A guide to encoding, part two (Setup)

Ready to make the plunge? Great, but first you will need to download a couple of things to make everything work.

• Avisynth - The main component that you'll need.  

• MeGUI - A graphical user interface (yep, that's what GUI stands for) for Avisynth. Basically it means that MeGUI is a program that makes using Avisynth a lot more manageable for those unfamiliar with writing scripts from scratch.

• Winrar or 7zip - Winrar is free for 30 days and 7zip is 100% free. Both have similar functions, which is extracting the contents of .zip, .rar, and many other types of files. For the purpose of encoding, we will use either program to extract the contents of an .iso file. 

• A video source - An .ISO preferably, but any random .avi, .mp4, .mkv, etc.. will do (though I won't be covering encoding from other DVD-Rips in this guide; you can figure it out on your own if you read through). 

Now, everything below is not required, but I strongly suggest downloading them because I will be using them in this guide.

• Nero AAC Encoder - For encoding your audio into high quality AAC files.

• VirtualDubMod - For quickly editing video. I find the included function in MeGUI to be lacking. 

• CCCP  - Combined Community Codec Pack. Basically a requirement for those who don't have Windows 7 (and even if you do run 7, I still suggest it). CCCP makes video playback go smoothly and also includes my favorite video player, Media Player Classic Homecinema.

• K-Lite Codec Pack - You don't need both CCCP and K-Lite -- either one is fine. K-Lite is more up-to-date, so those with newer PCs may want to download this instead. If you do choose K-Lite, download either the Full or Mega version.

Download the three required programs (and the three optional if you wish) and install. I hope you don't need help installing so I won't go over that, but if you have specific questions about any of the programs, feel free to ask.

In part three I will explain a couple of key terms and how to get started with ISOs.