Handbrake

[Lone Crusader]

For those of you that enjoy using Handbrake to transcode your media/videos they have finally updated their software after what...5 years or something. WOW! It now has a bunch of new features.

Supported Input Sources:
Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.

Outputs:

• File Containers: .MP4(.M4V) and .MKV
• Video Encoders: H.265 (x265 and QuickSync), H.264(x264 and QuickSync), H.265 MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8, VP9 and Theora
• Audio Encoders: AAC / HE-AAC, MP3, Flac, AC3, or Vorbis
• Audio Pass-thru: AC-3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD, AAC and MP3 tracks

Even more features

• Title / chapter and range selection
• Batch Scan and Queueing of encodes
• Chapter Markers
• Subtitles (VobSub, Closed Captions CEA-608, SSA, SRT)
• Constant Quality or Average Bitrate Video Encoding
• Support for VFR and CFR
• Video Filters: Deinterlacing, Decomb, Denoise, Detelecine, Deblock, Grayscale, Cropping and scaling
• Live Static and Video Preview

What's nice is that as long as you have an Intel Haswell or newer processor it will encode using QuickSync. Also a BiG plus in my book is to be able to use TrueHD Passthough. YAY! ..and yes folks that includes Dolby Atmos too! Two thumbs up in my book.

Another added ability that they don't advertise and yes I scoured the web looking for a way, as long as you have a Nightly build you can download the DLL files to place in the Handbrake directory that allow for h.264 & h.265 10 & 12-bit scenarios. HELL YES to the tenth power!

If you register on Handbrake's forum you can find the downloads for the DLL files or you can click this LINK instead.

Handbrake

 

[Lone Crusader]

I have noticed though with QuickSync it doesn't compress the files as much as a non QuickSync video is encoded and that's even with the process time set to slow. I've just resorted to transcoding a video using the standard x264 codec and if transcode using the x265 or HEVC I do it using 10-bit h265. I noticed some jagged lines in standard h265 so I just started using the 10-bit version.

 

[Lone Crusader]

I performed a test between DVDFab and Handbrake transcoding h.265 (HEVC) at constant quality with a 50 minute show (a The Soppronos episode) with DTS-MA for the audio track and no subtitles.

The neat thing about DVDFab is that it can take advantage of your Cuda Cores from a supported NVidia graphics card. The really cool thing is because of the boost from Cuda it can transcode that 50 minute show with above qualifications in a mere 25 minutes. WOW! File size = 2.8GB

Handbrake on the other hand can compress your file size to a mere 1.7GB which is half of what DVDFab can but it doesn't take advantage of Cuda Cores making a transcode time at almost 2 hours.

When space is an issue Hanbrake is the answer. When time consuming is an issue and space is not then DVDFab is the key.

Personally I'm throwing all my TV shows up on a portable drive for viewing on the go then space is definitely an issue for me so Handbrake is vital for making my files.

I just thought that this info was important if you didn't already know it.