MeGUI/Basic DVD Ripping Guide/Audio

[edit] 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 file to use as input: The audio encoder dialog also supports audio from avs files. You can create a new avs script which can load the required audio with the following line (assuming you have the required decoders): directshowsource("path\to\file.wmv",audio=false)
Modify an existing AviSynth video source file: If you created an avs with the avs script creator in the previous step, you can simply change the audio=false in the directshowsource(... line to 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:

ND AAC: Nero AAC encoder. AAC is probably the equal highest quality format available for stereo files (ties with Vorbis). Variable bitrate (VBR) is recommended.
CT AAC: Coding Technologies AAC encoder. Opinions vary on whether this or ND AAC give better quality files, I can only suggest you decide yourself. (Personally, I can't hear any difference, and the Nero encoder supports abr and quality modes, so that's what I use.)
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.
AudX 5.1: A very new encoder which encodes 5.1 channels into a normal MP3 file. Not recommended for basic usage yet, as it is still relatively new and its future is uncertain.
Vorbis: Free and open-source, often called 'ogg' (ogg is the filename extension and container format, Vorbis is the audio format).
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.
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.
FAAC: Another AAC encoder, not-very-good quality output. Use ND/CT AAC instead.

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.