Upgrade Notice

Before updating, please make sure there are no pending encodes in the Queue. Please also make a backup of any custom presets and app preferences you have as they may not be compatible with newer versions.

HandBrake 1.4.0

All platforms

General

• The HandBrake engine is now 10 and 12bit capable. Please note that not all filters support 10 and 12 bits. Using an 8bit filter will cause the pipeline to run at 8bit. Please see the documentation for more information.
• HDR10 metadata will be passed through from the source file if present.
• Static Previews that are generated during file scans are now stored in compressed jpeg format (previously stored as YUV420). Temporary disk space usage and disk writes are massively reduced. This uses libjpeg-turbo

Filters

• New Filter: Chroma Smooth
• New Filter: Colourspace Selection.
• New Filter: Support for QuickSync hardware accelerated Crop/Scale when using full path.

Hardware Encoding

• New Encoder: Media Foundation
  • For Windows based ARM64 devices powered by Qualcomm Chipsets.
• Updates to the AMD VCN encoder:
  • Quality tuning for VCN's constrained vbr rate control mode. Results are the same or better than cqp mode, and bit rate is much more predictable.
  • Included optimised H265 presets for 1080p and 4K content.
• Updates to the Intel QuickSync encoder:
  • Minor performance improvement by skipping VFR and Crop/Scale filters when they are not required.
  • Overhauled memory management including improved zero-copy support where software filters are not used which should also improve performance.

Audio

• MP2 Audio Passthru support.

Subtitles

• New General purpose subtitle decoder
  • Added support for DVB Subtitles (Passthru and Burn-In)
  • Added support for EIA608 Closed Captions.
  • Replaced current decoders for PGS, SRT and SSA with those in ffmpeg. This should correct a number of rendering issues on Burn-In
• Reduced default CC burn-in font-size.

Third-party libraries

• The following 3rd party libraries have changed:
  • ffmpeg 4.4
  • AMF 1.4.18 (AMD VCN encoding)
  • nv-codec-headers 11.0.10.1 (Nvidia NVENC encoding)
  • libmfx 1.34
  • freetype 2.10.4
  • fribidi 1.0.10
  • harfbuzz 2.8.1
  • jansson 2.13.1
  • libass 0.15.1
  • libbluray 1.3.0
  • libdvdnav 6.1.1
  • libdvdread 6.1.1
  • dav1d 0.9.0
  • libvorbis 1.3.7
  • libvpx 1.10.0
  • x264 161 r3043
  • x265 3.5
  • zimg and libjpeg-turbo are new dependencies.

General UI Updates (Applies to Windows, macOS and Linux)

• The "Dimensions" tab has been redesigned.
  • The Rotate and Flip filter has been moved from the filters tab.
  • Added support for padding
  • Added support to control the resolution limit.
  • Added limited support for upscaling

Linux

• Minor usability tweaks and fixes.
• Added new translations (levels of completeness vary):
  • Chinese (Taiwan)
  • Hebrew
  • Sinhala
  • Slovenian
• Updated existing translations (levels of completeness vary).

Mac

• Support for Apple Silicon (macOS only)
• Support for running multiple simultaneous jobs.
• Support eyetv packages with .ts enclosed media file
• Improved UI navigation
  • Added two menu items to quickly switch between titles
  • Improved undo/redo support
  • Drag & drop import/export support in the presets popover
• Preference Updates:
  • Added a preference to control whether the current edited preset should be re-applied when changing title
• Improved Security Scoped Bookmarks management
• Minor improvements and fixes for macOS 11
• Updated Sparkle Updater library.
• Added new translations:
  • Brazilian Portuguese
• Updated existing translations.

Windows

• Please note, the Windows UI now requires "Microsoft .NET 5 Desktop Runtime"
• Windows 10 is now the minimum version supported. The app will still run on Windows 7 and 8.1 however you will receive a message noting that it is not supported (twice) after which it will continue to run. Please note some functionality may not work correctly on these older operating systems and no support will be provided.
• Process Isolation
  • When enabled, any encodes that are started are run under a separate "handbrake.worker.exe" process.
  • This protects the main UI from any crashes that could occur whilst processing a file and allows the queue to continue.
  • Multiple jobs can be run simultaneously to improve CPU utilisation on high core count systems.
• Audio Tab
  • Minor improvement to the usability of auto-passthru. To prevent confusion, the "auto-passhtru" audio "encoder" option is now only available on the defaults screen and not the main audio tab.
• Queue Improvements
  • Restored lost "Stop" functionality in the new queue design that landed in 1.3.
• Presets
  • The legacy preset side panel has been removed. The presets button on the toolbar will now offer a "preset manager" and list the available for selection.
  • The inline-preset view from 1.3 is now permanent.
• Installer Improvements
  • Existing NSIS installer: Option to create a shortcut for "all users" as the last step.
  • An MSI based installed (mostly for system-admins) is now available to allow for easier deployments. Feedback welcome.
• Preference Updates:
  • New Auto Name option: Always use the default path for each new source / title selected
  • "Send File To" Arguments now supports "{source}" and "{destination}" replacement placeholders.
  • Added a preference to configure the "Pause on Low Battery" feature.
  • Check for Updates is now "opt-in" for new installs.
• UI Performance: Optimisations to allow better performance when handling large sets of files (1000+)
• Added new translations (levels of completeness vary):
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Corsican
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Persian (Iran)
  • Thai
  • Ukrainian
• Updated existing translations (levels of completeness vary).
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements