MeGUI/Guides/Basic Guide/Audio

Basic Info

This section deals with encoding the audio into its final format (which is up to you to decide) with the MeGUI audio encoder.

There are three options for creating an input file. All will work, you can choose whichever you prefer:

Use the audio file as direct input: For supported audio files (ac3, mp2, mp3 and a few other formats), you can directly select these files to be used as input.
Create a new AviSynth script to use as input: The audio encoder dialog also supports audio from avs files. You can create a new avs file which can load the required audio with the following line (assuming you have the required decoders)

directshowsource("path\to\file.wmv",audio=true)

On the first page of MeGUI click the [...] button next to "audio input". Browse to the audio file and open it
You now have to choose which audio format to use. Here is a quick rundown of the advantages of each format. Formats that are not recommended have been greyed out:

Aften AC3: An encoder for DVD format audio. Don't use this encoder - if you want to have an AC3 stream, simply use the version that was demuxed from the original DVD and skip any audio encoding.
FAAC: Another AAC encoder, not-very-good quality output. Use Nero AAC instead.
FFmpeg AC3: Another encoder for DVD format audio. Don't use this encoder - if you want to have an AC3 stream, simply use the version that was demuxed from the original DVD and skip any audio encoding.
FFmpeg MP2: Very similar to MP3, gives slightly better quality at bitrates above 256kbits (some say 192kbits), but not by a large amount, and bitrates that large aren't recommended.
Flac: A lossless audio codec. Produce large file.
LAME MP3: The oldest and most common audio format. Can be played on all Windows computers, but gives the lowest audio quality out of all formats (which is still reasonable). ABR is recommended. In MeGUI, this is encoded with LAME, which does incredibly well on such an old format.
Nero AAC: Nero AAC encoder. AAC is probably the equal highest quality format available for stereo files (ties with Vorbis). Variable bitrate (VBR) is recommended.
Vorbis: Free and open-source, often called 'ogg' (ogg is the filename extension and container format, Vorbis is the audio format).

For more information on Audio formats, check out the computer movie files page.
Once you have chosen your audio format (if in doubt, stick with MP3).
For a normal movie, 128kbits is usually used. This corresponds to approximately q3 for vorbis files. For concerts or movies where you want a higher audio quality, you can increase this value up to 160 (q5 for vorbis) - any higher is probably a waste.
Once you have chosen your bitrate, click the 'enqueue' button, move over to the tab and click to start the job:

Once you've done this, proceed to the next section: encoding the video.