Handbrake 1.6 video converter released with AV1 video encoding support

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 29, 2022
Music and Video
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8

The developers of the open source video converter Handbrake have released Handbrake 1.6 to the public. The new version is available 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11, as well as for Mac and Linux devices.

Handbrake used to support older versions of the Windows operating system, but this changed with the release of Handbrake 1.5.1 in early 2022.

Handbrake 1.6 is a major new release that includes multiple improvements and changes. Noteworthy additions include support for new audio and video formats, revised presets for web publishing and filter updates.

Our first review of Handbrake dates back to 2007. Back then, I published a tutorial on converting DVDs with Handbrake.

Handbrake 1.6

Handbrake 1.6 introduces support for AV1 video encoding.  Users of the program may now convert existing media to the format using custom settings or new presets that the developers added. New and updated presets are also available for HEVC and the Web, which now features Creator, Email and Social presets. Support for VP8 presets was removed in the build. The developers note that the VP8 video encoder is deprecated and that it will be removed in a future build. The Theora decoded is deprecated as well and will also be removed in future builds.

Several new video encoders and updates to existing video decoders have found their way into the release:

  • Added SVT-AV1 (software) and Intel QSV AV1 (hardware) video encoders
  • Added VP9 10-bit encoder
  • Added NVENC HEVC 10-bit encoder
  • Added VCN HEVC 10-bit encoder
  • Added H.264 levels 6, 6.1, and 6.2 for the x264 encoder
  • Added H.264/H.265 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 profiles for the x264 and x265 encoders
  • Added H.265 4:2:2 profile for VideoToolbox encoder on Apple Silicon
  • Added support for Intel Deep Link Hyper Encode (leverage multiple QSV media engines to increase performance)
  • Fixed longstanding issue where slowest NVENC encoder preset caused encoding failures
  • Removed support for Intel CPUs older than 6th generation (Skylake) when using Intel Quick Sync Video

These changes add more capabilities to the video encoder. Support for levels 6, 6.1 and 6.2 for H.264 that extend resolution and frame rate limits support.  Level 6.2, for example, adds support for 8k resolution at 120 fps.

Several filters were updated or added in the release. You can check out the full list on the official GitHub repository, but most users of the application may not require information about individual library updates.

The Linux version has reached parity with the Mac and Windows graphical interfaces, and several quality of life improvements were added in the release. Mac and Windows changes are mostly bug fixes and translation improvements. Mac users may use Quick Look in the queue now, though.

Now You: do you use video converters? If so, which and why?

Summary
software image
Author Rating
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4 based on 6 votes
Software Name
Handbrake 1.6
Operating System
Windows, Mac, Linux
Software Category
Multimedia
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

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