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HandBrake Changelog

What's new in HandBrake 1.7.3

Feb 12, 2024
  • ALL PLATFORMS:
  • General:
  • Fixed formatting leading zeros for timestamps in logs
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Video:
  • Fixed an issue that could potentially cause incorrect detection of source FPS value (#5677)
  • Subtitles:
  • Fixed tx3g to SSA subtitles conversion
  • Linux:
  • Fixed the "All Files" open file dialog filter to really show all files
  • Fixed an issue where adding a new default audio track automatically set the gain to -20 dB
  • Mac:
  • Fixed a regression introduced in HandBrake 1.7.2 by the workaround for VideoToolbox crashes on Sonoma
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Windows:
  • Improved security hardening of loading of DLL files within libhb by limiting search scope (#5724)
  • Improved keyboard navigation on Chapters tab (#5679)
  • Fixed an issue that could cause encodes to appear stalled when process isolation is turned on
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent QSV decode from being used when a system also has a non-Intel GPU
  • Fixed an issue where the drive label was not always correctly detected (#5711)
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.7.2 (Jan 3, 2024)

  • Video:
  • Improved automatic selection of Dolby Vision Level
  • Fixed an issue in AMD VCN, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, NVIDIA NVENC, and VP9 encoders that could cause the creation of an excessive number of keyframes (#5530)
  • Fixed unintentional automatic pass through of closed caption side data when using NVIDIA NVENC encoder
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Linux:
  • Improved performance by removing duplicate graphic assets and reducing file size
  • Fixed Flatpak file chooser opening home directory instead of the previously selected directory
  • Fixed last item in the queue sometimes having the wrong destination path
  • Fixed some memory leaks in the graphical interface
  • Mac:
  • Added a workaround to prevent a system crash when using VideoToolbox encoders with macOS 14 Sonoma on Apple Silicon Ultra
  • Added a workaround to prevent issues decoding H.264 video by disabling VideoToolbox hardware decoding for Level 6.1 and 6.2
  • Fixed a crash opening an empty folder
  • Windows:
  • Added Automation Properties to some controls on the audio tab to assist screen readers
  • Fixed NVIDIA NVDEC option being ignored (#5569)
  • Fixed startup crash related to theme loading (#5567)
  • Fixed subtitle language order not being honoured (#5590)

New in HandBrake 1.7.1 (Nov 23, 2023)

  • Video:
  • Fixed Decomb filter producing corrupted frames with 10-bit depth or higher source (#5518)
  • Fixed a potential crash when using the Comb Detect filter on an RGB source
  • Fixed Intel QSV devices enumeration where devices from other vendors are present (#5317, #5177)
  • Mac:
  • Fixed an issue opening EyeTV sources (#5514)

New in HandBrake 1.7.0 (Nov 23, 2023)

  • Drag and drop support, native file chooser, chapter import and export, Dolby Vision metadata passthrough, and various user interface improvements.

New in HandBrake 1.6.1 (Jan 24, 2023)

  • UPGRADE NOTICE:
  • Before updating HandBrake, please make sure there are no pending encodes in the queue, and be sure to make a backup of any custom presets and app preferences you have, as they may not be compatible with newer versions.
  • Windows users, please make sure to install Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime version 6.0.x. Read carefully: you need the DESKTOP runtime. You must install .NET 6 even if you have installed .NET 7.
  • HandBrake 1.6.1:
  • All platforms:
  • Video:
  • Fixed a potential decoder issue that could cause desync with audio (#4788, #4789)
  • Command line interface
  • Fixed inability to name external subtitles tracks using --subname
  • Linux:
  • Fixed translations missing updates as part of 1.6.0 (#4790)
  • Bulgarian (Български)
  • Corsican (Corsu)
  • Dutch (Nederlands)
  • German (Deutsch)
  • Spanish (Español)
  • Fixed (partially) Intel QSV hardware detection (#4768)
  • Fixed a potential crash when canceling an Intel QSV encode (#4341)
  • Fixed building with -Werror=format-security by adding missing format strings where needed

New in HandBrake 1.6.0 (Jan 2, 2023)

  • UPGRADE NOTICE:
  • Before updating HandBrake, please make sure there are no pending encodes in the queue, and be sure to make a backup of any custom presets and app preferences you have, as they may not be compatible with newer versions.
  • Windows users, please make sure to install Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime version 6.0.x. Read carefully: you need the DESKTOP runtime. You must install .NET 6 even if you have installed .NET 7.
  • HandBrake 1.6.0:
  • ALL PLATFORMS:
  • 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 (Български)
  • Finnish (Suomi)
  • Georgian (ქართული)

New in HandBrake 1.5.1 (Jan 11, 2022)

  • This is a rebuild of HandBrake 1.5.0 with no functional changes.
  • Build system:
  • Fixed an issue with the source tarball that broke Flathub Builds.
  • Windows:
  • The Windows UI is now .NET 6.0 only. (.NET 5.0 is no longer additionally required)

New in HandBrake 1.5.0 (Jan 10, 2022)

  • Upgrade Notice:
  • Before updating HandBrake, please make sure there are no pending encodes in the queue, and be sure to make a backup of any custom presets and app preferences you have, as they may not be compatible with newer versions.
  • Windows users, please make sure to install Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime version 6.0.0 or later. Read carefully: you need the DESKTOP runtime.
  • Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime version 5.0.0 or later is also required. (This dependency will be removed in HandBrake 1.5.1)
  • HandBrake 1.5.0 - ALL PLATFORMS:
  • Video:
  • Fixed an issue on older Intel CPUs causing the CLI to fail to initialize (#3924)
  • Updated video engine to preserve chroma sample location information
  • Updated Intel Quick Sync to use the Intel oneAPI Video Processing Library (oneVPL)
  • Audio:
  • Fixed MP2 audio sources not utilizing the fallback encoder when pass through is disabled (#3863)
  • Fixed FFmpeg AAC audio encoder quality mode scale range (#1295)
  • Subtitles:
  • Fixed an issue with captions pass through durations (#3764)
  • Build system:
  • Fixed multiple potential race conditions in Flatpak build process
  • Updated mac-toolchain-build script with newer tool versions
  • Third-party libraries
  • Updated libraries:
  • FFmpeg 4.4.1 (decoding and filters)
  • FreeType 2.11.1 (subtitles)
  • Fribidi 1.0.11 (subtitles)
  • HarfBuzz 3.1.2 (subtitles)
  • Jansson 2.14 (JSON architecture)
  • libass 0.15.2 (subtitles)
  • libdav1d 0.9.2 (AV1 decoding)
  • libjpeg-turbo 2.1.2 (preview image compression)
  • libogg 1.3.5 (Xiph codecs support)
  • libvpx 1.11.0 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • zimg 3.0.3 (color conversion)
  • Linux:
  • Fixed a filter settings issue that resulted in incorrect filters being added to jobs (#3910)
  • Updated Intel QSV Flatpak plugin to use Intel MediaSDK 21.3.5
  • Updated Flatpak dependencies
  • Freedesktop Platform 21.08
  • GNOME 41:
  • Added Corsican (Corsu) translation
  • Updated translations:
  • Simplified Chinese (简体中文)
  • Dutch (Nederlands)
  • French (Français)
  • Korean (한국어)
  • Spanish (Español)
  • Swedish (Svenska)

