HandBrake goes 64-bit, adds many improvements

After a long wait, Handbrake .94 has finally been released.  Don't let the …

After a year without any updates, the developers responsible for the popular video transcoder Handbrake have released version 0.9.4 of the open-source software.  With such a small change in the version number, it would be easy to assume that there isn't much new in this version, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth.  In total, there have been over 1,000 changes since 0.9.3 and, while they might not all be life-changing, many of them make for a better user experience. 

First, and perhaps most importantly, the new version incorporates improved code from the x264 project that, according to the release notes, makes for speedier encoding, smaller files sizes, and better picture quality.  Additionally, 0.9.4 brings 64-bit support, which also provides 10 percent faster encodes.  Ten percent may not seem like much, but when you are ripping a huge DVD library, it adds up in a hurry.  Users can now include subtitles in their rips, which can be turned on and off (prior to this version, it was all or nothing).  Live preview is also a very welcome addition to the software, as it allows a user to find out what their video will look like given specific compression settings. 

Unfortunately, you can't please all the people all the time.  There are some features of the software that have been eliminated, and these may rub some people the wrong way.  First, some of the presets have been pulled—namely those for the PSP, PS3, and Xbox.  That doesn't mean you wont be able to get video encoded with Handbrake to play on these devices, just that there is no specific preset to do so.  According to the release notes, these didn't always work anyway—instead, the "normal" preset should work just fine.  If H.264 isn't for you, though, we have bad news: AVI, OGG/OGM, and XviD support have all been stripped from the release. 

There aren't many obvious UI enhancements in the Mac OS version; most improvements lie under the hood and, frankly, that's fine with us.  While it doesn't offer the most intuitive interface—the simplified preset options help some—we prefer to have a solid foundation before major UI enhancements anyway. 

As with version 0.9.3, you still need to have VLC installed to rip video from a DVD.  Happy encoding, and hopefully it won't be another year before the next release. 

Oh well, that 64-bit for Mac OS X, so that must amount to about 10% of the actual users of this application which is quite sad.  Anyway, the program seems to have trimed down some unnecessary stuff, outdated video and sound formats.  It simplifies the process so this release is still a good one. 

Originally posted by Mark Havel:Oh well, that 64-bit for Mac OS X, so that must amount to about 10% of the actual users of this application which is quite sad.  Anyway, the program seems to have trimed down some unnecessary stuff, outdated video and sound formats.  It simplifies the process so this release is still a good one. 

First of all, HandBrake has always been quite Mac centric.  Of course they support other platforms.  But it's practically the only good and free solution for ripping DVDs and transcoding files on the Mac.  There's like dozens of programs on the windows platform, but on the Mac it's the only good one.  So Mac users are overrepresented users of HandBrake, because it's the only ripping solution that really values the Mac.  Also I think most of the developers are Mac users, so no wonder ...

After a year without any updates, the developers responsible for the poplar video transcoder Handbrake have released version .94 of the open-source software. 

What is poplar video?  Is that like a video shown on a tree?  You guys REALLY need a proofreader. 

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Originally posted by Mark Havel:Anyway, the program seems to have trimed down some unnecessary stuff, outdated video and sound formats.  It simplifies the process so this release is still a good one. 

Xvid is still very popular.  AVI is possibly the most popular container format out there.  Did anyone ever use OGG?  Hard to imagine why that was there in the first place.  I can understand the removal of those presets -- they were useless anyway. 

Also be sure to match your bitness of Handbrake with VLC - 32b Handbrake with 32b VLC, or 64b HB with 64b VLC 1.0.2 (note that 64b VLC builds are still buggy and unstable, its being worked on but we don't know when it'll be 100%, you can still use Fairmount or some other tool to rip DVDs beforehand). 

Originally posted by NOVAExit:Somehow, I don't think Vista or Win 7 come with the integrated ability to strip away the DRM-Bonanza on Bluray video files so they can be reprocessed.  I'm sure I would have heard about that if it did. 

I don't know, I don't back up my Blu-Rays.  I was under the impression that there is software for that already, though (AnyDVD HD?). 

