HandBrake 1.7.0 adds AMD AV1 and Nvidia NVENC AV1 encoders

HandBrake is a free and open source tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. HandBrake is a cross-platform application, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Is HandBrake a video editor?

HandBrake can crop and resize videos as well as restore old and low-quality videos, but for more powerful editing tools you can try DaVinci Resolve, Shotcut or VSDC Free Video Editor, which are great free options.

Can you use HandBrake to rip DVDs?

Yes, HandBrake can rip any DVD or Blu-Ray discs that are not copy protected.

Can HandBrake compress 4K videos?

Yes, HandBrake can compress any 4K video to reduce video size, while converting the video format at the same time.

Is Handbrake better than FFmpeg?

Both HandBrake and FFmpeg are free and open source, both are compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, and both can convert video files. The difference is that Handbrake uses a GUI (graphical user interface) to convert media files, while FFmpeg uses the command line to encode or decode video files. In fact, Handbrake uses FFmpeg internally for conversion. Another difference is that Handbrake supports DVD and Blu-Ray video as input, while FFmpeg does not. Also, Handbrake only offers MKV and MP4 output, while FFmpeg supports many video output formats.

Features

One of HandBrake’s strengths is its ability to open a wide variety of video formats. HandBrake uses FFmpeg under the hood and generally can open whatever FFmpeg will, in addition to disc-based formats like DVD and Blu-ray. HandBrake does not defeat or circumvent copy protection of any kind. It does not work with video files employing Digital Rights Management (DRM).

HandBrake’s software video encoders, video filters, audio encoders, and other processes benefit from fast CPU and memory. HandBrake’s hardware video encoders also benefit from modern GPU hardware.

Built-in Device Presets

Get started with HandBrake in seconds by choosing a profile optimised 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, VP9 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

Even more features

Title / chapter and range selection
Batch Scan and Queueing of encodes
Chapter Markers
Subtitles (VobSub, Closed Captions CEA-608, SSA, SRT)
Constant Quality or Average Bitrate Video Encoding
Support for VFR and CFR
Video Filters: Deinterlacing, Decomb, Denoise, Detelecine, Deblock, Grayscale, Cropping and scaling
Live Static and Video Preview

What’s New

General

Added Apple VideoToolbox hardware presets
Updated Creator presets
Disabled interlacing detection and removal; assume creators are working with progressive sources by default
Updated Social presets
Target higher quality and frame rate over shorter durations, without interlacing detection and removal
Better suited for modern social sharing of short live action clips and screen/game captures
Removed Email presets in favor of revised Social presets
Please stop sending videos via email or use the new Social presets
Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

Video

Added AMD VCN AV1 encoder
Added NVIDIA NVENC AV1 encoder
Added support for SVT-AV1 multi-pass ABR mode
Added support for preserving ambient viewing enviroment metadata
Added QSV Rotate and Format filters
Improved performance on arm64 / aarch64 / Apple Silicon architectures
Latest FFmpeg provides faster HEVC decoding, 30% faster bwdif filter
New SVT-AV1 assembly optimizations provide up to 4x increase in performance
Improved video conversion speed by removing unneeded frame copies for better memory efficiency
Improved Dolby Vision dynamic range metadata pass through
Supported encoders: x265 10-bit
Supported profiles and cross-compatibility IDs: 8.4, 8.1, 7.6 (base layer only, converted to 8.1), 5.0
Improved HDR10+ dynamic range metadata pass through
Supported encoders: x265 10-bit, SVT-AV1
Improved QSV support on Linux (#4958)
Updated NVENC to not use multi-pass by default; user configurable advanced option
Renamed 2-pass encode option to multi-pass (#5019)
Fixed Intel QSV encoder outputting green video in some cases (#4842, #4876)
Fixed pixel format conversion slightly altering colors when using a 10-bit hardware encoder (#5011)
Fixed scan failures by using swscale instead of zscale when source resolution is not mod 2
Fixed incorrect PAR when reading from an anamorphic AV1 video track
Removed an artificial bitrate limit on VP9 CQ mode

Command line interface

Renamed –two-pass to –multi-pass and –no-two-pass to –no-multi-pass, removed -2 (#5019)
Fixed automatic cropping enabled despite using preset with cropping disabled (#5055)

Audio

Fixed low volume level when downmixing ac3 and eac3
Fixed left-only and right-only mono mixdowns (#3533, #5054)

Subtitles

Fixed locale settings potentially causing incorrect decimal separator in SSA headers
Fixed a potential issue affecting zero-duration subtitles

Build system

Added Meson build system for the Linux GUI

Third-party libraries

New libraries
libdovi 3.2.0 (Dolby Vision dynamic range metadata)

