CATALYST MULTIMEDIA Specific SETTINGS Explanation/Help *PLEASE*

[Mathew]

This is a continuation from a previous thread I began on working with Catalyst Multimedia Software from a previous post. In that post, I could not get to the customized settings. It's not very obvious, you have to scope around a little. Anyway, I had found it, and now have some questions on what these settings mean, and what recoomedations everyone out there advises.

I purchased this software with the TV WONDER 650 less than a week agao. This is the software that has the large gray screen, the "atomic looking structure" for an icon, and the GI Jane on the motorcyle spinning on a flatscreen when you start up the actual software program.

When the program starts, follow these "key-stroke stepping stones" to get to the 'create a profile' portion of it;

TV | SETTINGS | RECORDING SETTINGS | CUSTOM PROFILE | CREATE A PROFILE

Type in a name for the profile. Then hit ENTER. I am using the following settings and have some questions on them... here they are in order as you have to set them top to bottom of your screen;

Compression Setting = MPG2 DVD
Width = 720
Height = 480
Video Capture Quality = <-- This is the unknown element. The default number they give you is 75. What is "video capture quality" per their definition? What are the parameters to choose from? You can enter an infinite number here, I put in 1,000,000 just to see if it would accept it and it did. If anyone can explain this, it is -not- in any of their electronic documentation.
Bitrate in Kbps = 8,000
Peak Bitrate in Kbps = 8,000
Checkbox For Variable Bit Rate = Selected (check marked)

After these settings are filled in, I selected the button on the left "ADVANCED." Now these parameters come up, and here are my selections and questions for them:
Advance Settings
Dinterlacing = Keep Interlace. (I have read that you should never deinterlace video when you are recording/capturing with the intent to make video for DVD output. Please comment if I am wrong, or even right, on this)...
Frames In GOP = 15. (default setting) <-- I have NO clue whatsoever what GOP is. If anyone can give an education on what GOP means here, please do.
B Frames = 2 (default setting). <-- I have no idea what B Frames are. Please educate.
Disable Preprocessing = (unchecked). <-- I am assuming this is telling the computer to leave off all the choices to filter and whatnot before processing, but then again, assuming is not correct. Advice?
Always Use Closed GOP's = (unchecked, default setting). <-- Same as above. Please educate me on this.
Inverse 3:2 pulldown Detection = (unchecked, default setting) <-- I'm clueless.
Crop the overscan Area = (unchecked, default) This I think I understand. I think it is asking if it should remove the "safe zone" that you cannot see on a televsion, but could see on a comptuer for example. I usually just put borderes around this. I editted a Grace Jones video once, and there was a sort of black frame for an overscan area, with occasional yellow lines here and there. I just kept the safe zone, and put a black border over what was already a black border to remove the yellow color lines, thus leaving a black frame as intended without color drips, or whatever the technical term would be. Advice/ ideas?
Half Horizontal Resolution = (unchecked, default) <-- why would anyone do this? Again, educate me people... This must be here for some reason.
Half Vertical Resolution = Same as above for horiz' res'.

I'm going to leave the audio settings for another post, and more or less stop here. If anyone has ideas / optimal settings for audio as well, please post. Also, I would really like a general "opinion" on what people think of Catalyst Media Center (2006 Software). I wouldn't mind it if I could understand more what I was doing--then maybe make a better judgement once the settings were tweaked.

My only real complaint right now is I am tired of the time it takes to get up and run, and how the designers have decided to put a Japanese GI Jane on a motorcyle on a spinning flatscreen monitor and I have to look at that everytime it starts up---that's not necessary. Not all of us play video games--some of us just want to video capture or do other things. Maybe some hacker out there can give us all advice on how to get rid of that annoyance? Small gripe, but anyway...

Thanks for reading, any help is GREATLY appreciated... If you read this post and have no clues, then please post and say that. I see a lot of people are reading the posts, but not responding. Any response is better than nothing--because then it at least tells me that people either don't know, or don't use Catalyst enough to care, or use Catalyst but have no answers. Thanks people. : )

Sincerely,
Mathew

[sonvolt]

Hi Matthew
This site should help explain those settings some, specifically the "capturing" and "capture mpeg with ATI AIW card" sections.
Hope this helps.

digitalfaq.com