Say..... this won't work with 64-bit PPC by any chance will it?  I could really use a speed boost because suffice to say it's pretty painful to encode anything more than a HVGA movie with an iMac G5.  This doesn't use OpenCL or Grand Central Dispatch yet does it?  Not that I could use it but it'd be nice to know if the developers have Snow Leopard-ified this yet. 

Originally posted by GRevolution:Say..... this won't work with 64-bit PPC by any chance will it?  I could really use a speed boost because suffice to say it's pretty painful to encode anything more than a HVGA movie with an iMac G5.  This doesn't use OpenCL or Grand Central Dispatch yet does it?  Not that I could use it but it'd be nice to know if the developers have Snow Leopard-ified this yet. 

All 3 of your questions are addressed on Handbrake's web site:1.  PPCs don't get the 10% speed boost from 64-bitness so you should stick with 32-bit.2.  OpenCL isn't used because x264 (the 3rd party library that Handbrake uses to encode H.264) doesn't use it3.  Handbrake is already multithreaded so it wouldn't benefit from Grand Central

Originally posted by NOVAExit:Somehow, I don't think Vista or Win 7 come with the integrated ability to strip away the DRM-Bonanza on Bluray video files so they can be reprocessed.  I'm sure I would have heard about that if it did. 

I don't know, I don't back up my Blu-Rays.  I was under the impression that there is software for that already, though (AnyDVD HD?). 

AnyDVD HD works just fine; I've done quite a few backups of my Blu-Ray movies using it. 

That being said, I haven't had good luck with encoding m2ts files in Handbrake before; maybe I'll have to download 0.9.4 and see how it goes in that.  Can't speak personally on Mac stuff, but I've always used meGUI to convert Blu-Ray m2ts files to MKV, MP4, or AVI. 

First of all, HandBrake has always been quite Mac centric.  Of course they support other platforms.  But it's practically the only good and free solution for ripping DVDs and transcoding files on the Mac. 

Originally posted by Mark Havel:Oh well, that 64-bit for Mac OS X, so that must amount to about 10% of the actual users of this application which is quite sad. 

If you are referring to market share, keep in mind that it is not uniform.  The more you go into creative fields, the higher the percentage goes.  Chances are the Mac user base of Handbrake is far higher than 10%, in the same way that Photoshop sales are said to be about 50/50, not 10/90.  In at least a couple of coffee shops and libraries in town, if you walked in and looked at the laptops you'd swear Apple ruled the world. 

If x264 isn't for you, we have bad news: AVI, OGG/OGM, and XviD support have all been striped from the release. 

This line of the article is so full of wrong, I don't know where to begin. 

AVI is a container, not a codec, that can contain x264 encoded data.  The now default MP4 container in Handbrake supports x264 and MPEG-4 via FFmpeg (which is pretty much Xvid). 

The real impact here is for those using Handbrake to digitize DVDs for a poor-man's media player.  Older device aren't likely to support MP4 and those that do aren't going to support MP4 with x264.  Luckily, my old device supports MP4 with FFmpeg, so it's not an issue - but I'm likely the exception. 

Originally posted by supafreak:good news!  but where is my support for blu ray?  I would gladly pay for it! 

[troll]In any Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC w/ HDCP-compliant hardware and BD-Rom drive, available just about everywhere.[/troll]

Running Vista 64 w/ a BD-ROM drive.  I can rip it fine to disk using AnyDVD HD and Ripbot but not with Handbrake.  Will try again when I get home but I haven't been able to select the BR disc as a source. 

MPEG4 AVC doesn't have wide support in all of the best video transcoders we alread love, like Handbrake.  This makes finding a free and easy transcoding solution a little tougher, but thankfully RipBot264 seems competent. 

It so far is a pain in the ass compared to just using AnyDVD + Handbrake.  I love handbrake and would love to use just that for all my encoding needs.  Like I said if there is a solution out there for pay or not that behaves the way Handbrake does with normal DVD's I have my money ready to buy. 

