Capture video, then filter in MPEG for DVD?
 

I really would like to avoid having to make 2 passes of my VHS Tapes So in the MPEG Captuere mode,on a non -professional level,can I use TMPG Filters to improve quality?(in MPEG MODE) INSTEAD of Capturing in .AVI mode and using V-Dub???:?

not recommended, avi first (codecs: Dv, huffyuv, lagarith, x264 lossless) then mpeg2

best mpeg2 encoders:
hc-enc (free), mainconcept reference

What kind of processor do you have

Like themaster1 wrote, it's possible but not recommended.

MPEG compression introduces imperfections, and those are easily magnified with each MPEG re-encode. It's more ideal to start with a lossless AVI source, filter it, and then save out as MPEG.

The exception would be if you're capturing as a high bitrate MPEG-2 -- something in the 15Mbps or higher range. And the higher, the better. This gets more towards the quality of DV and MJPEG at that point, and has less digital boogers that get amplified later. A lot of people also don't realize that SD 720x480 MPEG-2 Blu-ray specs allow for 15Mbps, so SD Blu-ray looks better than DVD-Video for that reason. (It has NOTHING to do with HD resolutions.)

And yes, you can filter with TMPGEnc Plus 2.5. In fact, you can filter an MPEG source in VirtualDub, too. Or Avisynth. There are some tricks, however. VirtualDub requires the MPEG-2 source plugin, and then you'll need to manually change the colorspace to YUY2. Avisynth works best with ffmpeg import, not DirectShow source.

TMPGEnc Plus is still a great encoder, though I might agree than the harder-to-use HCEnc, or more-expensive MainConcept, is better.

what about using the recommended JVC LSI DVD recorders?
those are straight to MPEG.

LSI recorders are indeed an excellent way to transfer video direct to MPEG. :)

But the original question was about using TMPGEnc filtering (which honestly isn't even the best filtering, way behind Avisynth and VirtualDub). And no, Avisynth and Vdub also not possible to filter while capturing. Avisynth doesn't capture, and Vdub will either dropped massive frames or refuse to work at all.