I don't know if your method of capturing is "primitive", you should be able to easily get pretty good results this way. Never captured LD's myself, but I guess the quality of player, recorder and cables will ultimately decide the outcome, but have you tried to use S-Video instead of composite? heard the results can be better than composite on some players. Maybe there is also some other settings in either the player or the recorder that could improve your results besides the recording mode you described.

An easy way to spot the blown out white levels I described in the other thread is the snowy mountains when the Falcon fly from Hoth with Luke in the foreground. But this could perhaps be how the LD transfer look and not something in your set-up.

Maybe you're able to find some info regarding your player on this site: http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/default.htm