New in HandBrake 1.4.2 (Oct 4, 2021)

  • General:
  • Improvements and fixes around colour bit-depth handling.
  • Fixed various issues where incorrect colour information could be written during muxing.
  • Hardware Encoding:
  • Fixed corrupted video output when decoding HDR10 content with QuickSync
  • Subtitles:
  • Fixed a slight subtitle colour shift issue when using libass

New in HandBrake 1.4.1 (Sep 9, 2021)

  • General:
  • Fixed a crash when using "Align AV" on Intel based systems. (#3683)
  • Fixed a crash when reading certain DVD's with missing VOB files
  • Hardware Encoding:
  • Fixed an issue with QuickSync accelerated Crop/Scale generating incorrect aspect ratios (#3236)
  • Fixed a crash after a subtitle scan when using the QuickSync encoder. (#3741)
  • Subtitles:
  • Backport some libass patches which should correct some issues with font and font-weight selections. (#3736)
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent 3rd party software handling HandBrake files with dvb subtitles.
  • Command line interface:
  • Fixed a regression that prevented upscaling when using -w and -h (#3746)
  • Linux:
  • Added: flatpak permission to show bookmarks in file dialogs (#3748)

New in HandBrake 1.3.1 (Jan 6, 2020)

  • This release focuses on fixing a number of bugs and issues with the 1.3.0 release.

New in HandBrake 1.3.0 (Nov 11, 2019)

  • General:
  • HandBrake is now translated into many more languages
  • Redesigned queue UI
  • Removed Windows Mobile presets. See the list of compatible replacements on GitHub
  • Improved log output by silencing many lines at standard log level
  • Improved quality of Gmail presets slightly
  • Added Playstation 2160p60 4K Surround preset (supports PS4 Pro)
  • Added Discord and Discord Nitro presets
  • Video:
  • Updated Intel Quick Sync Video to use Direct3D 11 API
  • Updated minimum title scan duration to only apply to disc-based sources like Blu-ray and DVD
  • Improved detection of MPEG-1 video in program streams
  • Improved interface to FFmpeg avfilter and color handling
  • Improved Nvidia NVENC constant quality encoding slightly by not setting qmin and qmax
  • Replaced pp7 Deblock filter with FFmpeg Deblock filter
  • Added support for reading Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (without copy protection)
  • Added support for reading AV1 via libdav1d
  • Added encoding to WebM container format
  • Added Chroma Smooth filter (CLI only)
  • Added zero-copy path for Intel QSV encoding removed in a previous release
  • Added support for Intel QSV low power encoding (lowpower=1)
  • Added support for AMD VCE encoding on Linux via Vulkan
  • Added ability to select x265 encoder level and Fast Decode tune
  • Audio:
  • Updated audio resampling code to use FFmpeg swresample instead of libsamplerate
  • Added source audio bit rate to tracks list
  • Added ability to select unknown language tracks
  • Added automatic track name pass through
  • Subtitles:
  • Added ability to import external SSA/ASS subtitles
  • Added ability to select unknown language tracks
  • Added automatic track name pass through
  • Command line interface:
  • Added additional unit aliases to --start-at and --stop-at, notably seconds and frames
  • Build system:
  • HandBrake now builds with libnuma on Linux
  • Fixed Python bytestrings causing newlines to be ignored in build output
  • Fixed Xcode ignoring make jobs parameter and utilizing all CPU cores (macOS only)
  • Updated configure to enable most hardware encoders by default where appropriate by platform
  • Updated all scripts for compatibility with Python 3
  • Updated mac-toolchain-build script with newer tool versions many improvements
  • Updated mingw-w64-build script with mingw-w64 6.0.0, GCC 9.2, and many improvements
  • Improved compatibility with GCC 9 and recent Clang releases
  • Improved compatibility with recent Xcode releases (macOS only)
  • Improved host/build semantics
  • Improved namespace isolation
  • Improved handling of all options passed to configure
  • Improved configure help output
  • Improved detection of missing executable dependencies during configure
  • Added support for building on NetBSD
  • Added --harden configure parameter to enable buffer overflow protections
  • Added --sandbox configure parameter to enable sandbox build target on macOS
  • Added --enable-gtk4 configure parameter to build with GTK 4 instead of GTK 3
  • Added summary of build options to configure output
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Third-party libraries:
  • Removed libraries
  • libsamplerate (audio resampling)
  • Updated libraries:
  • AMF 1.4.9 (AMD VCE encoding)
  • bzip2 1.0.8 (general)
  • FDK AAC 2.0.1 (AAC audio encoding, must compile from source)
  • FFmpeg 4.2.1 (decoding and filters)
  • FreeType 2.10.1 (subtitles)
  • Fribidi 1.0.7 (subtitles)
  • HarfBuzz 2.6.4 (subtitles)
  • Jansson 2.12 (JSON architecture)
  • libbluray 1.1.2 (Blu-ray decoding)
  • libdav1d 0.5.1 (AV1 decoding)
  • libdvdnav 6.0.1 (DVD decoding)
  • libdvdread 6.0.2 (DVD decoding)
  • libiconv 1.16 (character encoding support)
  • libmfx (Intel QSV support)
  • libogg 1.3.4 (Xiph codecs support)
  • libopus 1.3.1 (Opus audio encoding)
  • libvorbis 1.3.6 (Vorbis audio encoding)
  • libvpx 1.8.1 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • libxml2 2.9.9 (general)
  • nv-codec-headers 9.0.18.1 (Nvidia NVENC encoding)
  • x265 3.2.1 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
  • Linux:
  • Fixed slider control not showing complete values
  • Updated translations (levels of completeness vary):
  • Czech
  • Chinese
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Norwegian
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Thai
  • Added translations (levels of completeness vary):
  • Afrikaans
  • Basque
  • Croatian
  • Dutch
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Slovak
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Added Intel QSV support to Flatpak (requires additional plugin installation)
  • Added ability to double-click to edit audio track settings
  • Added options to open encode log and log directory to actions menu on queue window
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.2.0 (Jan 8, 2019)

