HandBrake Review

HandBrake is a free multiplatform video transcoder which available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. It is open source program released under GNU General Public License, so you can download and use it for free of charge. With HandBrake, you can transcode your movies and transfer them to a format that appropriate for your computers, media centers, and portable media players.

The program allows you to convert MPEG video including DVD-Video into a MPEG-4 video file in AVI, MP4, MKV, M4V and OGM. This video transcoder is used by many people to convert DVDs into the video formats which can be viewed on iPods, iPhones and with the Mac QuickTime Player. The software allows you to add source files from Video File, DVD folder and DVD drive. The conversion process is simple and easy. You can use built-in presets for appropriate media players. HandBrake is one of most popular free video converter software.

Supported Outputs

• Video File Format: MP4, M4V, AVI, MKV and OGM.
• Video Codec: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora.
• Audio Codec: AAC, MP3, Vorbis and AC-3.

Built-in Presets

These are available build-in presets you will found in the program:

Apple

• Universal
• iPod
• iPhone & iPod Touch
• AppleTV
• QuickTime
• Legacy: AppleTV Legacy, iPhone Legacy, iPod Legacy

Basic

• Normal
• Classic

High Profile

• Animation
• Constant Quality Rate
• Film
• Television

Gaming Consoles

• PSP
• PS3
• Xbox 360

Highlight Features

Here are some highlight features of the programs:

Audio Settings

• Audio Codec
• Mixdown
• Samplerate
• Bitrate
• DRC

Video Settings

• Video Codec
• Framerate
• Video Quality:Target Size, Avg Bitrate, Constant Quality
• Advanced Encoding Setting: Grayscale Encoding, 2-pass Encoding, Turbo first Pass

• Picture Settings
• Crop: Automatic, Custom
• Size: Width, Height, Anamorphic
• Filters: Detelecine, Decomb, Deinterlace, Denoise and Deblock

Advanced Option

• Reference Frames
• Motion Estimation Method
• Motion Estimation Range
• Subpixel Motion Estimation
• B-Frames
• Deblocking
• And more setting based on presets

Chapter Selection

• HandBrake can include chapter markers when you use the MP4 or MKV file formats.
• These will be placed at the same point where the chapter breaks are on the DVD.

Basic Subtitle Support

• HandBrake “hard burns” subtitles. This means the subtitles are written on top of the image permanently.
• They cannot be turned on or off like on the DVD. It can only read subtitles from DVDs. It cannot work with subtitles when reading other files.

User Experience with HandBrake Software

To add more useful information for other users, if you ever experience using the HandBrake program, I encourage you to write a short review about your experiences with software and share it in the following section: