Video transcoder - Free -- Handbrake

jimbo45 · Feb 23, 2025

Hi folks
Forget online video transcoders or paid for stuff, I had some very old cine movie stuff in .MOV format which I needed in .MP4. Handbrake (same GUI) runs in both Windows and Linux. Transcodes to loads of different formats.

Takes a bit of experimentation at first but it works, loads of different formats, no ads. Also beware of those "Online converters" as they usually only allow a small file or a restricted format set (or both) before nagging you to pay.

Get it from here:

HandBrake Documentation — Downloading and installing HandBrake

Cheers
jimbo

Bree · Feb 23, 2025

jimbo45 said:
I had some very old cine movie stuff in .MOV format which I needed in .MP4. Handbrake (same GUI) runs in both Windows and Linux. Transcodes to loads of different formats.

Takes a bit of experimentation at first but it works, loads of different formats, no ads....

It uses FFmpeg for it's video processing, so it should be good...

One of HandBrake’s strengths is its ability to open a wide variety of video formats. HandBrake uses FFmpeg under the hood and generally can open whatever FFmpeg will....

HandBrake Documentation — Supported source formats

I do all my video processing and editing with FFmpeg directly from the command line, for complex edit sequences I write the commands in a batch file. Now that really takes some getting used to. But once you've mastered some of the basic commands it's incredibly powerful.

FFmpeg is used by software such as Blender, Cinelerra-GG Infinity, HandBrake, Kodi, MPC-HC, Plex, Shotcut, VirtualDub2 (a VirtualDub fork), VLC media player, xine and YouTube. It handles video and audio playback in Google Chrome and the Linux version of Firefox.....

As part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, FFmpeg is used by the Perseverance rover on Mars for image and video compression before footage is sent to Earth.

FFmpeg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

antspants · Feb 23, 2025

Handbreak is as old as Moses. It’s a resource hog but I still use it sometimes.
There are some decent alternatives but I can’t recall what they are.

However, it has to work for you and if it does, perfect!

antspants · Feb 23, 2025

Also…

PowerToys next new feature is a handy transcoder for audio and video files

By Richard Devine
Published February 4, 2025

You won't need to use a tool like Handbrake or ffmpeg soon to do quick transcoding thanks to PowerToys

PowerToys next new feature is a handy transcoder for audio and video files

You won't need to use a tool like Handbrake or ffmpeg soon to do quick transcoding thanks to PowerToys

www.windowscentral.com

Expected in version 0.89 (current release version is v0.88)

[Advanced Paste] Add paste actions to allow transcoding of media files · Issue #37187 · microsoft/PowerToys

Description of the new feature / enhancement Add two new paste actions to Advanced Paste that work with media files: Transcode to .mp3 - Works against both audio and video files. Extracts the audio...

github.com

The list of supported codecs can be found here.

The transcoding backend used is Windows.Media.Transcoding.

jimbo45 · Feb 24, 2025

antspants said:
Also…

PowerToys next new feature is a handy transcoder for audio and video files

By Richard Devine
Published February 4, 2025

PowerToys next new feature is a handy transcoder for audio and video files

You won't need to use a tool like Handbrake or ffmpeg soon to do quick transcoding thanks to PowerToys

www.windowscentral.com

Expected in version 0.89 (current release version is v0.88)

[Advanced Paste] Add paste actions to allow transcoding of media files · Issue #37187 · microsoft/PowerToys

Description of the new feature / enhancement Add two new paste actions to Advanced Paste that work with media files: Transcode to .mp3 - Works against both audio and video files. Extracts the audio...

github.com

The list of supported codecs can be found here.

The transcoding backend used is Windows.Media.Transcoding.

That's fine on Windows but if using a Linux laptop then ??. Handbrake is fine and of course ffmpeg using command line works both on Windows and Linux.

@Bree

Now if Cockpit or any other AI system is worth its salt then it in theory should be able to generate the script to use ffmpeg to transcode a file. That way IMHO would be far simpler than having to use a GUI of any sort or use complex ffmpeg commands. Just tell AI in plain English - transcode file a to file b in mkv or whatever.

Those who hate AI and think it's useless should really look at it again --it really is coming on in leaps and bounds for things that are primary "logic based" e.g coding etc. I've saved literally DAYS of manual work using cockpit even in its current state with EXCEL to solve loads of tasks that would normally be tedious and take a long lomg time (plus with human errors due to tiredness, mis typing, wrong logic to derive the solution etc).

Cheers
jimbo

neves · Feb 24, 2025

jimbo45 said:
That's fine on Windows but if using a Linux laptop then ??. Handbrake is fine and of course ffmpeg using command line works both on Windows and Linux.

How about: Kdenlive - Video Editing Freedom ? Or, depending on needs - if time is of the essence - for simplistic output tweaks (subtitles too) - there's: MKVToolNix news – Matroska tools for Linux/Unix and Windows

Have HandBrake too - among the my collection of free video trans-coders. Used it couple of times in the past - but it's still among the apps i test with newer version - in case they become impressive (worth using as main tools). So, i keep an eye on this as well - but so far... didn't cut it for me.

jimbo45 · Feb 24, 2025

neves said:
How about: Kdenlive - Video Editing Freedom ? Or, depending on needs - if time is of the essence - for simplistic output tweaks (subtitles too) - there's: MKVToolNix news – Matroska tools for Linux/Unix and Windows

Have HandBrake too - among the my collection of free video trans-coders. Used it couple of times in the past - but it's still among the apps i test with newer version - in case they become impressive (worth using as main tools). So, i keep an eye on this as well - but so far... didn't cut it for me.