  • All platforms:
  • General:
  • - Switched core decoding library from Libav to FFmpeg
  • - Fixes numerous sources previously unreadable or otherwise broken
  • - Facilitates a number of the improvements and features in this release and planned for the future
  • - Removed deprecated Legacy presets
  • - See the list of compatible replacements on GitHub
  • - Updated official presets to use stereo instead of DPL2 mixdown
  • - Avoids potential spatial positioning issues with the current DPL2 algorithm and wide pans in source material
  • - Limited in impact since DPL2 decoding has not been in widespread use for years
  • - Updated official presets descriptions to revise compatibility and mention recently released devices
  • - Updated official presets to rename Fire TV to Amazon Fire
  • - Added Amazon Fire 720p30 and Chromecast 1080p60 presets
  • - Added {creation-date} and {creation-time} to automatic file naming
  • Video:
  • - Fixed an issue decoding Blu-ray titles where the aspect ratio is unknown (assume 16:9)
  • - Fixed an issue encoding video with very short frame durations (less than 0.00285s or greater than 350 FPS)
  • - Improved extradata handling to accommodate all codecs
  • - Added support for decoding TIFF/LZMA video
  • Audio:
  • - Fixed potential decoding issue for audio lacking an explicit channel layout (intelligently guess the layout)
  • - Fixed a potential crash during audio probe
  • - Improved resampling to allow dithering for all codecs (only where necessary)
  • - Improved quality of the default AAC encoder on non-Mac platforms (FFmpeg AAC), no longer experimental
  • - Improved bit rate constraints to allow Opus as low as 6 kbit/s per channel
  • - Added support for up to 7.1 channel AAC encoding (note that FDK AAC/HE-AAC do not support 6.1)
  • - Added support for E-AC3 audio in MP4 container
  • - Added Speex audio decoder
  • Subtitles:
  • - Fixed a potential crash where an SRT file cannot be opened
  • - Added support for SRT files using periods instead of commas to delineate fractions
  • Command Line Interface:
  • - Fixed inability to override preset subtitles burn setting (native and none are now valid values for --subtitle-burned)
  • Build system:
  • - Fixed Linux packaging with an out-of-tree build directory
  • - Fixed Windows graphical interface build script signing tool location
  • - Removed --enable-local-* and associated contrib libraries; please see the documentationfor dependencies help
  • - Updated to mingw-w64-build 4.1.0 with gcc 7.3.0, continuous output (keep alive), and miscellaneous improvements
  • - Improved support for building with Xcode 10
  • - Improved support for building on FreeBSD 11, 12, and 13
  • - Improved Flatpak packaging for Linux (numerous fixes and improvements, no longer experimental)
  • - Improved configure.py to always use the Python executable found by configure
  • - Added script for creating Flatpak manifests
  • - Added support for selecting a compiler via the CC environment variable
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Third-party libraries:
  • - Removed libraries
  • - Libav 12.3 (decoding and filters)
  • - yasm 1.3.0
  • - Updated libraries
  • - libopus 1.3 (Opus audio encoding)
  • - x264 157 r2935 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
  • - x265 2.9 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
  • - New libraries
  • - FFmpeg 4.1 (decoding and filters)
  • - liblzma (xz) 5.2.4 (LZMA video decoding, e.g. TIFF)
  • - libspeex 1.2.0 (Speex audio decoding)
  • Linux:
  • - Fixed Blu-ray title name being set to device name (e.g. sr0) when scanning raw devices
  • - Fixed Blu-ray default destination file names to no longer include MPLS number
  • - Fixed an issue with queue state not being updated properly on reload
  • - Fixed various issues importing presets
  • - Updated most translations
  • - Added initial support for GTK 4
  • - Added ability to customize activity window font size and increased default from 7 to 8
  • - Added destination overwrite protection (append number to file name on conflict)
  • - Added {source-path} to automatic path setting
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Mac:
  • - HandBrake now requires OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later
  • - Removed preferences option to show the advanced tab (deprecated and slated for removal)
  • - Fixed minor display issues on macOS 10.14 Mojave
  • - Fixed queue toolbar icon not updating
  • - Removed Growl in favor of native system notifications
  • - Updated Sparkle automatic update library
  • - Improved handling of invalid presets
  • - Improved layout to better support localization
  • - Improved preview border alignment on high density displays
  • - Improved automatic naming to avoid updating when unrelated settings change
  • - Improved criteria for showing destination overwrite warnings
  • - Improved stop encoding confirmation dialog
  • - Improved notifications to no longer play sounds when alerts are disabled
  • - Added initial localization support and German translation
  • - Added initial support for VideoToolbox hardware-accelerated encoding
  • - Added support for Dark Mode on macOS 10.14 Mojave (new Dark Mode toolbar icons require building with Xcode 10 on Mojave)
  • - Added Touch Bar support to various windows and dialogs
  • - Added Finder progress bar to files currently encoding
  • - Added Show Source in Finder to queue contextual menu (renamed Show in Finder to Show Destination in Finder)
  • - Added validation for custom filter parameters
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Windows:
  • - HandBrake now requires .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later (installer offers download if missing)
  • - Fixed mixdown selection where the specified mixdown in the selected preset is not available
  • - Fixed audio sample rate of 48 kHz being selected where Auto was the specified behaviour
  • - Removed preferences option to show the advanced tab (deprecated and slated for removal)
  • - Removed options menu from queue in favour of contextual menu
  • - Improved layout to better support localization
  • - Improved error handling when adding items to the queue
  • - Improved multi-instance queue recovery to avoid loading queue files from the wrong instance
  • - Improved filters layout and controls
  • - Improved video quality slider by allowing it to grow with window size and setting x264/x265 granularity to 0.5
  • - Improved SRT import default browse location (open source video location)
  • - Improved keyboard shortcuts by making Ctrl-S open the destination save dialog (start encode is now Ctrl-E)
  • - Added additional keyboard shortcuts for various actions
  • - Added initial localization support and German translation
  • - Added support for AMD VCE and Nvidia NVENC hardware-accelerated encoders
  • - Added automatic queue archiving and option to select an archived queue for recovery (archives are removed after 7 days)
  • - Added support for recovering specific queue files on start using --recover-queue-ids=
  • - Added additional controls to passthru audio tracks to configure audio fallback parameters
  • - Added ability to drag and drop SRT subtitles files onto the main window
  • - Added option to disable preview image on summary tab
  • - Added option to disable checking for update on start in portable mode
  • - Added stop encoding confirmation dialog
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.1.2 (Sep 11, 2018)

  • All platforms:
  • General:
  • Fixed Blu-ray title name where reading from raw device
  • Improved handling of broken units in Blu-ray source (skip and continue reading)
  • Video:
  • Fixed rare crash related to preview images, anamorphic, and default preset values
  • Fixed jitter produced by 59.94 fps to 29.97 fps frame rate conversion
  • Audio:
  • Fixed duration of silence buffers (may improve audio/video sync for some sources)
  • Build system:
  • Fixed linker warning by setting libvpx target to minimum supported macOS version
  • Fixed build failure with old GTK versions
  • Miscellaneous Flatpak-related fixes and improvements
  • Third-party libraries:
  • libdvdread 6.0.0 (DVD decoding)
  • libdvdnav 6.0.0 (DVD decoding)
  • Linux:
  • Fixed potential crash where $HOME directory is missing
  • Fixed legacy preferences causing preset window being shown at every launch
  • Fixed preset name and menu display on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr
  • Fixed default destination file name for Blu-ray source to not include MPLS number
  • Fixed queue reloading in Flatpak sandbox
  • Fixed toolbar icons alignment and use correct art for lower pixel density
  • Updated most translations
  • Mac:
  • Fixed menu item and tooltip strings related to selection behavior
  • Fixed crash where presets file contains invalid UTF-8
  • Windows:
  • Fixed incorrect track selection behaviours on audio and subtitle tabs
  • Fixed creating an unneeded HandBrake Team directory in the user's Roaming directory
  • Improved path handling when opening a source directory from the queue
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.1.1 (Jun 18, 2018)

