Step 1: Download the Raylight Self-extracting archive to your desktop or work drive.

In some release versions 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 contents of the Raylight Release folder.
  • Setup - this installs the codec
  • raylightControl - this is the Raylight Control Panel
  • RayMaker - this is the MXF to AVI conversion tool
  • P2Maker - this is the P2 authoring tool
  • ReadMe - read for full documentation and latest info
  • installData - this folder contains installation data, the Raylight codec, and DVFilm Maker (release version only)
  • 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 guaranteed real time playback.

    Set to GREEN (Good Quality) for real time playback on fast computers (dual-core Pentium 4, dual-core Athlon 64) with DirectX 9.0 and the Panasonic P2 Viewer installed. Also requires a striped (high performance dual disk) RAID drive.

    Set to YELLOW (One-Half Resolution) for fast computers with RAID drives.

    Set to RED (Low Resolution Proxy) for low cost computers with one media hard drive. Approximately 1/4 resolution. "Proxy" means a temporary substitute for the original frames.

    These settings can be changed very easily later on as you edit the movie. Regardless of what setting you choose now, you can always switch to Blue and the highest quality, for the final output.

Compression (Output) Settings

    Output Folder - Click the "Browse" button to create or select a folder on your media hard drive to hold the Raylight system files. 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.

Advanced Options

Do not use these options unless you have read the full documentation at dvfilm.com/help. They are not recommended for new users.

Click OK to save the settings. The small Raylight Control Panel will 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 GREEN (Good Quality) for real time playback on fast computers (dual-core Pentium 4, dual-core Athlon 64) with DirectX 9.0 installed, and the Panasonic P2 Viewer installed.

    Raylight YELLOW (1/2 Res) for real-time playback on fast (Pentium 4, Athlon 64, 3GHz or better) computers where DirectX 9.0 and the P2 Viewer are not installed. Approximately 1/2 resolution.

    Raylight RED (Lo Res Proxy) for low cost computers. Approximately 1/4th resolution.

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

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