You probably simply need to hang in there much longer. Sorry to say so, but sounds like you are expecting simple shortcuts and "Which button must I push?" solutions. Live Trace will work just fine, but naturalyl you will need to spend some time with it and still have to spend a lot of time cleaning things up manually afterwards. Likewise, in PS you will have to spend some time and work your way through the selection tools and manual cleanup by painting on the resulting mask/ channel... Not sure what else to tell you. Some things simply are just hard manual labor even in this day and age...
Mylenium