help me get a better quality hi8 to dvd please

[jal]

Hi,
i'm in the process of moving vast nu of hi8 and 8 mm tapes to dvd. I am using a sony hi8 cam s-vid into advc-100 and capturing to hd in avi(dv). I'm using ws2 and trying different test clips encoded with usb instant dvd (had before advc), mainconcept 1.4, ccesp2.6. The instant dvd is clearly not as good, but Im dissapointed with the other 2 as well compared to just the camcorder to tv via s-vid The dv looks great on the pc after capture. The encoders are set to vbr 3 pass , 8000/sec max, 6000/sec average, 2000/sec min. bottom frame first. the resulting dvd vid (played on new samsung dlp hdtv via pioneer dvd333 (component out)is very flat in color, not as saturated and not as sharp, almost blurry. Tried a different clip with tmpgenc 2.5 and felt same quality. (Anyway close enough, that I'm not going to wait as long as that one takes.)
1) Is there anything I can do to improve this or is that about what's expected. I am doing some simple editing of the dv first in mediastudiopro 6.5 it's checked not to recompress, but is it redoing anything? Just cuts and splices. Are there any setting on the encoders I could try to significantly change the quality? Especially in cce2.6. I also tried 7500 cbr ps with quality= 1 notch above easy. M=3, N/M=4,gop header every 1,seqeunce header every 1 gop. nothing else checked. Maybe 'slight' improvement in sharpness but still flat, unsat and not very clear. What is mosquito noise? Any frozen frame looks pixelated (although less so than frozen mainconcept at 7000 average vbr) Cant say I understand these IBP setting very well, relative to what difference they can make, although I've read here about them. I know GI/GO but I thought a 7500 multipass should be very close to the cam s-vid in on the tv?, No? Should I expect to have to add filters in either virtual dub or msp65 to get sharpeness and saturation back?
Would appreciate help with settings or other so I can sleep and begin moving the years of family 8 and hi8 over.

Thanks for any advice or leads
Jack

[Meteor]

If you know how to use AviSynth, Convolution3d is a very good filter for cleaning up footage. Also, try encoding at 352x480 since hi8 probably won't take advantage of the extra resolution of 720x480.