Thanks for your input -- always good to have other options. I'm still hoping that decent A.I will be the way forward for these types of things. It might take a while but it's surely on the way.

Slightly OT here but I don't think that people have realized the sheer massive increase in energy usage that will be required by large sophisticated AI systems -- this puts the requirements needed for Electric Cars into the shade but people just seem to be concerned with Electric cars without realizing the massive energy requirements these new data centres will need. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

neves · Feb 24, 2025

jimbo45 said:
Thanks for your input -- always good to have other options. I'm still hoping that decent A.I will be the way forward for these types of things. It might take a while but it's surely on the way.

Slightly OT here but I don't think that people have realized the sheer massive increase in energy usage that will be required by large sophisticated AI systems -- this puts the requirements needed for Electric Cars into the shade but people just seem to be concerned with Electric cars without realizing the massive energy requirements these new data centres will need. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Above are still home user tools. The most advanced/powerful free video editing tool (to say the least), is undeniably - DaVinci Resolve 19 | Blackmagic Design Does come with some limitations - compared to paid version: DaVinci Resolve: Why pay for the Studio version? - but even free, it's still more potent than most - so called professional tolls (which are rather overpriced too). Still good enough to crate a cinematic production - if you have the skill for that (and money for the gear :). And OFC, since it's 2025 - it does come with advanced A.I. features tailored for video editing:

If video content is your thing (part of your life) - might be worth buying the Studio/Paid version at 300$ - since it has old-school pricing (once in a life-time fee / no monthly/yearly subscription based model - like many others this days). Tho, at same time - for many... it's a bit to much (overkill). There's simpler heavily dumb-down post-production A.I. video editors - cheaper too (but same goes for what they can actually do - but again, for many those are more than enough).

Even bigger issue with A.I. = than energy consumption, it's actually... their overly-excessive water requirements:

ChatGPT Energy Consumption Visualized - BEUK

www.businessenergyuk.com

California wildfires raise alarm on water-guzzling AI like ChatGPT

If 1 in 10 U.S. residents asked ChatGPT to write an email a week, it’d cost more than 435 million liters of water.

fortune.com

"Globally, ChatGPT uses around 19.58 million gallons daily, the equivalent of everyone in Belgium flushing their toilet at once. Over a year, that’s enough to fill Central Park Reservoir seven times, as our comparative graphic below illustrates."

neves · Feb 24, 2025

A.I. won't have a future if they don't solve its excessive water needs, unless... they remove the competition:

That could work, could give A.I. more time to find a solution. :shush:

antspants · Feb 24, 2025

jimbo45 said:
That's fine on Windows but if using a Linux laptop then ??

Not sure Jimbo. Being a Windows forum, I only really concern myself with Windows.

jimbo45 · Feb 24, 2025

antspants said:
Not sure Jimbo. Being a Windows forum, I only really concern myself with Windows.

That's normal but plenty here run Linux VM's or want to run Windows on Linux Hosts !!!

The idea of Portable Apps is great -- loads don't realize that this works on Linux too. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

antspants · Feb 24, 2025

jimbo45 said:
That's normal but plenty here run Linux VM's or want to run Windows on Linux Hosts

True, not disputing that. I just wanted to post the news about the upcoming release of PowerToys on the off chance there was anyone else on this forum that uses Windows Eleven.

Almighty1 · Mar 9, 2025

For X/Twitter, the videos that one uploads can get stuck at 99% and never make it to 100%. The fix is either converting with Handbrake or Minitool Video Converter and it will upload correctly.

Winuser · Mar 9, 2025

I have been using VidCoder and Handbrake to transcode my media content to the HDD on the computer I use for streaming. I find VidCoder easier to use on episodic DVDs. I use VideoReDo if I need to do any cutting/joining or if the stream needs to be fixed.

Wolfzz · Aug 9, 2025

HandBrake v1.10.0

General

Added new "Social 10MB" presets
Improved metadata passthru, preserving additional metadata including:
- Creation date
- Cover art
- Location
Fixed an excessive memory usage during the indepth scan (#6963)

Command line interface

Added an option to disable Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthru

Video

Added an option to choose the encoder color range
Improved Framerate Shaper metrics performance for high resolution frames
Fixed VCN encoder presets (#6974)
Updated NVEnc CQ range (#6418)

Audio

Addded an option to disable track names passthru and autonaming
Fixed selection behaviour fallback when no audio track is found (#6666)
EAC3 + Atmos is now properly signaled in MP4

Subtitles

Addded an option to disable track names passthru
SubRip/UTF-8 subtitles are now passed through to MKV without conversion to SSA
Fixed a crash that could happen when burning bitmap subtitles

Filters

Fixed a crash that could happen when using the Chroma Smooth filter (#7033)

Release 1.10.0 · HandBrake/HandBrake

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 no...

github.com

Video transcoder - Free -- Handbrake

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