Video Collector said:

Here are the images Ringwraith sent me, along with corresponding captures from my tapes (Some are lossy JPGs, so let's disregard compression related issues for now):

Ringwraith:

PAL VHS:

Ringwraith:

PAL VHS:

It appears to me that the VHS tapes could benefit from some mild brightening, maybe some slight noiserduction (but NOT too much).

OK a few comments to the screenshots.

The Ringwraith pics look too bright, but the "VideoCollector" pics are too dark :-) Finding the perfect balance will be a tough task.

Anyway the PAL VHS captures seem to be slightly "squeezed", I wonder how will they look when you crop the black bars and stretch it to full PAL resolution (720x576 instead of 704x576)

Still the Ringwraith captures will probably nead some logo filtering, or what is that little "UFO" in the bottom right corner of the second picture ?

Fritz, did you chose the correct frames for the comparison ? I'm asking because if you check the first set, the "beam" on the first picture ends much earlier than on the second picture. I wonder if you actually used a different frame or if the PAL and NTSC sources are "positioned" differently ?