HandBrake debuts AV1 encoding integration

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 AV1 video encoding
• Added high bit depth and color depth support to various encoders and filters
• Added 4K AV1 General, QSV (Hardware), and MKV (Matroska) presets
• Added 4K HEVC General presets and updated related presets to use similar encoder settings
• Revised Web presets and renamed to Creator, Email, and Social
• Removed VP8 presets
  • The VP8 video encoder is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release
  • Related, the Theora encoder is long deprecated and will be removed in a future release
• Miscellaneous other preset revisions

Video

• Added SVT-AV1 (software) and Intel QSV AV1 (hardware) video encoders
• Added VP9 10-bit encoder
• Added NVENC HEVC 10-bit encoder
• Added VCN HEVC 10-bit encoder
• Added H.264 levels 6, 6.1, and 6.2 for the x264 encoder
• Added H.264/H.265 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 profiles for the x264 and x265 encoders
• Added H.265 4:2:2 profile for VideoToolbox encoder on Apple Silicon
• Added support for Intel Deep Link Hyper Encode (leverage multiple QSV media engines to increase performance)
• Fixed longstanding issue where slowest NVENC encoder preset caused encoding failures
• Removed support for Intel CPUs older than 6th generation (Skylake) when using Intel Quick Sync Video

Filters

• Added Bwdif deinterlace filter
• Improved Autocrop filter algorithm
  • Higher accuracy on mixed aspect ratio content, e.g. both letterbox and full frame pictures
• Improved video scaling performance on Apple Silicon and ARM-based systems
  • Use zscale (zimg) by default, falling back to swscale where necessary
• Improved multithread performance (slightly) for the following filters on high core count systems
  • Comb Detect
  • Decomb
  • Denoise
  • NLMeans
• Updated the following filters to support higher than 8-bit content and 4:2:2/4:4:4 chroma subsampling
  • Detelecine
  • Comb Detect
  • Decomb
  • Grayscale
  • Denoise
  • NLMeans
  • HQDN3D
  • Chroma Smooth
  • Sharpen
  • UnSharp
  • LapSharp

Build system

• Added support for building for OpenBSD
• Added –cpu configure parameter to enable building for native CPU architecture
• Added –lto configure parameter to enable link time optimization
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

Third-party libraries

• Updated libraries
  • AMF 1.4.24 (AMD VCN encoding)
  • FFmpeg 5.1.2 (decoding and filters)
  • FreeType 2.12.1 (subtitles)
  • Fribidi 1.0.12 (subtitles)
  • HarfBuzz 4.4.1 (subtitles)
  • libass 0.16.0 (subtitles)
  • libbluray 1.3.4 (Blu-ray decoding)
  • libdav1d 1.0.0 (AV1 decoding)
  • libdvdread 6.1.3 (DVD decoding)
  • liblzma (xz) 5.2.6 (LZMA video decoding, e.g. TIFF)
  • libjpeg-turbo 2.1.4 (preview image compression)
  • libspeex 1.2.1 (Speex audio decoding)
  • libvpx 1.12.0 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • libxml 2.10.3 (general)
  • oneVPL 2023.1.0 (Intel QSV encoding/decoding)
  • x264 164 r3100 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
  • x265 r12747 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
  • zimg 3.0.4 (color conversion)
• New libraries
  • SVT-AV1 1.4.1 (AV1 encoding)

Linux

• Added many quality of life improvements contributed by community members
• Improved parity with the Mac and Windows graphical interfaces
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
• Updated translations
• Added new translations
  • Bulgarian (‘ългарски)
  • Finnish (Suomi)
  • Georgian (ქარ-ული)

Mac

• Added Quick Look support to the queue
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
• Updated translations
• Added Japanese translation

Windows

• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
• Updated all translations
• Added new translations
  • Bulgarian (‘ългарски)
  • Dutch (Nederlands)
  • Polish (Polski)