HandBrake Video Converter 1.1.0 Includes New Presets, User Interface Improvements

HandBrake, a free, open-source video transcoder, was updated to version 1.1.0. The new release includes an improved user interface, experimental Intel QuickSync Video encoder support for Linux, along with many other changes.

Originally released in 2003 for the BeOS, HandBrake has gone through many changes over the years. Nowadays, the application supports Linux, MacOS, and Windows, and for transcoding, it uses third-party libraries, like Libav, x265, and libvpx.

The application is useful if you have videos that need to be converted in order to work on various devices, like a mobile phone, tablet, Chromecast or some other TV media player, web browser, game console, and so on. It can work with almost any source, including DVD and Blu-ray discs that have no copy protection, creating a new MP4 or MKV video file optimized for your device.

HandBrake isn't just a tool to convert videos from one format to another. The application is much powerful than that. It can crop or resize the video, remove artifacts caused by interlacing or telecine, adjust audio volume levels, preserve existing subtitles, or add / remove subtitles, and much more.

What HandBrake can't do is combine multiple videos into a single video, pass-through video without conversion, or create DVD or Bluy-ray discs.

HandBrake features:

built-in presets for fast, easy transcoding.
available with a graphical user interface or command-line interface.
input: supports most common multimedia files, along with DVD or BluRay sources without copy protection.
output:

File Containers: .MP4(.M4V) and .MKV
Video Encoders: H.265 (x265 and QuickSync), H.264(x264 and QuickSync), H.265 MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, VP8, VP9 and Theora
Audio Encoders: AAC / HE-AAC, MP3, Flac, AC3, or Vorbis
Audio Pass-thru: AC-3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD, AAC and MP3 tracks

video filters: Deinterlacing, Decomb, Denoise, Detelecine, Deblock, Grayscale, Cropping, and scaling.
supports subtitles (VobSub, Closed Captions CEA-608, SSA, SRT).
title / chapter and range selection.
chapter markers.
batch encoding either through its graphical user interface or command line interface.
constant quality or average bitrate video encoding.
supports VFR and CFR.
live static and video preview.

New in HandBrake 1.1.0:

redesigned main window for consistency and usability.
added new preset controls directly in the main workflow.
added new summary tab for a quick overview.
interface icons now support high resolution displays.
new and updated official presets:

added new presets for YouTube and Vimeo
added 2160p/4K presets for Applet TV, Chromecast, Roku, and Fire TV
added new production presets for post-production video editing
added additional 2160/4K Matroska presets

added 10-bit H.265/HEVC encoding support for Kaby Lake and newer CPUs.
added support for multiple GPUs via D3D11 encode path.
added new Unsharp and kernel-based Laplacian LapSharp sharpening filters.
added support for mobile device orientation via auto-rotation container flag.
Linux:

added experimental Intel QuickSync Video support
added option to configure low disk space warning level
added support for Ubuntu 18.04 and 17.10

If you need help converting a video file using HandBrake, check out its quick start guide.

Update: By default, HandBrake uses iPod / iTunes friendly M4V file extension for MP4, defaulting to it when trying to export to MP4 using any preset (except MKV, obviously). To force HandrBrake to save MP4 as... MP4, and not M4V, go to: File > Preferences > General tab and uncheck the box for Use iPod / iTunes friendly (.m4v) file extension for MP4. Screenshot showing this option as well as the video file extension changing to .mp4 in HandBrake: