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HandBrake |
HandBrake is a multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder. Supported sources: Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD, and some .VOB and .TS files, Blu-ray source, Most any multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode. Outputs: File format: MP4, MKV, Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding), Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks), Switchable or burned in subtitles and much more!
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Free software  Win  Mac  Linux  Released: Size:6.6MB |
8.0/10
86 votes Guides Similar tools |
Read 86 comments 26721 views this month 18338959 total views |
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Latest version: 0.9.6 (February 28, 2012) Download sites: Visit developer's site More download options: Download 64 bit version (direct link) Supported operating systems: Windows Mac OS Linux
More information and other downloads: Download nightly beta builds here Download several iso/video_ts handbrake batch convert scripts here. Download Alert and Convert here, it watches a folder and automatically converts the file using HandBrake. Sections/Browse similar tools: All In One Video Converters, DigitalTV/DVB/HDTV, DVD to MP4/MKV/H264, Linux video tools, MacOS video tools, Portable/Mobile/PSP/iPod, Video Encoders / Converters, Video Encoders (AVI/WMV), Video Encoders (H264/MP4/MKV) |
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User options: Email me when it has been updated Report this tool (dead link/new version) Version history:
HandBrake 0.9.6 Released! View full changelog Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012 "Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code." - Christopher Thompson It's been a while since our last update, so we decided to release another cocktail for your encoding pleasure. Along with the usual library updates, there are numerous improvements and bug fixes. Encoders: -> Video: updated libx264 (revision 2146) MPEG-2 encoder (from libavcodec) advanced options support for libavcodec encoders format: option1=value1:option2=value2 -bf 2 -trellis 2 becomes bf=2:trellis=2 -> Audio: audio gain control (increase/decrease audio volume) updated libogg (1.3.0) and libvorbis (aoTuV b6.03) new AAC encoder (from libavcodec) (considered experimental) (supported mixdowns: Mono/Stereo/Dolby?, 5.1 will come later) (should be on par with faac in terms of quality, sometimes better) FLAC encoder (16-bit, MKV container only) Mac OS X: HE-AAC encoding support, via Core Audio quality-based variable bitrate encoding support works with: Lame MP3, Vorbis, Core Audio AAC only implemented in CLI and Linux GUI AC3 encoder: set Dolby Surround flag in stream parameters when mixdown is Dolby Surround or Pro Logic II -> Audio Passthru: DTS Passthru to MP4 container (in addition to MKV) (supported by e.g. VLC, MPlayer) DTS-HD Passthru (MP4, MKV containers) MP3 Passthru (MP4, MKV containers) AAC Passthru (MP4, MKV containers) (known issue: Magic Cookie not passed through from MPEG Program/Transport? streams, which will break playback in e.g. QuickTime Player) Auto Passthru: one encoder, multiple codecs lets you define allowed codecs (from supported passthru codecs) lets you pick a fallback encoder if passthru is not possible Muxers: start MKV clusters with a video keyframe whenever possible should improve seeking and DLNA streaming bug fix: use ISO 639-2 bibliographic form for MKV language codes bug fix: fix crash due to division by zero in MP4 muxer bug fix: fix muxing of Closed Captions. Improper interleaving broke playback on some players Decoders: -> Video: updated libav* libraries from Libav ( http://libav.org/) (v0.7-1696-gcae4f4b, late October 2011) frame-based multithreading for H.264, VP8 10-bit decoding support for H.264, DNxHD Apple ProRes? decoding support improved average framerate detection duplicate frame detection for improved frame drop decision (CFR/PFR) new Same as source, Constant Framerate option for devices that don't support variable framerate automatically picks a constant framerate closest to the detected average framerate bug fix: fix problem when resolution changes in the middle of a video stream -> Audio: Blu-ray: make TrueHD, DTS-HD and E-AC3 Secondary Audio streams available for decoding and/or passthrough bug fix: libavcodec-decoded streams can now be decoded multiple times previously, multiple decodes of the same source tracks weren't possible and audio output tracks had to be dropped bug fix: fix audio screech at beginning of some audio tracks when decoding AC3 bug fix: fix DTS decoder audio volume (was too low) bug fix: garbled audio when decoding DTS-HD audio from MKV containers bug fix: fix support for DTS-HD High Resolution Audio in MPEG Transport streams -> Subtitles: updated libass (0.10.0) improved handling of subtitles with overlapping timestamps improved handling of DVD subtitles without Stop Display commands SSA subtitles are now passed through to MKV without conversion to SRT/UTF-8 bug fix: fix rendering problem with SSA subtitles when no font is embedded in the source video Demuxers: improved MPEG Program/Transport? stream support support for MPEG-1 Program streams support for HD-DVD EVOB streams improved handling of Transport streams that have no PCR WTV container support (via libavformat) bug fix: files with more than 20 tracks (video, audio, subtitles etc.) are now supported bug fix: some QuickTime MOV files were misdirected as MPEG Transport streams bug fix: fix detection of TrueType? font attachments that don't have the correct MIME type Filters: new, much improved decomb filter (but slower) new settings are default old settings become decomb "Fast" Presets: improved "Normal" preset (much faster, similar file size and quality) removed obsolete legacy presets added new device presets for Android phones/tablets recent and/or powerful devices recommended Mac OS X: -> DVD decryption: VLC 2.x or later will not work for DVD decryption and is therefore unsupported as of HandBrake 0.9.6 libdvdcss is now the preferred method for DVD decryption already works with HandBrake 0.9.5 a .pkg installer is available from Videolan: http://download.videolan.org/libdvdcss/last/macosx/ -> Build system: support for Xcode 4 and Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" no longer supported Mac OS X GUI: -> OS X 10.7 Lion support: bug fix: Live Preview