Help, Picture Quality Sucks

[bytedisk]

I have spent days trying to make an acceptable video. I’ve made vcd’s, xvcd’s, svcd’s, xsvcd’s but when I play them on the TV the quality is less than acceptable. I wanted something at least comparable in picture quality to what I get when showing directly from the camera. Am I expecting too much? Is anyone having any luck making acceptable home movies?
I have read numerous posts and tried different config’s with no success. I’m not asking for more tweak tips but rather if you think I would get MUCH better quality if I purchased a DVD recorder and record the home movies in DVD format.
Any help will be much appreciated, I’d hate to spend $1k+ for a recorder and still end up with a blocky picture.

[vcdfreak]

If your video source is good, the result should be acceptable if you use the method.

VCD won't give you very good picture but (X)SVCD or DVD format should make it look almost like the source video if you set things right.

Does it blocks appear on the PC screen or after playback on TV?

[vitualis]

GIGO: garbage in, garbage out

Nothing you make will look as good as the SOURCE. Each additional (non-digital transfer) step you take decreases the quality by some degree.

Presumable, you are capturing your video? This may be what is causing the loss of quality depending on your capture settings and also on the quality of your capture card.

Regards.