| HandBrake | |
|---|---|
 | |
 HandBrake 1.0.0 running onmacOS Sierra | |
| Original author | Eric "titer" Petit |
| Developer | HandBrake Team |
| Initial release | 24 August 2003 (22 years ago) (2003-08-24) |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | Objective-C,C,C# |
| Operating system | Linux,macOS,Windows |
| Platform | x64 |
| Size | |
| Available in | English*, German*, French, Italian, Russian, others — *documentation available in the marked languages |
| Type | Transcoding |
| License | GPL-2.0-only (Third-party components have their own licenses)[2] |
| Website | handbrake |
HandBrake is afree and open-sourcetranscoder fordigital video files. It was originally developed in 2003 by Eric Petit to makerippingDVDs to adata storage device easier.[3] HandBrake'sbackend contains comparatively little original code; the program is an integration of manythird-party audio and videolibraries, bothcodecs (such asFFmpeg,x264, andx265) and other components such as videodeinterlacers (referred to as "filters"). These are collected in such a manner to make their use more effective and accessible (e.g., so that a user does not have to transcode a video's audio and visual components in separate steps, or with inaccessiblecommand-line utilities).
HandBrake clients are available forLinux,macOS, andWindows.[4]
HandBrake was originally developed by Eric Petit in 2003 as software forBeOS, before being ported to other systems.[5] He continued to be the primary developer until April 2006, when the last officialSubversion revision was committed. Petit continued to be active on the HandBrake forum for a brief period after. From May–June 2006, no one in the HandBrake community was successful in contacting Petit, and no further code changes were officially made.[3]
In September 2006, Rodney Hester and Chris Long had been independently working to extract theH.264video compression format fromApple'siPod firmware (1.2) throughreverse engineering before meeting on the HandBrake forum. Since their work was complementary, they began working together to develop an unstable, but still compilable, release of HandBrake supporting the H.264 format. Hester and Long made progress in terms of stability, functionality, andlook and feel, but it was not possible to submit their patch to the HandBrake subversion repository without authorization from Petit.[3]
Unable to submit their revisions as a successor to HandBrake, Hester created a subversion repository mirroring HandBrake's final subversion (0.7.1) on the HandBrake website and began development on top of that. Hester and Long named the new project MediaFork.[3]
On 13 February 2007, Hester and Long were contacted by Petit, who informed them of his support and encouraged them to continue developing. Plans were then made to reintegrate MediaFork as a direct successor to HandBrake. The MediaFork website and forums were moved to HandBrake's, and the next release was officially named HandBrake.[3] On 24 December 2016, after more than 13 years of development, HandBrake 1.0.0 was released.[4]
There is another transcoder, called VidCoder, that uses HandBrake as its encoding engine.[6]
SomeGPUs (including GPUs physically integrated withCPUs, referred to byAMD asAPUs) contain dedicated hardware for video encoding and decoding (Intel'sQuick Sync Video,Nvidia'sNVENC, or AMD'sVideo Coding Engine /Video Core Next). This hardware is usually provided for scenarios where quick and power-efficient compressed video is desired, such asvideoconferencing andstreaming video. It is less often used for transcoding like that performed by HandBrake because itscompression efficiency can rarely match that of an optimized software encoder for the same codec,[7] but HandBrake still provides the owners of compatible hardware (who are willing to accept the tradeoff) with the option of hardware encoding. Quick Sync was added in November 2014 with version 0.10.0, while NVENC and the VCE became supported in version 1.2.0, released in December 2018.[8] (HandBrake supports both the VCE and the newer VCN, but its interface only mentions the VCE by name, even if VCN hardware is present or a codec is being used that is too new to have VCE support.)[citation needed]
Users can customize the output by altering thebit rate, maximum file size or bit rate and sample rate via "constant quality".[9] HandBrake supports adaptivedeinterlacing,scaling,detelecine, andcropping, both automatic and manual.[2]
HandBrake supports batch encoding throughgraphical user interface (GUI) andcommand-line interface (CLI).[10] Third-party scripts and UIs exist specifically for this purpose, such asHandBrake Batch Encoder,[11]VideoScripts,[12] andBatch HandBrake.[13] All make use of the CLI to enable queueing of several files in a single directory.[citation needed]
HandBrake transcodes video and audio from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones, but it does not defeat or circumvent copy protection.[14] One form of input isDVD-Video stored on a DVD, in anISO image of a DVD, or on anydata storage device as aVIDEO_TS folder.
As with DVDs, HandBrake does not directly support the decryption ofBlu-ray discs. However, HandBrake can be used to transcode a Blu-ray disc if DRM is first removed using a third-party application.[15]
| Video formats[2]
| Audio formats[2]
|
In 2011, Preston Gralla ofPC World praised HandBrake for its feature set: "Advanced users will be pleased at the number of options." However, he criticized the usability for new users: "Note that HandBrake isn't necessarily the easiest program to use. It has a large number of options available, and there's no good explanation of what they do or how to use them. Beginners should stick with the defaults". He concluded by calling HandBrake a "solid choice" for people who are looking for a free video transcoder.[19]
In 2013,Lifehacker.com visitors voted HandBrake as the most popular video converter over four other candidates by a wide margin.[20]
