Why I do not like my MPEGs? Are they really bad?

[Toxec]

I want to ask a question - Do I get best SVCD results from my footage, or there is something else to be improved? I mean quality, not file size. I looked at samples presented at vcdhelp.com and decided that my mpegs are too blurry. I dislike even mpeg made with dvd template.
Here I post links on some screen shots that I made.
I converted them to JPEG to save your download time, but they look very very much like orignal BMP shots. All shots are made in fullscreen mode. AVIs are shooted from VDub, MPEGs - from WinDVD.
Original avi. It was captured 720x540 3Mb/s by Pinnacle Studio 7 through DC10+ card. The source was a video 8 cam.
Mpeg created from original avi by TMPEGEnc using wizard's DVD settings.
Mpeg created from original avi by TMPEGEnc using wizard's SVCD settings.
Original avi after deinterlacing in Virtual dub.
SVCD sample that I downloaded from vcdhelp.

[D_Knife]

Well - I don't know about "bad" - the stills look ok - I hope the washed out colour and brightness is a problem with your screencap applic

The SVCD sample is OK
It would be nice to see a motion clip though

If your creating for display on TV - don't bother de-interlacing
You won't notice any difference on TV - well hardly anything anyway

Other than that, being really picky I would

increase the colour saturation slightly in the MPG encoding stage

you look like you have reached the quality limit for a Hi8 camera - what is your Picvideo codec settings. Don't bother with anything over 17

depending on your target audience - try going for standard VCD format - unless they are involved in sports or extreme motion activity
I suggest VCD as reducing the frame size can actually make some footage look better this might just work ok for you
Try a couple of encodes and see what you think for yourself.