window widgets updated to work under Lion bug fix: fixed positioning of widgets in the Audio panel under Lion -> Other: wider main window providing more room for various widgets Windows GUI: -> Preview window: complete redesign support for VLC or the system default video player dropped built-in QuickTime playback support -> Other: much improved control over the default audio and subtitle tracks selected (see Options) ability to set the minimal title length that will show up during a scan (see Options) several other usability improvements installer now has a silent option for easier network installs (launch the installer with /S) Linux GUI: -> Audio panel: new advanced audio options section for gain and audio track names dynamic range compression and samplerate moved to advanced audio options -> Other: minor UI tweaks and usability enhancements Miscellaneous: Target Size is gone, and isn't coming back Don't bother complaining on the forums CLI: support for x264 presets, tunes and profiles new --x264-preset, --x264-tune and --x264-profile options DVD: fix issues with some discs DVD: improved main feature detection updated libbluray (0.0.1-pre-213-ga869da8, late May 2011)
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By far the best encoding app available. I have used it for DVD, Blu-ray, and re-encodes of mkvs with nearly flawless results. I would like to see it have the capability of either directly passing pgs subtitles through or converting them to vobsub cause that is really the only thing missing. But, there are ways around that.... Woulda given it a 10 if not for that.
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1 - Not capable of just accepting audio and video without problems. (Takes forever to open and can't encode). Must be in the form of an mkv already. 2- Have to keep an eye on all settings because when switching between tabs, sometimes the settings revert back to default. 3- After hours of encoding, the audio is garbled at the beginning and out of sync 4 - Dev did away with target size in later versions, refuses to bring it back.
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Haven't had issues with this one so far. Comes with presets and allows to create own. Also lets you easily alter encoding settings, but no overload. BUT: Will this thingy ever have PGS (BD subtitles) support?
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No 3rd party? HandBrake uses a lot of (L)GPL libraries from the Linux world: CoreAudio AAC/HE-AAC (OS X Only), MP3, Flac, or Vorbis. AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC and MP3 pass-thru Vobsub and Closed Captions Most common multimedia files that libavformat and libavcodec support. http://handbrake.fr/details.php
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To whoever objected to the "no real alternatives" ... if, like me, you won't use programs anymore that rely on 3rd party codecs that bugger up your registry, what other alternative is there for windows? I won't have one program repointing all the media codecs away from directx. Hacker crap. I rate this 10 for functionality despite the fact that it doesn't have all the h.264 bells and whistles built into the menu options (without manually adding strings) because it has the best compromise between ease of use and power of anything I've seen. You don't have to be a hard core video geek, at least at first. The only thing is that some things are somewhat buried in menus that should be out front imo. Like the shut down after encoding option. To me that's so important in a program like this I assumed at first it wasn't there because it's in the options submenu.
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a great video encoder ......not like another converter like formafactor* etc..this tools is different
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No proper alternativses? Megui, vidcoder(handbrake gui), hybrid, simple x264 launcher, HDconvertoX, Staxrip, Cyko (another handbrake gui), and some others.
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This tools works great, But constantly loosing features. AVI and XVID support is gone sometime back. Now I can not select target size. What Next??? May be it is targeting some specific applications. Unfortunately there is no proper alternative.
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I like the new version, even though the first build I installed didn't work properly. The newer one is fine, so far. I have absolutely no objection to needing a higher version of the .net framework, unlike the previous commenter. Everyone wanting to run media software on windows should have all the .nets, plus visual c++. Besides, if the size of the .net upgrade is a problem you don't have enough room to deal with video. The audio gain control is very nice. However, I missed target file size at first. It's not hard to adapt though. My only problem is that, unlike vidcoder (which uses the older handbrake engine, at least for now). there's still no option to shout the machine down after encoding is done. At least that I can see.
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I'm somewhat impressed with the new approach for the program. I can get by the loss of the *target size* for the output size of any video file that I am working with,... using the *constant quality* slider takes a little getting used to, one has to become familiar with the amount of compression the slider position structures to the video to,but one can still narrow down the selected size that one wishes the output video file size to be. ...(for example....squeezing a 30gig ts video from a Bluray disc down to a particular x264 size within an mkv container) What I am really NOT impressed with is the building of the new version on the netframework 4 platform. Why couldn't the programmer build it on the framework 3.5 platform that is already part of Win7? Even on Win7, framework 4 is not there and before Handbrake 096 will install it will by default download & install framework 4. Now, that doesn't bother me except for the fact to get the new framework installed uses up almost 600mb of op/sys space! The dl that goes into windows/framework/.V4 is almost 220mb large and that is before the program dll's install. To me personally, I don't need my op/sys to increase it's size to something that much just to accommodate this little program. I'll stay with 095, it needs no extra install to get it running, and that is fine with me.