  • All platforms:
  • General:
  • - Fixed a potential crash in the comb detection filter
  • - Fixed a potential crash in the padding filter
  • Video:
  • - Fixed decoding certain very high bit rate ultra-high definition sources with extra large packets
  • - Fixed last frame in source video missing in output
  • Audio:
  • - Fixed crash when decoding an empty audio track
  • Build system:
  • - Updated mac-toolchain-build script Nasm url and improved curl parameters for robustness
  • Third-party libraries:
  • - Updated libraries (necessary to pull in needed bug fixes)
  • - libvpx 1.7.0 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • - x264 155 r2901 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
  • Linux:
  • - Fixed Ubuntu PPA build date
  • - Fixed a display issue with the quality slider control
  • - Fixed issues occurring when running multiple HandBrake instances simultaneously
  • - Updated Russian translation
  • - Updated support for creating Flatpak bundles (experimental)
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Mac:
  • - Fixed corrupted output with VP8 and VP9 encoders
  • - Fixed building x264 using Clang and -march=native/-mavx (thanks H. Gramner for the upstream patch)
  • Windows:
  • - Fixed issues with queue recovery when running multiple HandBrake instances simultaneously
  • - Fixed an issue with a When Done action potentially causing the last queue item to be marked as a warning instead of success
  • - Fixed burn-in behavior with MP4 files; after the first burn-in track, no additional tracks that require burn-in will be added
  • - Improved window resize behavior for Add Selection to Queue dialog and allowed space bar to toggle checkbox for selected row
  • - Improved tabbing behavior in various circumstances
  • - Improved adding a new preset with the same name as an existing user preset; the existing preset will now be updated properly
  • - Improved privacy by adding an option to disable the Summary tab preview image
  • - Updated installer to block installation on 32-bit systems to avoid confusion (unsupported since 1.1.0)
  • - Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.1.0 (Apr 13, 2018)

  • General:
  • Improved user interface
  • Redesigned main window for consistency and usability; overall flow is top to bottom, left to right
  • Added new preset controls directly in main workflow
  • Added new summary tab for overview of settings at a glance
  • Updated interface icons to support high resolution displays
  • New and improved official presets
  • Added new presets for Vimeo and YouTube
  • Added new 2160p/4K device presets for Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku
  • Added new Production presets for post-production video editing workflows
  • Added additional 2160p/4K Matroska presets
  • Improved AppleTV 4K support
  • Improved Intel QuickSync Video support
  • Added Linux support (experimental)
  • Added 10-bit H.265/HEVC encoding support for Kaby Lake and newer CPUs
  • Added support for multiple GPUs via D3D11 encode path
  • Many bug fixes and improvements
  • Video:
  • Added new Unsharp and kernel-based Laplacian LapSharp sharpening filters
  • Added CSM prefilter option to NLMeans filter
  • Added support for mobile device orientation via auto-rotation container flag
  • x265 10- and 12-bit encoders are now included by default; additional dll files are no longer required
  • Command line interface:
  • Added support for adaptive streaming (SPS and PPS before IDR frames) via the --inline-parameter-sets parameter
  • Added --json parameter to output scan/status information in JSON format, useful for scripting
  • Audio sample rate parameter --arate now accepts "auto" as a valid value
  • Build system:
  • Added support for FreeBSD 11.1 (must compile from source)
  • Added support for compiling on Windows under MSYS (experimental, slow)
  • Updated to mingw-w64-build 3.1.1 with support for mingw-w64 5.0.3 and gcc 7.2.0
  • Update mac-toolchain-build to add NASM 2.13.2 (now required for x264)
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
  • Third-party libraries:
  • Updated libraries
  • FDK AAC 0.1.5 (AAC audio encoding, must compile from source)
  • FreeType 2.8.1 (subtitles)
  • HarfBuzz 1.7.2 (subtitles)
  • Jansson 2.10 (JSON architecture)
  • LAME 3.100 (MP3 audio encoding)
  • Libav 12.3 (decoding and filters)
  • libass 0.14.0 (subtitles)
  • libbluray 1.0.2 (Blu-ray decoding)
  • libdvdnav 5.0.3 (DVD decoding)
  • libdvdread 5.0.3 (DVD decoding)
  • libiconv 1.15 (character encoding support)
  • libmfx (upstream API 1.23)
  • libogg 1.3.2 (Xiph codecs support)
  • libopus 1.2.1 (Opus audio encoding)
  • libsamplerate 0.1.9-35-g02ebb9f (audio resampling)
  • libtheora 1.1.1 (Theora video encoding)
  • libvorbis 1.3.5 (Vorbis audio encoding)
  • libvpx 1.6.1 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • libxml2 2.9.4 (general)
  • x264 155 r2893 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
  • x265 2.6 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
  • zlib 1.2.11 (general)
  • Linux:
  • Added option to configure low disk space warning level
  • Added Intel QuickSync Video encoder (experimental, requires specific Intel driver)
  • Added support for Ubuntu 18.04 and 17.10; Ubuntu 15.04 support is removed
  • Many other bug fixes and improvements
  • Mac:
  • Added option to configure low disk space warning level
  • Improved support for VoiceOver navigation
  • Many other bug fixes and improvements
  • Windows:
  • Added option to configure low disk space warning level
  • Added option to play a sound (MP3/WAV) when encode or queue is finished
  • Added option to show progress, pass, passcount in the application title or task tray icon tooltip
  • Added more granular progress reporting during search for start of file and muxing
  • Added support for per-display resolution awareness
  • Added support for running HandBrake in a portable mode (see included portable.ini.template)
  • Added custom anamorphic to dimensions tab, it's back!
  • Improved static preview window still previews rendering
  • Improved audio selection behavior controls; dropdowns are now context aware and range limited with better defaults
  • Improved UI constency throughout
  • Many other bug fixes and improvements

New in HandBrake 1.0.2 (Jan 23, 2017)

