- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Mac OS X 10.5 Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
- Date added: February 25, 2008
- Total Downloads: 38,825
- Downloads last week: 1,368
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 5 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Jason Parker on November 04, 2009
Handbrake is an open-source utility for converting video from any source into MPEG-4 files; it's especially useful if you want to rip movies and TV shows from your DVDs and watch them on your Mac. Handbrake comes with a ton of built-in settings, so you can also easily convert DVDs specifically to watch on your iPhone, iPod, or even AppleTV, PS3, or PSP. You get a lot of options for controlling framerate, codecs, audio handling (including support for multiple sound tracks), and even nuanced settings for B-Frames, CABAC coding, and the like--but Handbrake's chief quality is its ease of use, so less finicky users can usually convert DVDs with just a single click.
As with many free applications, your mileage may vary depending on your setup and what you're trying to accomplish (for example, Handbrake can be very slow on older machines, and it can also have trouble with DVDs made using camcorders and other apps). Also, there isn't much handholding when it comes to support, although at least stability has improved in recent versions. Fortunately, though, Handbrake is popular and you can often find answers to almost any technical question in the developer's active forums.
Publisher's description
From HandBrake :HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
HandBrake is a video transcoder that takes your movies and transfers them to a format that's useful on your computers, media centers, and portable electronic devices. It converts most any video formats to a handful of modern ones.
CNET Editor's Note: The product description was provided by the software developer, and VersionTracker is not responsible for its content. We recommend users carefully evaluate whether their planned use of this product is legal. We do not condone the use of any software in violation of the law.
What's new in this version:
Universal inputHandBrake is no longer limited to DVDs: it will now accept practically any type of video as a source. This massive enhancement was achieved by tapping into the power of libavcodec and libavformat from the FFmpeg project.
Linux GUIThere is now an official GTK graphical interface for Linux, available as a binary for Ubuntu. This is the real deal, interacting directly with HandBrake's core library instead of just putting a pretty face on a command line in... see all new features
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 4.2 stars out of 5 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 5 user reviewsSee all 5 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: HandBrake 0.9.3
Pros: Easy to use!!! It gets the job done!!!
Cons: Takes a while, but that's a small price to pay.
Summary: I am moving and trying to bring as little with me as possible. Now I can store all my favorite movies on my computer!!! WooHoo!!! I haven't made any changes to the defaults, just select the DVD and the place I want it stored on my computer. SO easy!... read more >>
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: HandBrake 0.9.3
Pros: I do not like anything about this product
Cons: This product does not work at all. It is a waste of time. The older version worked well but is not available anymore.
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Version: HandBrake 0.9.3
"Very Satisfying Ripping Software"
Pros: Rips normally take as long as it takes to play the movie. This could be a Pro or a Con depending on whichever way you choose to look at it.
There are a lot of settings that let you adjust the video for a large variety of devices.Cons: Sometimes the software will crash before scanning all of the video sources on the disk depending on the number of sources.
Summary: For free software it does it's job really well. All though the rips may take long for longer films the quality of the rips are normally well worth the wait and then you have a digital copy that will last you forever.
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Version: HandBrake 0.9.3
"Handbrake is the greatest app for a mac!"
Pros: rips dvd's and puts them to a file format that i choose. its just that simple. the speed of the process isnt that bad, it just takes about 45 minutes. interface is real simple and user friendly.
Cons: i have only had handbrake not rip maybe 3 dvd's since i have been using it. they were recent dvd's and security measures are getting better.
Summary: great app to have if you want to put your movie collection on your ipod or other media device.
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Version: HandBrake 0.9.3
"Great Way to Back Up Your DVD Library!"
Pros: Can your Rip DVDs to your hard drive to play with iTunes.
Cons: Does not rip every DVD.
Summary: Must Have App on your Mac...
- See all 5 user reviews Write review
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