HandBrake: Free Video Conversion

In the modern world, we are swamped with multimedia devices that all have the ability to play our favorite movies and TV shows. Our hard drives are clogged with pictures, music and video files, so it seems logical to be able to watch movies and shows on-the-go. Unfortunately it is not always that easy. Each device often has it’s own supported format and converting can often be difficult and costly. Alas! There is a solution. Handbrake offers free video conversion that should make your videos playable on most devices.

The input source files of the application include many standard video files such as DIVX and AVI that can be converted to any of the supported formats. Perhaps the most impressive option of Handbrake is its ability to rip films directly off DVDs, even those with copyright protection. When ripping from a DVD, the user has the ability to choose precise chapters to rip, which can be useful for ripping single episodes of TV box-sets or for ripping only your favorite segment of a film. In addition to that, subtitles can be ripped with the DVD into the video file, a fantastic option for those with foreign DVD collections who want to enjoy them on their favorite medium of choice.

The core of the application is clearly found in the video compressor, which I have found to be fairly solid. While it may not be the fastest encoder available in the consumer market, during my extensive everyday use, it has produced glitch-free, high quality videos. The most recent release includes a ‘Turbo First Pass” option which will speed up conversion dramatically if selected, helping a lot with efficiency problems. Another interesting thing to note about this app is its use of system resources. Sometimes, Handbrake will completely slam both cores of my machine at a processor reading of around 70 to 80% in Activity Monitor. This seems odd, as not even the Final Cut Pro exporter renders my system completely useless while rendering progressive HD! This may, of course, be a completely subjective experience which is down to the specifications of my machine, but it seems I do get better performance with some other system crunching apps. While this is a major pitfall of the software, it’s occasional flaws in speed and efficiency are outweighed by it’s nonexistent price tag, so we can’t complain too much.

I mentioned previously that the app produces high quality video, but as with all video compressors, a large proportion of the success of a high quality conversion lies in the settings determined by the user. The developers have tried to make this experience all the more easy by including an extensive list of user definable setting presets, categorized by devices and services. Personally, I frequently use the default iPhone/iPod touch preset  and I can safely say that the presets are accurate and produce a high quality image that will work with the device. But if you are that way inclined, variations of a preset can be saved under a different name for frequent use. HandBrake ’ships’ with a vast amount of presets suitable for most major devices and services.

For more knowledgeable users, the manual video settings are extensive and diverse.  Handbrake supports 4 different video containers (MP4, MKV, AVI and OGM) and most importantly supports three of the major video codes of today (MPEG-4, H.264 and Theora). With a mix of various containers and codecs, it seems likely that any video file you can throw at it will soon be compatible with your device of choice after HandBrake works his magic. There are also many picture options that allow the user to define resolution as well as other filters, such as ‘de-noise’ and ‘de-interlace’. Other advanced options include user definable ‘Motion Estimation’ to speed up renders, and the the ability to edit x264 option strings to change specific parameters of an encode. It is clear, therefore, that this app can appeal to the most basic user and the professional alike.

All of this power is encapsulated under the hood of a very clean and pristine interface that reflects  the Mac OSX environment. Each of the major elements (the container, codecs, chapters, subtitles) are easily accessible and organized into a series of tabs and menus that make this application extremely user friendly. This app also runs on Windows and, most recently, a GUI version was released for Linux

This app is not without its flaws, but the power of this software is arguably unmatched in the freeware/shareware world. I suggest downloading Handbrake yourself to truly appreciate the awe this application deserves.

I feel this is an all round must for any computer user who utilizes the limitless options of video in today’s tech market.