be floating around the internet and install them. They were meant for the defunct HD DVD that went out of business.

DVD-video discs are 720x480 max, period.
A DVD disc can contain anything as data, but a DVD-video disc is a different animal.
The other issue is we are all spoiled by ever-increasing display sizes and clarity. DVD is akin to etching images on a clay tablet.
What about thumbdrives, streaming? Does your DVD player support Divx or other filetypes?
EDIT: A good disc player or TV should be able to handle a little upscaling, better than software shenanigans. Look at your entertainment system settings. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
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