Just for future reference for anybody using a HD-PVR, here is what i finally came up with, I do the colour tweaking using the settings button while recording in TME and record at 1080i, i then use Smart Cutter to losslessly trim the .TS file, I then use StaxRip + x264 with settings 2 pass animation medium, the results are great im currently getting 720p files at the same size and quality as i was getting from 480p WMV files, so there you have it, that is now my preferred method