Updated libraries

AMF 1.4.30 (AMD VCN video encoding)
FFmpeg 6.1 (decoding and filters)
FreeType 2.13.2 (subtitles)
Fribidi 1.0.13 (subtitles)
HarfBuzz 8.2.2 (subtitles)
libass 0.17.1 (subtitles)
libdav1d 1.3.0 (AV1 video decoding)
liblzma (xz) 5.4.5 (LZMA video decoding, e.g. TIFF)
libopus 1.4 (Opus audio encoding)
libjpeg-turbo 3.0.1 (preview image compression)
libvpx 1.13.1 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
libxml 2.11.5 (general)
oneVPL 2023.3.1 (Intel QSV video encoding/decoding)
SVT-AV1 1.7 (AV1 video encoding)
x264 164 r3107 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
x265 r12776 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
zimg 3.0.5 (color conversion)
zlib 1.3 (general)

Linux

Added drag and drop support for video scanning
Added support for native file choosers via xdg-desktop-portal
Added Queue> Add All menu option
Added XML chapter import and export
Added bit depth and HDR information to video summary
Added option to pause encoding when switching to battery power or when power save mode is activated
Added automatic file naming options: {codec} {bit-depth} {width} {height} {modification-date} {modification-time}
Updated Queue, Activity, and Presets windows to no longer float on top of the main window
Updated existing translations
Removed obsolete update checker
Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

Mac

Added support for drag and drop of multiple files at once
Added support for selecting multiple files at once in the Open Source dialog
Added support for recursive folder scanning in the Open Source dialog
Added support for VideoToolbox H.265/HEVC, H.264/AVC, ProRes, and VP9 hardware decoders on macOS 13 and later
Enable/disable in the Preferences> Advanced tab always or full path only
Using hardware decoders on modern devices may decrease CPU usage and thus speed up some filters and encoding
Added GPU accelerated Crop & Scale, Rotate, Pad, Yadif, Bwdif, Chroma Smooth, Unsharp, Lasharp, Grayscale filters
Added “Same as source” destination option that automatically sets the destination path to the source path
Improved SVT-AV1 encoding performance by up to 4x on Apple Silicon Macs
Improved automatic file naming Preferences UI and added new options: {width} {height} {quality_type} {encoder_bit_depth} {modification-time} {modification-date} {codec} {encoder} {encoder_bit_depth} {preset}
Improved handling of security scoped bookmarks
Fixed Chroma Smooth tune options
Fixed Deblock Filter custom string field
Fixed an issue that prevented the VideoToolbox “speed” preset from being used
Fixed the file size display on the queue statistics window when file size info is not available
Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
Added new translations
Korean (ï¿½*ï¿½êµï¿½-‘)
Bulgarian (ï¿½’ÑÐ»Ð³Ð°ÑÑÐºÐ¸)
Updated existing translations

Windows

Added support for drag and drop of multiple files at once
Added support for selecting multiple files at once in the Open Source dialog
Added support for recursive folder scanning in the Open Source dialog
Enable/disable in Preferences> Advanced
Added support for excluding file extensions when opening files in batch mode
Default exclusions are common image, subtitles, and text file extensions; edit list in Preferences> Advanced
Improved Preview window native video playback to support most containers and codecs
Modern codec support requires Microsoft Codec Packs from the Microsoft Store
Improved automatic file naming Preferences UI and added new options: {width} {height} {quality_type} {encoder_bit_depth} {modification-time} {modification-date} {encoder} {encoder_bit_depth} {preset}
Improved Queue window UI to optionally show additional status information on the left progress panel
Improved Presets panel
Manage Presets button replaced with a menu of discrete options for quicker access to functionality
Added an option to display the description for the selected preset
Added the ability to clone a preset (create a new preset based on an existing one)
Improved Add Selection window to make sorting feature more discoverable
Improved Process Isolation reliability
Fixed automatic file naming when using physical drive sources (#4859)
Fixed Title Specific Scan for physical drive sources (#4921)
Fixed an potential issue that could cause an unmodified preset to display as “modified” (#4909, #4908)
Fixed an potential issue where changes to queue order were not retained (#4922)
Fixed an Audio tab issue where using a non-fallback encoder could lead to duplicated tracks (#5012)
Fixed an issue where swapping graphics cards might cause hardware presets to be incorrectly shown as disabled
Fixed a potential crash on startup related to Windows Notifications Service failures (#5097)
Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
Added new translations
Czech (Äesky) (partially complete)
Greek (ΕλληνικÎ¬) (partially complete)
Estonian (Eesti) (partially complete)
Basque (Euskara)
Finnish (Suomi) (partially complete)
Updated existing translations