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Originally posted by madmikefisk:

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Originally posted by daemonios:

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Originally posted by NOVAExit:Somehow, I don't think Vista or Win 7 come with the integrated ability to strip away the DRM-Bonanza on Bluray video files so they can be reprocessed.  I'm sure I would have heard about that if it did. 

I don't know, I don't back up my Blu-Rays.  I was under the impression that there is software for that already, though (AnyDVD HD?). 

AnyDVD HD works just fine; I've done quite a few backups of my Blu-Ray movies using it. 

That being said, I haven't had good luck with encoding m2ts files in Handbrake before; maybe I'll have to download 0.9.4 and see how it goes in that.  Can't speak personally on Mac stuff, but I've always used meGUI to convert Blu-Ray m2ts files to MKV, MP4, or AVI. 

So you are ripping to disk, then using meGUI to transcode to MKV, etc?  Still 2 steps, hoping for 1 (with AnyDVD HD)!  I have only tried one BR so far so maybe I am missing something.  I just want to avoid ripping to disk uncompressed if I can go straight to something like MP4/MKV. 

Originally posted by Mark Havel:Oh well, that 64-bit for Mac OS X, so that must amount to about 10% of the actual users of this application which is quite sad.  Anyway, the program seems to have trimed down some unnecessary stuff, outdated video and sound formats.  It simplifies the process so this release is still a good one. 

Just a note for Windows users, I had to actually load my DVD with VLC, and at least access a menu before Handbrake could scan it.  Otherwise, Handbrake would just endlessly scan the DVD with errors and had to be killed off in the task manager.  I'm still on XP, so YMMV. 

EDIT: Scratch that, Handbrake can't seem to handle DVD-to-disk encoding without stuttering and choking all over the place.  Back to WinX. Handbrake has been pretty disappointing over the years, none of its barely-more-than-basic features seem to work 100%. 

Originally posted by doctorfrog:Just a note for Windows users, I had to actually load my DVD with VLC, and at least access a menu before Handbrake could scan it.  Otherwise, Handbrake would just endlessly scan the DVD with errors and had to be killed off in the task manager.  I'm still on XP, so YMMV. 

I'm on Win7 and as mentioned before I didn't even have to install VLC. 

Fairmount is also from Metakine and is a free ripper.  It works like AnyDVD in that you mount the disc and drag the Video-TS file to wherever you want it.  DVD Remaster is like DVD2One.  There is also RipIt, Mac the Ripper, and probably have a dozen other ripping/burning solutions for the Mac. 

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Originally posted by Janne:

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Originally posted by mmnw:

First of all, HandBrake has always been quite Mac centric.  Of course they support other platforms.  But it's practically the only good and free solution for ripping DVDs and transcoding files on the Mac. 

Originally posted by doctorfrog:EDIT: Scratch that, Handbrake can't seem to handle DVD-to-disk encoding without stuttering and choking all over the place.  Back to WinX. Handbrake has been pretty disappointing over the years, none of its barely-more-than-basic features seem to work 100%. 

When I had windows and 0.9.3 (late last year), it had no problem doing DVD to HDD.  Is your DVD drive IDE?  Is it in PIO mode? 

I should have elaborated.  When I said, "Back to WinX," I meant that WinX does actually work, without VLC, and without stuttering.  WinX will continue to be my go-to app for quick and dirty encodes. 

I also just checked, no PIO mode, either. 

Handbrake still has its uses.  I trust its focus on quality encodes for when I want to archive something, but I'm still going to use other solutions for other

Last release, transcoding didn't work a bit.  Now, direct from DVD ripping doesn't work, and VLC-enabled CSS decoding doesn't work without a minor workaround.  Handbrake's encoding appears solid, but every time I read about a new feature, it usually doesn't work quite right, or at all.  I don't believe the fact that it's a Mac-originated app is a sufficient excuse, I use other cross-platform apps all the time that work wonderfully (and that also see releases more frequently than once per year). 

Don't think I'm all dark clouds on the subject, the basic feature set is solid, and as I said before, the focus on encoding quality is admirable.  It just would be nice if all the handy little features I'm supposed to be excited about also worked. 