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Nightly builds are back for download.
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From https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15901 - Nightlies will be unavailable until further notice. Back Soon.
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The link to "Download nightly builds here" is no good. It takes you to a login screen.
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I tried new version of this tool (0.9.5) on Win XP and am surprised to see the "High Profile Film setup" missing. Otherwise, it is an awesome tool for converting to MKV.
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Wouldn't install on XPP - some error message
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Compression level? As far as I'm aware, one can specify a target size, an average bitrate, or a Constant quality setting. I'm not sure how those aspects could be overlooked. Profile levels would be nice, but they're not to be mixed up with compression levels or settings. Additionally, Handbrake does allow for the setting of bframes etc. Use the advanced tab on the main window where you can add x264 options.
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Indeed, Handbrake lacks a few options for a decent x264 configuration, like compression level, maximum number of consecutive b-frames and probably a few more. Luckily, Handbrake enables the user to alter the command line and thus making use of missing options ('--level n' to specify compression level; '--bframes n' to to specify maximum number of b-frames at once).
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Useful tool, works very well for what it is capable of doing. I found that it does not seem to have the ability to allow the user to manually select the *profile* level ( example....3.1..4.1..5.1 etc, etc), while I was using the program it was locked onto 3.1, I wanted to use 4.1. The biggest disappointment has to be the incredibly slow speed. I was re-encoding two relatively small 2.5 gig files that were each 1/2 of a 3 hour movie... a two part movie that I was joining together. I just had to alter the bitrate for both halves to match each other so they would join together in mkvmerge without any issue. Handbrake took more than 16 hours to re-encode EACH file. Terribly slow. It did the job, but, terribly slow.
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WOW, this is an AWESOME tool. I used it a while back when i recall the interface was different. I was not impressed then. Now however, I can see the magic of MP4 compression and its amazing hands-over-fists advantages from XVID. The only major downside to the codec is lack of current device support. I have a ton of VHS. Handbrake not only detected the letterboxing and helped me remove it, with some de-interlacing the picture was amazing! And for a very efficient size! This is a very worthwhile program, but you have to invest proper time in encoding. I always use 2-pass if available.
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for me ,space problem on my PC so i want convert DVDs to mkv, i use some freeware software but that was not satisfy me, but this HANDBRAKE is really good for mkv or H.264 result is so powerful, (i convert DVDs to mkv in almost 8 gb to 1.5 gb with great quality) must use for mkv conversion
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By gum, you're right. However I don't have any pressing reason to prefer mkv to mp4 so it doesn't affect me either way.
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Apple Only format? if you mean the .m4v extension you can change that under the setting menu. It also puts out to .mkv. IF you mean codecs it does AVC which is the most widely used codec now and days. IF I could fault it for anything it would me the lack of filter options (i.e avisynth). for most people it does it all. And the linux version supports video preview when cutting/cropping in the program itself
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Only gave this an 8 for functionality because it only outputs Apple format. This isn't a problem for me, though, and it definitely makes it easier to use. How do you rate freeware as to value? It seems to me it'll either get 1 or 10. This is just about the best freeware I've ever used. Despite what the last comment says it doesn't load the CPU any more than a number of other video rendering programs I've tried that do a crappy job. And this does an excellent job. It's not buggy like Avidemux and it's much, much easier to use. Plus, the documentation is excellent. Lots of paid programs don't have docs nearly that good.
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Hi folks, I was not sure how to grade this tool ... I have used the older version before and it worked OK ... this version 0.9.5 I used to "try" to convert a RMVB file to MP4 ... and I left everything as "default" ... HandBrake (HB) started doing it's thing ... running my CPU to the max and pretty fast ... so far so good. So, then when the Progress Bar shows 100% ... but HB still chugging along at max 100% CPU use ... so I wonder what the heck ... I manually stopped it after 5 minutes of this BS ... and cheked the Output MP4 file ... file is DEAD ... and unplayable. I tried HB for the second time again ... same problem. So, now I have to look for some other Tool for RMVB to MP4 or AVI conversion. So, to me this tool is definitely Broken! As far as Rating I was Not sure what to give it to be Fair ... so!!! Thanks! G!:)
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Handbrake is exceptionally easy to use, with a clean and attractive user interface. The program allows you easily to change the dimensions of the video (set between custom, strict, etc), it allows you to change the format (m4v, mkv) and allows you to customize an output size. You can also choose an average bitrate, and use 1 or 2 pass encoding. Highlights for me were: Handbrake allows you to easily import multiple subtitles tracks. Easily select the audio streams you want, and adjust codec, bitrate, etc. Supports direct encoding from VIDEO_TS source file. Handbrake is a great program to encode h264 videos. It accepts a wide range of formats, and I recommend it.
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