  • Video:
  • Fixed point to point encoding end point when using frames as the unit
  • Improve error handling for libdvdread and libavcodec decoders
  • Audio:
  • Fixed an issue where fallback encoder bitrate was not set properly
  • Subtitles:
  • Fixed incorrect duration for UTF-8 subtitles
  • Fixed an issue causing extra blank lines for UTF-8 subtitles in MKV
  • Linux:
  • Fixed an issue sometimes preventing dragging and dropping of presets between folders
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Mac:
  • Fixed video encoder options not reset when changing encoders
  • Fixed incomplete encodes where the chapter count differs on queued items
  • Fixed sleep prevention not working in certain scenarios
  • Fixed automatic naming for EyeTV bundles
  • Added additional checks to prevent source file overwriting
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Windows:
  • Fixed video encoder options not reset when changing encoders
  • Fixed subtitles defaults behaviors to improve how tracks are added
  • Fixed issues related to source maximum and custom picture setting modes
  • Fixed point to point settings when editing a queued job
  • Fixed When Done controls not updating correctly on various screens
  • Fixed split buttons not working correctly on audio and subtitles tabs
  • Fixed destination path and file name error checking
  • Fixed potential crash by disabling OpenCL detection when the scaler is not set to OpenCL Bicubic (workaround for broken system drivers)
  • Fixed a potential crash when QSV is supported but disabled at the BIOS level
  • Fixed memory leaks in the QSV encoder
  • Added QSV detection for Intel Kaby Lake CPUs
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

New in HandBrake 1.0.0 (Dec 27, 2016)

  • General:
  • New online documentation at https://handbrake.fr/docs
  • Completely overhauled the official presets
  • New general use presets for broad compatibility
  • New device presets, now more up-to-date for common devices
  • New web presets
  • New Matroska (MKV) presets, including VP9 video with Opus audio
  • Official presets from HandBrake 0.10.x are still available under "Legacy"
  • New JSON-based preset system including command line support
  • New JSON-based API for interacting with libhb
  • Improvements to audio/video sync engine to better handle difficult sources
  • Many miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements (over 1700 code commits!)
  • Video:
  • VP9 video encoding via libvpx
  • Intel QuickSync Video H.265/HEVC encoder
  • Requires Intel Skylake or newer CPU
  • Ultra HD / 4K color pass through (support for BT.2020)
  • Additional standard frame rate selections in the graphical interfaces
  • New Auto anamorphic mode maximizes storage resolution, replaces Strict anamorphic mode
  • New Pad filter (command line only for now)
  • New Decomb/Deinterlace filter settings and improved defaults
  • Rotate filter now available in all graphical interfaces
  • New NLMeans filter tunes Tape and Sprite for analog tape recordings and vintage video games, respectively
  • Assembly optimizations NLMeans filter improve performance up to 10%
  • Assembly optimizations in x264 encoder improve performance for faster presets by 5-10%
  • x265 encoder quality improvements, especially when using tune grain
  • High bit depth encoding support via external shared libraries (video pipeline is still 8-bit 4:2:0)
  • x264 10-bit
  • x265 10-bit and 12-bit
  • Audio:
  • Opus audio encoding/decoding via libopus
  • Passthru now supports E-AC-3, FLAC, and TrueHD audio formats
  • Subtitles:
  • Improved subtitles rendering for some languages via HarfBuzz
  • Miscellaneous subtitles improvements
  • Command line interface:
  • Presets can now be imported and exported from the command line and are compatible with the graphical interfaces
  • Queue exported from the graphical interfaces can now be imported by the command line interface (Linux and Windows only for now)
  • Build system:
  • Add scripts to manually build and install Mac and MinGW-w64 (compile for Windows on Linux) toolchains
  • Add support for multiple source URLs for third-party downloads
  • Add SHA256 hash verification for third-party downloads
  • Add configure parameter to disable or filter allowed third-party downloads (see configure --help)
  • Use HTTPS everywhere; the few cases where a third-party does not provide packages over https, handbrake.fr does
  • New targets on Mac to install and uninstall after building
  • Add flatpak packaging support (experimental)
  • Third-party libraries:
  • Updated libraries:
  • FreeType 2.6.5 (subtitles)
  • Fontconfig 2.12.1 (subtitles)
  • FriBidi 0.19.7 (subtitles)
  • Libav 12 (encoding/decoding/muxing)
  • libass 0.13.2 (subtitles)
  • libbluray 0.9.3 (Blu-ray decoding)
  • libmfx v6.0.0 (Intel QuickSync Video encoding/decoding)
  • libvpx 1.5.0 (VP8/VP9 video encoding)
  • x264 148 r2708 (H.264/AVC video encoding)
  • x265 2.1 (H.265/HEVC video encoding)
  • New libraries:
  • HarfBuzz 1.3.0 (subtitles)
  • libopus 1.1.3 (Opus audio encoding)
  • Linux:
  • Add options for saving and loading queue files
  • Removed system tray icon due to performance issues on Ubuntu
  • Usability improvements
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Mac:
  • Updated all tooltips
  • Added undo/redo support to the graphical interface
  • Improved drag and drop support
  • Added Open Recent to the File menu
  • Added Add Titles to Queue... to the File menu (batch queueing)
  • Preview prompts to open in an external application when the internal player does not support the format
  • Preview now displays volume and audio/subtitles language selection during playback
  • Picture and Filters settings are now part of the main window
  • Settings are preserved when selecting a new title (instead of reloading the last selected preset)
  • Improved support for importing/exporting comma-separated (.csv) chapter markers
  • Queue is now automatically paused when available disk space is low
  • When Done action can now be changed directly from the Queue window
  • When Done notification is now interactive (reveals the encoded file in Finder)
  • Activity Log window is now searchable (press "?"+"f" to activate)
  • XQuartz is no longer required for subtitle burn-in
  • Updated Sparkle software update library
  • Enabled DSA signature checking for improved security
  • Usability improvements
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Windows:
  • Graphical interface now uses libhb directly, instead of sending commands to the command line interface
  • Encoding can now be paused and resumed
  • Stopping encoding will finalize the partial file to be playable
  • Reduced installer and install size
  • The command line interface is no longer included in the graphical interface installer
  • Update checker now verifies the signature of the update file for improved security
  • Added support for quality-based audio encoding
  • Added ability to import tab-separated (.tsv), XML (.xml), and plain text (.txt) chapter markers
  • Improved the "configure default" options for audio and subtitles
  • Default audio track behavior is now configurable
  • Subtitles burn-in behavior is now configurable
  • Removed DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) hardware-accelerated video decoding
  • Was causing many issues without providing sufficient improvement to decoding efficiency
  • May be added again at a later date if performance and stability improves
  • Usability improvements
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

New in HandBrake 0.10.5 (Feb 12, 2016)

  • Removal of FDK AAC from our binary releases. --enable-fdk is required for "non-free" builds if compiling from source.
  • Updated x265 to 1.9 which brings bug fixes and performance improvements.
  • Few minor bug fixes since the 0.10.3 release. This includes improvements in large AVI file handling.

New in HandBrake 0.10.3 (Jan 25, 2016)

  • Various bug fixes for all platforms and the core engine.
  • Updated x265 to 1.8 which brings numerous bug fixes and some performance improvements.

New in HandBrake 0.10.2 (Jun 11, 2015)

  • This is second release for the 0.10 branch which brings a number of bug fixes and performance improvements.

New in HandBrake 0.10.1 (Mar 9, 2015)

  • Various bug fixes for all platforms and the core engine.
  • Updated x265 to 1.5 which brings numerous bug fixes and some performance improvements.

