This is what I tried to post yesterday:

I've compared the raw MPEG-2 rips and, while the conversion to AVI hasn't helped the definition, the clipping is definitely a factor of the recorded DVDs.

While ADC technology in set-top DVD recorders does vary considerably in quality (not wanting to cast aspersions on Russ's AV kit!), it seems more likely that it was a limitation of the consumer-level VCR that created the tape in the first place.

Anyway, I'm presented with a bit of a quandary here - I certainly hadn't planned to make any revisionist alterations to the image (indeed my proposed editing workflow - as outlined earlier - is intended to obviate any transcoding at all).

I wonder what the best approach is - make my edit as a 'pure' preservation of this tape, then hand over to someone else to make improvements to the image as they see fit? I'd be glad to hear peoples' thoughts on this.