Step 1: Download the Raylight Self-extracting archive and save in a new folder called "Raylight" (see at right). For the release version of Raylight, the archive will have unique name of randomly selected letters.

Step 2: Double-click on the archive to extract the files. Shown at left is the result of extracting the files. raylightControl - this is the Raylight Control Panel RayMaker - this is the MXF to AVI conversion tool Setup - this installs the codec UnInstall - this is used to remove Raylight from your system if necessary

Step 3: Double-click on Setup to install the Raylight codec. Click OK when the installer is finished. Step 4: Double click on raylightControl to start the Raylight control panel. The dialog shown at right will appear. Choose your settings: Visual Fidelity on Playback Set to BLUE (Max Quality) for final rendering or stepping through individual frames at high quality. Not for real time playback. Set to YELLOW (First Pass AC coefficients only) for fast dual- or single-core (Pentium 4, Athlon 64, 3GHz or better) computers with striped (high performance dual disk) RAID drives. Set to RED (blocky) for low cost computers with one media hard drive. These settings can be changed very easily later on as you edit the movie. Compression (Output) Settings Folder for .rayl Files - Click the "Browse" button to create or select a folder on your media hard drive to hold the Raylight preview files or rendered video. Do NOT use your system drive (usually drive C), as it will be too busy providing data for the applications and operating system to provide smooth playback. Default System Set to 60i/60p for NTSC countries (the Americas and Japan) where you are using the 60i, 60P, 30P, and 24P formats. Set to 50i/50p for PAL countries and elsewhere in the world where you are using the 50i, 50P, and 25P formats. Click OK to save the settings. The small Raylight Control Panel with then appear (see at right). This control panel will stay on your desktop and overlay your video editing system screen. You will use it while editing to change the Raylight quality settings during playback. When you render the final version of your movie, you will always select Raylight Blue.

Raylight BLUE (Max Quality) for final rendering or stepping through frames at high quality. Not for real time playback. Raylight YELLOW (First Pass AC coefficients only) for fast dual- or single-core (Pentium 4, Athlon 64, 3GHz or better) computers with stripe RAID. Approximately 1/2 resolution. Raylight RED (blocky) for low cost computers. Approximately 1/8th resolution.

Click here to continue the tutorial and learn how to convert MXF files to Raylight AVI.