Still can't get equal quality to original beta tape

[CAnn12]

I am at a standstill here. I have read many of the posts on this forum & others; read the guides (some too complicated for my understanding I'm afraid), but am having no luck. Here's what I've done so far: First of all I have a beta tape that my dad made in 1986. He took all of our family 8mm tapes, projected them on a screen, borrowed my brother-in-law;s professional TV camera (he used to work for a cable company & taped many local shows) taped them adding music and commentary. I have a regular beta machine (Sanyo VCR-4-300 series) & the tape is also regular beta. I have captured to avi format using huffyuv with STOIK capturer and also with Virtual VCR (no dropped frames with Stoik, a number with Virtual VCR) captured at both 720x480 and 320x240. I used Virtual VCR b/c I have a winxp and when I read the guides, it recommended systems using win2000 and up to use Virtual VCR rather than VirtualDub. I then used Canopus procoder v 1.5 to encode to Mpeg-2 and used Ulead (set to 7000 kbps) to burn to DVD-RW. I didn't bother to edit or anything like that as I am trying to get these settings correct. When I compared the results to my attempt using Ulead for capturing, encoding etc and with Pinnacle studio 9...there was no difference. I was sure that by using avi and Huffy codec rather than Mpeg-2 in the Ulead and Pinnacle that I would see a major change...but nothing.. it's the same except with my new attempts..I got no audio....but for now I was just focasing on picture quality..which is very poor! I am not trying to get better than the original tape..just match it or nearly match it. What am I doing wrong?

[piano632]

Have you tried using the exact same setup to capture from another machine (VHS, etc.) to check quality? If capture from another machine is better then you know the problem is with the Sanyo Betamax. If you can get your hands on a Sony Beta, I think it would give better playback than the Sanyo.

[lumis]

this might not be the solution you want, but i think you'll be pleased with it in the end..

i've been doing video captures for years, they were decent to good.. but a standalone dvd recorder has really made my life a lot easier.. i've been using a pioneer dv-225, and all the vhs tapes i record to dvd look as good as the original.. and in some cases better.. i'm guessing the recorder cleans up the video somehow.. once you've recorded the video to a dvd-r/w, you can take it to your computer, extract it to an mpeg, edit it how you want it & reauthor with custom menu's, chapters, etc.. it will really make your life a lot easier.

amazon currently has the recorder for $160US

[CAnn12]

When you copy your VHS to you DVD recorder and then go to your computer, edit & author it, etc. and then burn again to a dvd, would't you be re-encoding it..thereby reducing quality? I was also looking at a moviebox usb v.9 or perhaps I was also considering the ATI All in Wonder card 9800 pro? Anyone have any ideas or thoughts about one of these 2 choices?
I guess I'm becoming frustrated and just not too sure where to turn..!
Thanks for any help or suggestions!