Best quality mpeg capture with ATI AIW card?

[roblobster]

I read through LordSmurf's site or DigitalFAQ.com all about capturing. I've tried varying resolutions and bitrates and still not getting clean picture.
Has anyone nail down the best mpeg capture settings for best quality from an ATI AIW card? If so, please share. I'm losing myself t at which setting to fiddle with.
Also, would "I Frames Only" yield better quality? Cause that's not the result I'm getting. Or is higher "P Frame" better.
Thanks all.

[Almost Human]

Format: MPEG-2 DVD
Resolution: 352X480
Keep high resolution display during recording: NO
De-interlacing Options: Encode Interlaced
Inverse 3:2 Pulldown: No
Record Cropped Video: Yes
Audio Format: 48,000KHz, 16 Bit, Stereo
Number of P Frames in Group: 4 (2 if getting dropped frames)
Number of B Frames in Subgroup: 2
Closed Group of Pictures (GOP): Yes
Video Encoding Parameters: Variable Bit Rate
Max Bit Rate: 5.52 M Bit/Second
Target Bit Rate: 4.03 M Bit/Second
Motion Estimation Quality: 99
Audio Encoding Parameters: 256 K Bit/Second
Select Videosoap Type: None
I use MMC 8.9

With these settings, I cannot tell the difference from digital cable or SP video tapes. At these setting I can get 141 minutes on a DVD+R.

[roblobster]

Thank you. I'll try that.
The guide I read instructed not to crop video "otherwise the resolution will be truncated and will no longer be compliant DVD video. But I guess you've been successful thus far.

[FOO]

Why closed GOPs ?

[Almost Human]

FOO wrote:

Why closed GOPs?

Before I started using TMPGEnc DVD Author exclusively, I was using Ulead VideoStudio 6.02. That program would balk at writing a DVD with open GOP's. So, I guess it is just a holdover, and I have not had any problems yet.

[lordsmurf]

Thank you. I'll try that.
The guide I read instructed not to crop video "otherwise the resolution will be truncated and will no longer be compliant DVD video. But I guess you've been successful thus far.

Be sure to use the "MPEG-2 DVD" settings found in newer ATI MMC 8.x versions, and it'll crop the image and add black borders to make it full size. The black will not be seen on tv. There is a notation about this on the guide.

I used CLOSED too because Sonic authoring products (ReelDVD and DVDit! PE) refuse open GOP.

[Baldrick]

Capturing isn't authoring. I'm moooooooooving you.

[Almost Human]

Baldrick wrote:

Capturing isn't authoring. I'm moooooooooving you.

It is directly pertinent if you can't author what you capture.