I've been comparing the picture from a DVD that I created with ShowBiz and MyDVD to the same video from my miniDV camcorder when both are played through my standard television set. The DVD looks like old film -- a little grainy and the colors are a little washed out. The picture played directly from the camera looks like typical video -- the colors are brighter and the lines are sharper.

Is this to be expected? Is there inherently something noticeably lost in the encoding process? If I used different software or settings could I make the final DVD product look exactly like the source tape?