The best from a DV Tape?

[ruggy1]

I have a rare DV tape I took of a young musician some time ago at a famous Sydney venue. This guy is now going skywards. My questions are:
1) I used a Canon AV/DV throughout to get the AVI to disk - is there any way to get a better quality AVI from the tape?
2) There was a lot of chatter in the DV as this was a restaurant as well. How can I eliminate the chatter without reducing the music quality?
3) I normally use Ulead to convert to MPEG but often the colour seems drained in the final DVD - is there a better way?
Thanks