HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.
Here is a detailed breakdown of HandBrake’s features:
- Built-in Device Presets—Get started with HandBrake in seconds by choosing a profile optimized for your device, or choose a universal profile for standard or high quality conversions. Simple, easy, fast. For those that want more choice, tweak many basic and advanced options to improve your encodes.
- Supported Input Sources—Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or Blu-ray sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.
Outputs:
- File Containers: .MP4(.M4V) and .MKV
- Video Encoders: H.265 (x265 and QuickSync), H.264(x264 and QuickSync), H.265 MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8 and Theora
- Audio Encoders: AAC / HE-AAC, MP3, Flac, AC3, or Vorbis
- Audio Pass-thru: AC-3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD, AAC and MP3 tracks
Additional features:
- Title/ Chapter Selection
- Queue up Multiple Encodes
- Chapter Markers
- Subtitles (VobSub, Closed Captions CEA-608, SSA, SRT)
- Constant Quality or Average BitRate Video Encoding
- Support for VFR, CFR and VFR
- Video Filters—Deinterlacing, Decomb, Detelecine, Deblock, Grayscale, Cropping and Scaling
- Live Video Preview
HandBrake 1.3.0 release notes:
This release includes a redesigned queue interface, new presets for the PS4 Pro and Discord, support for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (without copy protection), AV1 decoding, WebM container support, many new and updated translations, and much more.
HandBrake 1.3.0 changelog (all platforms):
General
- HandBrake is now translated into many more languages
- Redesigned queue UI
- Removed Windows Mobile presets (see the list of compatible replacements on GitHub)
- Improved log output by silencing many lines at standard log level
- Improved quality of Gmail presets slightly
- Added Playstation 2160p60 4K Surround preset (supports PS4 Pro)
- Added Discord and Discord Nitro presets
Video
- Updated Intel Quick Sync Video to use Direct3D 11 API
- Updated minimum title scan duration to only apply to disc-based sources like Blu-ray and DVD
- Improved detection of MPEG-1 video in program streams
- Improved interface to FFmpeg avfilter and color handling
- Improved Nvidia NVENC constant quality encoding slightly by not setting qmin and qmax
- Replaced pp7 Deblock filter with FFmpeg Deblock filter
- Added support for reading Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (without copy protection)
- Added support for reading AV1 via libdav1d
- Added encoding to WebM container format
- Added Chroma Smooth filter (CLI only)
- Added zero-copy path for Intel QSV encoding removed in a previous release
- Added support for Intel QSV low power encoding (lowpower=1)
- Added support for AMD VCE encoding on Linux via Vulkan
- Added ability to select x265 encoder level and Fast Decode tune
Audio
- Updated audio resampling code to use FFmpeg swresample instead of libsamplerate
- Added source audio bit rate to tracks list
- Added ability to select unknown language tracks
- Added automatic track name pass through
Subtitles
- Added ability to import external SSA/ASS subtitles
- Added ability to select unknown language tracks
- Added automatic track name pass through
Command line interface
- Added additional unit aliases to --start-at and --stop-at, notably seconds and frames
Build system
- HandBrake now builds with libnuma on Linux
- Fixed Python bytestrings causing newlines to be ignored in build output
- Fixed Xcode ignoring make jobs parameter and utilizing all CPU cores (macOS only)
- Updated configure to enable most hardware encoders by default where appropriate by platform
- Updated all scripts for compatibility with Python 3
- Updated mac-toolchain-build script with newer tool versions many improvements
- Updated mingw-w64-build script with mingw-w64 6.0.0, GCC 9.2, and many improvements
- Improved compatibility with GCC 9 and recent Clang releases
- Improved compatibility with recent Xcode releases (macOS only)
- Improved host/build semantics
- Improved namespace isolation
- Improved handling of all options passed to configure
- Improved configure help output
- Improved detection of missing executable dependencies during configure
- Added support for building on NetBSD
- Added --harden configure parameter to enable buffer overflow protections
- Added --sandbox configure parameter to enable sandbox build target on macOS
- Added --enable-gtk4 configure parameter to build with GTK 4 instead of GTK 3
- Added summary of build options to configure output
- Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements [full release notes]
Download: HandBrake 1.0.7 (32-bit) | 9.6 MB (Open Source)
Download: HandBrake 1.3.0 (64-bit) | Portable 64-bit (~17.0 MB)
Links: HandBrake Website | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot
