What I'm talking about is not the discolouration at scene/reel changes. That looks more like glue than a burn. The two frames I'm thinking specifically of are in the middle of a scene. PAL is a step up in terms of resolution, but it's far from being a panacea.
On CAV/CLV:
I don't believe the signal is different at all between CAV and CLV. LDs are not digital, so the concept of bitrate is a red herring. I suspect that any improvements seen are improvements made because of purely mechanical reasons: optical gain, crosstalk, flutter, wow -- all that sort of good analogue junk. It will perhaps manifest itself in something more electronic-looking (e.g. a better player will maybe do a better job on CAV than CLV, maybe giving a better picture), but I just don't buy that there is anything fundamentally different about the information recorded on each kind of disc.
On dot crawl:
I have yet to try a SweetSpot card. But I'm already using a card with a Philips SAA-7133 chip, which has a 10-bit ADC and an adaptive 3-line comb filter. I believe that's just about what the SweetSpot card has, too, isn't it? So except for build quality, and maybe some goofing around with the Philips reference design, I don't see how things would improve by leaps and bounds -- at least, not on the capture side.
I am also using a CLD-D925, which is apparently one of the two PAL-spec players that is generally regarded as being the best there ever was. I've looked at the schematics, and as best I can understand (I'm no electrical engineer), the composite signal is separated into Y/C early on, processed with a now-obsolete Sony comb filter, tweaked however Pioneer sees fit, and then recombined. And then I think separated again for the S-video, but memory fades. So even at the pointy end, things are thoroughly sub-optimal. Too bad there's no such animal as a PAL-spec X0 player. I'm hoping there's something out there that might come close, but that's but one item on my list of things to do.
To answer Moth3r's direct question, I'd love to get a 2950 and a SS card together, and see what transpires. Problem is, all this stuff takes gobs of time, and costs money. I don't know how many of you have spouses/significant others, but even just having the money doesn't mean you can spend it without repercussions... Still, my wife's cool enough to have tolerated all my fiddling thus far, so I'm not ruling out being able to get all the parts in one place at one time, and see once and for all whether things can be improved substantially from what I'm looking at now.
This is fun stuff, ain't it?
On projects:
I'm not sure I'm ready to start my own thread. For now, you can imagine a swan: looks pretty calm and boring on the surface, but underneath the legs and feet are pumping away! Lots of behind-the-scenes work going on in which I'm heavily involved. If/when I start to get serious about letting the general public know what I'm up to, I assure you that people here on OT.com will be the first to know. For now, I like the freedom of being able to read, lurk, make the occasional comment or observation, and not have to feel too much pressure to keep saying, "I'm still here! And still working!"