Weird problem with capture??? Or maybe player??

[downer]

Ok, this is very strange. I can't pinpoint the problem. I have an ADVC-50, and connected to it I have a Hi8 player with S-Video, and RCA audio. What happens is I can capture fine.
But when I encode my capture the video looks a bit blurry and even a little jerky. Now I know the field order should be bottom field first (which i am using). I am also using Procoder. Now I have tried another encoder and get the same problem. I have also tried encoding from a different source and that encode works perfect.

The only thing I can think of is that the I need to clean the heads on the Hi8 player.

Anyone think of anything else it could be, i tried 2 different tapes also (although they were taped from the same person) so i am not sure if it is the tape as i don't have any others to test.

Thanks in advance.

[downer]

update:
Ok this is what I have come up with and I really hope someone will be able to help. When I look at the .avi before any encoding on the PC it does look to be blurry. So here is what I did: For the heck of it I tried encoding it as "non-interlaced" with procoder (instead of the typical bottom field first, and i had nothing else to lose) after I did that it looked clear on the pc when I played back the encoded file. So I then burnt it to DVD and played it on my standalone and it looked clear also.

So now my question is 2-fold:
1. What is causing this bluryness?? It has to be the tape because I converted some home movies for a different person with his tapes and they came out crystal clear perfect. I have tried a different hi8 player and get the same result, so i am guessing it has to do with the tape. Although.... It plays fine on the T.V. so that puzzles me even more.. Can this tape be fixed anyway so I can do it the normal way??

2. What is the disadvantage to encoding "non-interlaced" am I losing any quality by doing this?? because to me quality is the most important. And I don't know much about this "non-interlaced" I have always done bottom field first.

I know this is pretty long winded but any advice/help anyone could give would be greatly appreciated. These forums are really super helpful.

Thanks.