New in HandBrake 0.10.0 (Nov 24, 2014)

  • Encoders:
  • We are introducing several new encoders with this release and replacing others.
  • Intel QuickSync Video
  • is a hardware based H.264 encoder that is available on Intel CPUs. Currently, QSV is only supported on Windows but we hope to bring this to Linux users in the future. Thanks to the good people at Intel for making this possible!
  • H.265
  • is now available through x265 1.4. While this encoder is still fairly new, we have seen some promising results come out of it. It's still under heavy active development and is only going to improve over time!
  • VP8
  • using the libvpx encoder. We have now deprecated Theora (VP3) in favour of VP8 which is a more modern encoder offering better quality encodes at lower file sizes.
  • LibFaac
  • Has now officially been removed due to GPL compatibility issues, and replaced with the libav AAC encoder as the new default for Windows and Linux. In addition, we have added the FDK AAC encoder for Windows and Linux as a optional compile-time option. The Mac release will continue to use CoreAudio as the default.
  • As usual, we've updated a number of the core libraries including x264 and libav
  • Filters and Scalers:
  • Denoise
  • The new NLMeans filter offers much higher quality denoising. Our previous filter, hqdn3d, now accepts individual settings for each of the chroma channels (Cb, Cr).
  • OpenCL Scaling
  • In addition to the default Lanczos scaling algorithm, HandBrake now offers BiCubic scaling on Windows via OpenCL. If the results prove positive, we may roll it out to other platforms in a future release. Thanks to the guys at AMD for building our OpenCL framework!
  • GUIs:
  • Feature Parity
  • A lot of work has been done to bring the user interfaces closer in terms of feature parity. We are now much closer than in any previous release.
  • Audio and Subtitle Defaults
  • The audio and subtitle controls have been overhauled to support default behaviours which can be stored in presets. This simplifies the workflow for many batch encoding scenarios.

New in HandBrake 0.10 Beta 4 (Sep 15, 2014)

  • This release includes a number of improvements and bug fixes over the third Beta release.

New in HandBrake 0.10 Beta 2 (Aug 26, 2014)

  • This includes a number of improvements and bug fixes over the first Beta release

New in HandBrake 0.10 Beta 1 (Aug 20, 2014)

  • Core:
  • Intel QuickSync Video Encode / Decode support.
  • Windows only currently. We hope to bring this to Linux user in the future.
  • DXVA Hardware Decode support (Experimental)
  • Windows Only.
  • Suitable only for slower machines so disabled in preferences by default.
  • Choice of Scalers
  • Lanczos
  • HandBrakes? default scaler.
  • Bicubic (OpenCL) (Experimental)
  • Currently only available in OpenCL form so requires a AMD or Intel GPU supporting OpenCL 1.1 or later. Nvidia GPU's are not currently supported.
  • When downscaling, up to 5% performance improvement can be achieved. No benefit when not down-scaling.
  • Small loss in quality over the Lanczos scaler.
  • Denoise
  • hqdn3d filter now accepts individual settings for both chroma channels (Cr, Cb)
  • New NlMeans? denoiser. This is very slow, but results are significantly better than hqdn3d.
  • Presets
  • Added Windows Phone 8 Preset
  • Updated Libraries
  • x264 r2431-ac76440
  • Libav v10.1
  • libbluray 0.5.0
  • Libavformat is now used for muxing instead of mp4v2 and libmkv
  • "Large File Size" checkbox has now bee removed for mp4, as the new muxer will transition to 64bit files automatically.
  • mpeg2dec has also been replaced in favour of using libav
  • The LibAV AAC encoder is now the default as FAAC has been removed.
  • This encoder is adequate for most, but until it improves a bit further, we have enabled support for the FDK-AAC encoder also.
  • This FDK option is a temporary measure until the LibAV encoder improves.
  • Note that FDK-AAC is much slower and will likely bottleneck the encode process, but will produce better quality audio.
  • H.265 encoder (Experimental - available when compiled from source with --enable-x265)
  • Early build of the new x265 encoder. Enabled on Windows only currently. (Mac / Linux builds will have it enabled shortly)
  • Currently still some way off being ready for prime time. Useful for testing only at this stage.
  • Added VP8 Encoder (using libvpx)
  • Available in MKV files only.
  • Removed mcdeint deinterlace and decomb modes. This relied on the snow encoder in libav which has been was removed by upstream.
  • Bug fixes and Misc Improvements
  • Linux:
  • Automatic audio and subtitle track selection behaviours which can be stored per preset.
  • Improvements to Auto-Naming feature.
  • Batch Add to queue by list selection.
  • Russian and Czech Translations
  • Bug fixes and Misc Improvements
  • Requires GTK3
  • Command Line Interface:
  • Basic support for return codes from the CLI. (0 = No Error, 1 = Cancelled, 2 = Invalid Input, 3 = Initialization error, 4 = Unknown Error")
  • Bug fixes and Misc Improvements

New in HandBrake 0.9.9 (May 20, 2013)

  • General:
  • Improved HandBrake pineapple icon by Matt Johnson
  • Improved Retina-resolution icons within the application, by Nik Pawlak
  • Core:
  • Blu-ray (PGS) subtitle support
  • works with Foreign Audio Search
  • can be Burned-In
  • can be passed through to MKV (but not MP4)
  • Additional video framerates
  • 30, 50, 59.94, 60 fps
  • Double framerate ("bob") mode for the deinterlace and decomb filters
  • Better audio remix support
  • additional mixdowns: 6.1, 7.1, 7.1 (5F/2R/LFE). CLI users should note 6ch becomes 5point1
  • better-than-Stereo sources can be upmixed to 5.1
  • discard one channel from Stereo sources. Mono (Left Only), Mono (Right Only)
  • Allow the selection of higher audio bitrates where appropriate
  • Allow the selection of lower audio samplerates where appropriate
  • 8, 11.025, 12, 16 kHz
  • Audio dithering (TPDF) when converting to 16-bit FLAC
  • Use libavcodec for DTS audio decoding (instead of libdca)
  • DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete support
  • All graphical interfaces: support for x264's preset, tune and profile options
  • alternative to the Advanced panel (which is still available)
  • HandBrake-specific option to ensure compliance with a specific H.264 level
  • Updated built-in presets
  • take advantage of x264 preset/tune/profile support
  • removed increasingly suboptimal and irrelevant Legacy presets
  • Assorted bug fixes and improvements to the core library (libhb)
  • Updated libraries
  • x264 r2273-b3065e6
  • Libav v9.6
  • libbluray 0.2.3
  • Linux:
  • Assorted bug fixes and improvements
  • Use some system libraries rather than bundling
  • fontconfig, freetype, libxml2, libass, libogg, libvorbis, libtheora and libsamplerate
  • Command Line Interface:
  • Audio option (-a) will ignore invalid input tracks and encode with only the valid ones
  • Allow use of hh:mm:ss format when specifying p-to-p start/stop time
  • Advanced audio options
  • enable level normalization when downmixing (disabled by default)
  • disable audio dithering or select a specific algorithm

New in HandBrake 0.9.7 (Jul 17, 2012)

  • We've decided to release an update for 0.9.6 that fixes a couple of common issues and adds a new preset for the AppleTV 3 and tweaks the existing iPad preset to support up to 720P.

