General, but getting desperate, help please

[conversion2]

OK I'm a newbie, but learning very fast. I understand terms now that I didn't know existed a few weeks ago. have tinkered with literally every free piece of software but don't know enough about any of them.
I guess that's how a lot of us start.
The aim is to convert Pal VHS tapes to play on my DVD player either as VCD or DVD.
To do this I have my VHS recorder linked to a Win TV USB and capturing is done through this.
I can capture either in MPEG 1 through the Win TV software itself, in MPEG 2 using Nero Vision Express or as an AVI using Virtual Dub.
Capturing isn't really the problem - that is with the quality of the end result, which quite frankly is very poor. VCDs look very pale, weak and watery and though DVDs are slightly better both are considerably below the quality of the original VHS tape.
I do not wish for quality beyond the original but if I can't get a quality the same then there is no point in trying. I'll just stick to VHS.
I suppose my question is what is the best way, from the options I have given above, of obtaining a reasonable quality output.
I am using Nero 6.0 as burning engine and it does recoding wher necessary as well, but as I say results to date have been poor.
Arguably, capturing with Virtual Dub allows application of filters, which does enhance things a bit, if this is the best way then where can I find the filters I should use to apply when converting a standard VHS tape?
Are my aims even achievable? Please help, I'm no saint, but if judged on my perseverance with this so far I must be gaining brownie points somewhere!
Thanks
Grahame

[sacajaweeda]

Is everything (your capture device and port) USB 2.0? USB 1.1 isn't what you want when capturing.

I suggest using a better program than Nero to encode/author with. Check out TMPGEnc. It has a 30 day trial period I believe. DVD-Lab is a good authoring tool you may want to check out also.

Depending on how much editing and filtering you are doing, you may be better off capturing AVI and encoding to mpeg. Don't use filters durring the capture process. You'll most likely just drop a ton of frames and really screw things up. Apply filters post-capture.

What you want is definitely do-able.