Getting Started
Assuming that you have your source material already digitized in the AVI, WAV, or MP3 format, you can jump right into converting your material to streaming with the Windows Media Encoder.

Limiting the encoder to AVI, WAV, and MP3 does box you in a little. But since these are standard formats for most Windows based digitizing and editing packages, you will find the encoder works well with most of your current audio and video tools. You will also find Windows Media support now right inside a number of common third-party Windows packages.

Templates
The Windows Media Encoder uses a template approach. Each template represents the best solution for a particular application. Personally, I found this confusing when I first started using the application. It really is not that difficult once you are familiar with the software. It is just that the welcome menu is labelled ambiguously and Microsoft would probably be well served by going in and simplifying the language.

So when you launch Windows Media Encoder for the first time, you might be tempted to choose "QuickStart." It sounds so rapid and friendly. If you are encoding live content, that is your best choice. But if you have existing content sitting on your hard drive, you will want to make a different choice. If you are working with a server that supports Windows Media, you want to choose "Template with I/O options." This will allow you to designate the files you want to work with. From there, encoding is a simple step-by-step process.

For those of you who are experimenting with streaming from your usual Web (HTTP) servers, you will want to choose "Custom settings." This route is perhaps the most intimidating for the Windows Media beginner. But since many of you will experiment with Windows Media on your HTTP servers before setting up a streaming server, we will take that route for this tutorial.