New in HandBrake 0.9.6 (Feb 29, 2012)

  • Encoders:
  • -> Video:
  • updated libx264 (revision 2146)
  • MPEG-2 encoder (from libavcodec)
  • advanced options support for libavcodec encoders format: option1=value1:option2=value2
  • -bf 2 -trellis 2 becomes bf=2:trellis=2
  • -> Audio:
  • audio gain control (increase/decrease audio volume)
  • updated libogg (1.3.0) and libvorbis (aoTuV b6.03)
  • new AAC encoder (from libavcodec) (considered experimental) (supported mixdowns: Mono/Stereo/Dolby?, 5.1 will come later) (should be on par with faac in terms of quality, sometimes better)
  • FLAC encoder (16-bit, MKV container only)
  • Mac OS X: HE-AAC encoding support, via Core Audio
  • quality-based variable bitrate encoding support works with: Lame MP3, Vorbis, Core Audio AAC only implemented in CLI and Linux GUI
  • AC3 encoder: set Dolby Surround flag in stream parameters when mixdown is Dolby Surround or Pro Logic II
  • -> Audio Passthru:
  • DTS Passthru to MP4 container (in addition to MKV) (supported by e.g. VLC, MPlayer)
  • DTS-HD Passthru (MP4, MKV containers)
  • MP3 Passthru (MP4, MKV containers)
  • AAC Passthru (MP4, MKV containers) (known issue: Magic Cookie not passed through from MPEG Program/Transport? streams,
  • which will break playback in e.g. QuickTime Player)
  • Auto Passthru: one encoder, multiple codecs lets you define allowed codecs (from supported passthru codecs) lets you pick a fallback encoder if passthru is not possible
  • Muxers:
  • start MKV clusters with a video keyframe whenever possible should improve seeking and DLNA streaming
  • bug fix: use ISO 639-2 bibliographic form for MKV language codes
  • bug fix: fix crash due to division by zero in MP4 muxer
  • bug fix: fix muxing of Closed Captions. Improper interleaving broke playback on some players
  • Decoders:
  • -> Video:
  • updated libav* libraries from Libav ( http://libav.org/) (v0.7-1696-gcae4f4b, late October 2011) frame-based multithreading for H.264, VP8 10-bit decoding support for H.264, DNxHD Apple ProRes? decoding support
  • improved average framerate detection
  • duplicate frame detection for improved frame drop decision (CFR/PFR)
  • new Same as source, Constant Framerate option for devices that don't support variable framerate automatically picks a constant framerate closest to the detected average framerate
  • bug fix: fix problem when resolution changes in the middle of a video stream
  • -> Audio:
  • Blu-ray: make TrueHD, DTS-HD and E-AC3 Secondary Audio streams available for decoding and/or passthrough
  • bug fix: libavcodec-decoded streams can now be decoded multiple times
  • previously, multiple decodes of the same source tracks weren't possible and audio output tracks had to be dropped
  • bug fix: fix audio screech at beginning of some audio tracks when decoding AC3
  • bug fix: fix DTS decoder audio volume (was too low)
  • bug fix: garbled audio when decoding DTS-HD audio from MKV containers
  • bug fix: fix support for DTS-HD High Resolution Audio in MPEG Transport streams
  • -> Subtitles:
  • updated libass (0.10.0)
  • improved handling of subtitles with overlapping timestamps
  • improved handling of DVD subtitles without Stop Display commands
  • SSA subtitles are now passed through to MKV without conversion to SRT/UTF-8
  • bug fix: fix rendering problem with SSA subtitles when no font is embedded in the source video
  • Demuxers:
  • improved MPEG Program/Transport? stream support support for MPEG-1 Program streams support for HD-DVD EVOB streams improved handling of Transport streams that have no PCR
  • WTV container support (via libavformat)
  • bug fix: files with more than 20 tracks (video, audio, subtitles etc.) are now supported
  • bug fix: some QuickTime MOV files were misdirected as MPEG Transport streams
  • bug fix: fix detection of TrueType? font attachments that don't have the correct MIME type
  • Filters:
  • new, much improved decomb filter (but slower) new settings are default old settings become decomb "Fast"
  • Presets:
  • improved "Normal" preset (much faster, similar file size and quality)
  • removed obsolete legacy presets
  • added new device presets for Android phones/tablets recent and/or powerful devices recommended
  • Mac OS X:
  • -> DVD decryption:
  • VLC 2.x or later will not work for DVD decryption and is therefore unsupported as of HandBrake 0.9.6
  • libdvdcss is now the preferred method for DVD decryption already works with HandBrake 0.9.5 a .pkg installer is available from Videolan: http://download.videolan.org/libdvdcss/last/macosx/
  • -> Build system:
  • support for Xcode 4 and Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"
  • Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" no longer supported
  • Mac OS X GUI:
  • -> OS X 10.7 Lion support:
  • bug fix: Live Preview window widgets updated to work under Lion
  • bug fix: fixed positioning of widgets in the Audio panel under Lion
  • -> Other:
  • wider main window providing more room for various widgets
  • Windows GUI:
  • -> Preview window:
  • complete redesign
  • support for VLC or the system default video player
  • dropped built-in QuickTime playback support
  • -> Other:
  • much improved control over the default audio and subtitle tracks selected (see Options)
  • ability to set the minimal title length that will show up during a scan (see Options)
  • several other usability improvements
  • installer now has a silent option for easier network installs (launch the installer with /S)
  • Linux GUI:
  • -> Audio panel:
  • new advanced audio options section for gain and audio track names
  • dynamic range compression and samplerate moved to advanced audio options
  • -> Other:
  • minor UI tweaks and usability enhancements
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Target Size is gone, and isn't coming back Don't bother complaining on the forums
  • CLI: support for x264 presets, tunes and profiles new --x264-preset, --x264-tune and --x264-profile options
  • DVD: fix issues with some discs
  • DVD: improved main feature detection
  • updated libbluray (0.0.1-pre-213-ga869da8, late May 2011)

New in HandBrake 0.9.5 (Jan 4, 2011)

  • Core Library:
  • BluRay disc structure support. (No decryption support)
  • Updated Libraries (x264, ffmpeg)
  • SSA Subtitle support. (Including burn-in)
  • MP3 audio now supported in MP4 files (Note: Limited Player compatibility)
  • VOBSUB subtitle now supported in MP4 files (Note: Limited Player compatibility)
  • Updated Presets for newer devices and better quality
  • AC3 encoding support.
  • Many Bug Fixes and other small improvements
  • Improved DVD Main Feature detection (when using dvdnav)
  • Universal audio downmix support (all audio types can be downmixed)
  • Point*to*Point encoding (second or frame start and end times)
  • Peak framerate option (Capped VFR)
  • All GUIs:
  • Updated x264 Advanced Panel
  • Video Quality Slider drops % value and only shows RF for x264
  • Batch Scan (Scan Multiple files at once. N.B: Does not include multiple VIDEO_TS folders / Image files)
  • Many Bug fixes
  • Many Tweaks to improve usability.
  • Ability to edit queue jobs
  • Linux GUI:
  • Multiple instance support (run multiple copies of ghb at once)
  • Many Bug fixes and UI improvements.
  • Notices:
  • Power PC (PPC) is no longer officially supported. Given limited resources and time, it simply isn’t feasible for this project to support minority platforms. For those of you still using older hardware, we recommend you stick with 0.9.4.

