Software » Video Encoders » Rad Video Tools 2026.10

Changes from 2026.09 to 2026.10 (10-27-2026)
Bink 2 can now compress video with an alpha plane 10% to 30% smaller at the same quality by using per-pixel-alpha-weights (which lets the color under fully transparent pixels is filled with whatever compresses best). Use /NoAlphaWeight (or the \"Do not use alpha plane for weighting\" option) to compress the hidden color as given instead. Premultiplied alpha is now handled explicitly on input and output (/AlphaPremulIn, /AlphaPremulOut, BINK_ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED).
The video filters in the Bink and Bink converter are now an ordered list that you build in the window (or on the command line) - each filter can be added as many times as you like, each with its own settings and its own list of frames. Added bilateral denoise, temporal denoise, saturation, pad (letterbox), flips and rotations, point-sampled scale, and brightness fades (a start and end brightness over a frame range). Crop, scale and the existing filters take the same frame lists.
Frame lists replace the old start/end frame switches everywhere. Dta rates, peak rates, key frames and all the filters can be given for any set of frames and ranges - counted from the start (s10), from the end (e10) or as times (t5.5-t10, te30-te) - and /Include(frames) compresses only the listed frames of the input (sound included), so you can compress a section or test settings on a short piece. The data rate, key frame rate and key frame positions can each be set per range; the key frame hint file is gone.
The compressor and converter command line switches now have names (/DataRate, /Smooth, /Scale, /Crop, /Include, etc. - the \"...\" button in each window lists them all). The common short forms still work (/D, /M, /K, /P, /I, /T, /L, /O, /F, /A, /V and the /X /Y /W /H crop); /S and /E are replaced by /Include(start-end) and the other single-character filter switches by their names.
Bink compression is faster with more complete threading (the input conversion to YUV, the deblocking decisions and the alpha work all run on the worker threads now), the worker pool scales past 64 logical processors, and still images are decoded ahead of and written behind the compression on background threads. /CPUs# limits the thread count on every tool.
Bink 2 now compresses with 4 slices by default (was 2), so decoding spreads across more cores on current hardware. Use /Slices2 or /Slices3 for targets with fewer decoding cores.
Sound quality is is improved. The runtime mixer now resamples with a cubic filter (was linear) when a track's rate differs from the output rate, on all platforms and channel counts. The tools resample imported sound the same way, read and write 64-bit (RF64) WAV files over 4 GB, and gained /NormalizePeak#.# and /NormalizeLoudness#.# (LUFS) on every tool that writes sound, plus /AudioStartOffset#.# to shift the sound.
Added BinkSoundUseNull(freq, speakers) for a sound output with no device that still mixes and runs the post-mix callbacks - for tests, servers and tools.
The Bink logo movie is now vector. BinkLogoAddress() is replaced by BinkGetLogo() and BinkGetLogoYCrCbA(), which draw the logo as vector art at any size (as BGRA or as Bink YCrCbA planes). The Smacker player and the RAD Video Tools draw their logos the same way.
WebAssembly has replaced the Emscripten-specific build. There are both scalar and SIMD modules callable from JavaScript (no Emscripten necessary), plus static libraries for C/C++ projects that use their own toolchain. Wasm libs remain single-threaded. Emscripten still supported, of course, just not required.
SDR sources can be compressed into Bink 2 HDR files (SDR white maps to 80 nits; the compressor asks first, /NoAlphaWarn answers yes), from the tools and from the Premiere exporter, and the Bink player plays them at the Windows SDR white level. The D3D11 example restores SDR output correctly after HDR playback.
Premiere exporter: key frames can now be placed manually (a frame list).
Removed the Xbox One XDK builds (the GDK builds remain).
Fixes: BinkOpen from memory could crash when it was the first open in the process; minor Premiere exporter fixes opening a Bink with sound while another Bink's last close was shutting the sound device down, or changing the output format of a sound device kept open between movies, could leave the mixer in a bad state (now reopens cleanly, and a Bink whose sound can't be set up plays silently instead of half-mixed); image-sequence exports report a failed background write (disk full, bad path); list files that change format part way through now clip and compress; various Media Framework bugs on input and output; EXR input and output uses ZIP compression; WebAssembly cleanups and bugs fixes; various ancient formats removed from importing.
Smacker is now built into the RAD Video Tools instead of through the 32-bit path.
The 32-bit QuickTime import path is has also been replaced with a native QuickTime Animation (RLE) decoder, alongside the ProRes, PNG, JPEG and uncompressed QuickTime formats that already worked in 64-bit.

Bink videos look amazing! Bink can scale its data rate from 1200 kps for 1280x720p videos down to 75 kps for Nintendo DS videos. Bink will always make the best possible video for your data rate.
Bink's SDK is simple and powerful. Your game is always in control - there are no callbacks or other difficult-to-debug constructs. Using Bink is like using a codec that you wrote yourself.
Bink is completely self-contained - it needs no special system software, it needs no other audio codec, it needs no other surrounding architecture. Just one small library and you are good to go - there are no external installation or dependencies.
Bink is super, super fast. In some cases, up to 10 times faster than other modern codecs. It's fast enough to use for in-game videos, as well as cut-scene videos.
Bink uses as little memory as possible. In some cases, up to 16 MB less than other codecs. You don't have to worry about a simple video codec hogging all your memory.
Bink runs on every platform. You can use the same API and data files on 14 different platforms.
Bink runs on most game engine middleware natively. Epic supplies pre-written Bink support for the Unreal Engine, for example.
Bink has a VBR psycho-acoustic based audio codec capable up to 15:1 compression built-in. You don't need to license another codec for your audio.
Bink can play many audio tracks at once - this allows the playback of 5.1 and 7.1 sound tracks (on supported platforms) as well as optional language tracks where you can turn on and off a language based on the system setting.
Bink runs on every game platform and is customized to take advantage of each one. It uses SPUs on PS3, VMX on Xbox360, SSE 2 on x86, massive assembly optimizations on Nintendo DS, etc.
Bink includes sound support for every platform it supports. We have 16 different modules for sound playback on the various platforms.
Bink is super robust. The fact that it ships in so many games makes it better and better - it just doesn't crash. Bink can also handle bad input data - it just keeps chugging along until the input data gets better again.