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HandBrake video transcoder reaches version 1.0.0

by Mark Tyson on 28 December 2016, 12:01

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HandBrake is a very popular and well regarded software tool for video transcoding. In the developers' own words, the program is designed for "converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs". Even if you have never had a need to transcode video, you might well have heard of HandBrake as it is a popular and key component of many a tech site's CPU benchmarking suite. For example HEXUS used HandBrake, alongside the likes of Cinebench, and wPrime to test the Intel Core i7-7700K (14nm+ Kaby Lake) sample we reviewed earlier this month.

Over Christmas the developers of Handbrake reached a key milestone. After being in development for 13 years the transcoding program has reached version 1.0.0. This multi-platform tool (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux) started off as a simple DVD ripping tool for Jean-Louis Gassée's BeOS.

As appropriate for a major milestone release, the HandBrake team has published a rather long list of highlights for version 1.0.0. There are "completely overhauled official presets" for transcoding compatibility with various devices and the web, new video encoding libraries for various formats (like VP9), and quality settings (you want x256 in 12-bit?), assembly code optimisations of various encoding routines, updated and new third party library support, a new online documentation resource for users, and many bug fixes and improvements program-wide.

You can read through the 1.0.0 release blog post notes for a fuller list of improvements and fixes plus specific fixes on your transcoding platform of choice. You can download the new program direct from the HandBrake site and the source code, if you are so inclined, via Github.



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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Excellent - Thanks for that. My version insisted it was up to date
I wonder if there's any improvement on the dreadful default aac codec? Handbrake used to include the decent FDK codec but due to some silly licensing issues they've been forced to fall back to the poor quality, experimental libav AAC codec - something which wasn't made nearly obvious enough (seriously, it's bad enough it deserves a big red flashing warning when faac is selected) and I didn't realise until I'd transcoded a few videos with my own preset and gotten rid of the originals, only to be left wondering why all the videos sounded like they'd been starved of bitrate and recorded next to the sea.

Even its creators state the following explicitly:
The native encoder is experimental and known to have serious flaws, help on improving it is welcome. Do not use it in production

So why do the Handbrake team think it's acceptable to use in production releases?

/rant
Phage
Excellent - Thanks for that. My version insisted it was up to date


Same. I was on 0.10.(something).
Although I am a video editor(a novice actually), I really don't know anything about handbrake. I've been using wondershare video converter ultimate for quite a while. Is that somehow superior?
As a long time user of Handbrake, I salute them in this milestone.