New in HandBrake 0.9.4 (Nov 26, 2009)

  • x264
  • A large portion of these speed, size, and quality improvements come to us for free, from the x264 project. The past year, like every year, has seen some massive improvements for that video encoding engine. As always, it has been further hand-optimized for better performance. But it has also gained new features like macroblock tree rate control and weighted P-Frame prediction. The end result? Better picture quality, at a smaller size, faster.
  • So, if x264 alone gives us smaller, better, faster encodes...what have HandBrake's developers been doing over the past year?
  • Oh, all sorts of things!
  • New build system
  • HandBrake has a new, much improved compilation system, which allows easy 64-bit and parallel builds, as well as providing easy extendability for future improvements to the application. 64-bit builds tend to perform approximately 10% better than their 32-bit brethren. There is no Snow Leopard magic here: the performance gains can also be realized on Intel Macs running 10.5, as well as Linux systems.
  • Soft subtitles
  • HandBrake can now include subtitle tracks that can be turned on and off, instead of rendering them onto the video track permanently (which also reduces video compression). This means you can include Closed Captioning data from DVDs and TV broadcasts, or find SRT text subtitle files on the 'net and include them. When using the Matroska container, you can also store the graphical subtitle images (VobSubs) from a DVD as a separate track. An added benefit is that multiple subtitle tracks can be included in the same output video.
  • Live preview
  • Ever wished you could test HandBrake settings before spending hours on a full encode? Now, you can.
  • The picture settings and preview sheet has been broken out into a filters and picture settings inspector, and a preview window. The preview window can show you still frames from your source, like always. But it also lets you start to encode a short clip from the current preview with the currently selected settings, and view the results right there inside of HandBrake.
  • Better input support, for DVD and non-DVD sources alike
  • HandBrake now uses a better DVD reading library called libdvdnav. This means it can now read some DVDs it had trouble with before, and it can also select different angles on a DVD. As well, some bugs in underlying libraries have been patched.
  • For non-DVD sources, HandBrake now offers improved transport stream support, especially for high definition sources. A number of decoding bugs have been resolved as well, so Windows users will no longer need fear AAC audio, nor Mac users fear VC-1 video.
  • Constant quality encoding
  • No more looking for the perfect bitrate for a source--HandBrake is migrating to quality-based encoding. This means that instead of telling encoders to use a specific size and vary quality to meet it, we tell the encoder to vary size to meet a given quality level. Overall quality improves, since bits are spent only when they are needed, and are saved when they are not. While this means output size is somewhat unpredictable, the results in picture quality speak for themselves.
  • As part of this change, the quality slider has been made more prominent, and now works off the quality values used by the video encoders, instead of a confusing, custom, percentage scale.
  • Another result is that 2-pass encoding is not needed. A single pass at a constant quality provides just as much compression efficiency as two passes at an average bitrate.

New in HandBrake 0.9.3 (Nov 24, 2008)

  • Universal input:
  • HandBrake is no longer limited to DVDs: it will now accept practically any type of video as a source. This massive enhancement was achieved by tapping into the power of libavcodec and libavformat from the FFmpeg project.
  • Linux GUI:
  • There is now an official GTK graphical interface for Linux, available as a binary for Ubuntu. This is the real deal, interacting directly with HandBrake's core library instead of just putting a pretty face on a command line interface. It has full feature parity with the Mac interface.
  • Video quality:
  • The x264 project has really come into its own this year, and HandBrake 0.9.3 integrates the latest improvements to the H.264 encoding library. Picture quality has enhanced dramatically through the use of psychovisual rate distortion and adaptive quantization, and there have been significant speed optimizations.
  • Audio flexibility:
  • HandBrake now offers total control over multiple audio tracks.
  • No more internal DVD decryption:
  • Yeah, we know, no one reading this is going "Oh wow, no more DVD decryption--what a great new feature!" but...deal.
  • HandBrake will dynamically load VLC's copy of libdvdcss if you have it in your Applications folder in Mac OS X, and if you're on Linux, and you want to live on the wild side, you can install libdvdcss on your system and get the same effect.
  • Translation of the last paragraph from nerdese:
  • We're not about to stop you from choosing to decrypt DVDs. If you're on a Mac, and you have VLC 0.9.x installed, you won't even notice the internal capability's gone. If you're on Linux, all you have to do is install a library.
  • Persistent queues:
  • When queueing up a bunch of videos to encode, you need no longer fear a crash in HandBrake's graphical interfaces. Queued jobs are cached to disk for safekeeping between sessions.
  • New, better organized presets (Be sure to run "Update Built-In Presets" from the Presets menu!)
  • The presets are now "nested" in folders and have evolved. Notably, there is a new Apple "Universal" preset, designed to play and look good doing so on anything from an iPod Nano to an AppleTV.
  • There have been many changes to most of them. Please be aware that most presets now use different settings. This means most of them are not suited for benchmarking 0.9.3 against 0.9.2. For example, the AppleTV preset is slower because it is now quality based, and produces much more efficient output. The Normal preset uses psychovisual rate distortion. The High Profile presets use psychovisual trellising. All of these setting changes can influence encoding time and output file size.
  • For comparison purposes, there are several presets in the Apple->Legacy folder (the old iPod High-Rez, the old AppleTV, and the old iPhone presets) which remain unchanged since 0.9.2.
  • Audio-video synchronization:
  • HandBrake should now keep lip-synch as well as a DVD player can.
  • Decomb filter:
  • HandBrake now offers a decomb filter, in the style of AviSynth's. It is a deinterlacer that can be left on all the time without degrading picture quality, because it only deinterlaces video when it visibly needs to be.
  • Multi-threaded deinterlacing:
  • The "Slow" and "Slower" filters, as well as the new decomb filter, will now take advantage of as many processors as you can throw at them.
  • "Same as source framerate" really is the same as the source framerate
  • HandBrake now, by default, passes through the exact video framerate of the source instead of smoothing to a constant rate, which could lead to frames being duplicated or dropped.
  • Theora video encoding:
  • HandBrake now can encode video using the Theora codec.
  • Updated libraries:
  • Besides x264, updated libraries include libsamplerate, libogg, xvidcore, libmpeg2, lame, faac, and ffmpeg's libavcodec, libavformat, and libswscale.