Originally posted by [S]Replicant:Did anyone ever use OGG?  Hard to imagine why that was there in the first place.  I can understand the removal of those presets -- they were useless anyway. 

Ogg Theora is the new format in HTML5 that is already supported by Firefox.  It's the only free video solution that exists and lately, the quality has actually become quite decent.  I can understand now having support for it until now, but right now would actually be a good time to add support for it. 

Originally posted by snookie:Fairmount is also from Metakine and is a free ripper.  It works like AnyDVD in that you mount the disc and drag the Video-TS file to wherever you want it.  DVD Remaster is like DVD2One.  There is also RipIt, Mac the Ripper, and probably have a dozen other ripping/burning solutions for the Mac. 

I have tried AnyDVD and Mac the Ripper, don't know about the others.  And while some of these solutions cost money, I still stand by my opinion that HandBrake is the best of them all.  And it's free. 

Of course there are other solutions, but you can't deny HandBrake gives best value.  And if you look at the windows ecosystem you will find there's way more solutions, than on the Mac.  Free and non-free.  There's even more on the windows side.  I can't speak for other platforms, but I stand by my opinion that HandBrake is the best ripping and encoding solution for the Mac. 

If x264 isn't for you, we have bad news: AVI, OGG/OGM, and XviD support have all been striped from the release. 

This might make sense from a developer's point of view: fewer stuff to support = easier to code. 

But you have to question their priorities.  AVI containers and the XviD codec is like the MP3 of video formats. 

Can you imagine a music app that does not support MP3 in favor of AAC because "MP3 is old tech"?  this is what they basically done with this release Handbrake. 

I wonder who's going to use Handbrake now that's about as useful as WinAMP or iTunes without MP3 support. 

Oh, well, there's always FFMpegX...

I understand it (have friends who used it).  Personally, though, the size/quality difference is so big I want nothing to do with XviD. It takes something like two gigs of space just to get something watchable when I can do fine with half that and x264. 

If x264 isn't for you, we have bad news: AVI, OGG/OGM, and XviD support have all been striped from the release. 

This might make sense from a developer's point of view: fewer stuff to support = easier to code. 

But you have to question their priorities.  AVI containers and the XviD codec is like the MP3 of video formats. 

Can you imagine a music app that does not support MP3 in favor of AAC because "MP3 is old tech"?  this is what they basically done with this release Handbrake. 

I wonder who's going to use Handbrake now that's about as useful as WinAMP or iTunes without MP3 support. 

Oh, well, there's always FFMpegX...

If you pick the right horse to begin with this isn't a problem.  Handbrake devs are focused on what's best and on what they can do best, not what's most popular with somebody's 10 year old computer, sorry.  At some point you either let go of crap containers like AVI or spend your life chasing your tail supporting it. 

Originally posted by deckeda:If you pick the right horse to begin with this isn't a problem.  Handbrake devs are focused on what's best and on what they can do best, not what's most popular with somebody's 10 year old computer, sorry.  At some point you either let go of crap containers like AVI or spend your life chasing your tail supporting it. 

Also, if you don't like the priorities that the developers chose, given their limited resources, either join the project and help out or choose something that suits you, if you can find it.  I know this sounds harsh, but sacrifices are going to be made somewhere, so choices are going to be made on what the developers feel their primary market is looking for. 

Originally posted by orionxl:MKV and MP4 are the only formats that matter anymore.  nuff said. 

Seriously, would you even consider buying a standalone player that didn't support both of these containers? 

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I've been using handbrake since the 0.8.0 days, and I'm very pleased with what I see now.  The only thing missing that I'd love to have is a 5.1 HE-AAC encoder... Unfortunately, all current solutions are proprietary so I know it's unlikely we'll see one anytime soon. 

The forum admins on the Handbrake forum (which include the program's author) are generally pretty nazi so if you ask questions, be prepared to have them ream your ass and talk down to you.  Maybe it's a French thing, but they have been doing it fairly consistently over the years.