So, the first major entry into our Video Encoding Guide, I give you a quick and easy 3-step rundown of how to encode your videos suitable for playback in Zune, for both device viewing and TV-Out optimized, using Microsoft’s new Windows Live Movie Maker Beta.

“Say hi to Windows Live Movie Maker. Designed by Microsoft’s Windows Live team as the successor to the popular Windows Movie Maker, it’s aim was to simplify editing and publishing of videos, with a special focus on web publishing. Re-built from the ground up to improve performance and usability, many of the older features from the older Movie Maker’s are currently missing at the moment (though are due back at some point before its finished).

What’s there now however is a very easy to use, if somewhat extremely basic, video editing program. For Zuner’s looking for quite literally the simplest way to convert your videos, look no further. It really is just a 3 step process here. No settings to configure, no confusing menus to deal with. Just some nice big colourful buttons to play with!”

Read Encoding step-by-step for Windows Live Movie Maker…

Look forward to Extensoft’s Free Video Converter’s guide over the weekend, and Expression Encoder 2’s the week after, along with an update to the guide’s front page to make it more user friendly and easier to use, and then I’ll hit it up with the YouTube downloading guide and other tips. Stay tuned!!