In the new version 1.6.0, HandBrake supports AV1 encoding in general for the first time, since special nightly versions were previously required for this. Hardware encoding is initially only possible using Quick Sync Video on Intel Arc. Other platforms do the encoding in software on the CPU.
AOMedia Video 1 or AV1 for short is a license-free method for video compression and is being developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). The alliance includes the likes of Amazon, Apple, Arm, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung and Tencent. AV1 was created by an evolution of Google’s VP9 and is intended to compete with HEVC/H.265 from the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).
AV1 available in general version
HandBrake, a free software for transcoding video files, officially supports encoding in AV1 for the first time in the recently released version 1.6.0. Experimental support has so far only been given in nightly builds, which ComputerBase uses for notebook benchmarks, among other things, in order to carry out comparisons for AV1 encoding in software on the CPU and in hardware on the GPU. However, the feature has now arrived in a generally available version for the first time, as can be seen from the changelog on GitHub.
Intel QSV as the only hardware encoder
The new release also includes presets for 4K, Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) and for the MKV container especially for AV1. AV1 is supported on HandBrake 1.6.0 with encoders SVT-AV1 for software and Intel QSV AV1 for hardware. Intel Arc (test) is currently the only platform that supports the much faster hardware encoding via GPU. AMD and Nvidia also offer AV1 encoders for RDNA 3 and Ada Lovelace, respectively, but HandBrake does not yet use them.
New color depths and profiles
In addition to AV1 support, the developers added several 10-bit encoders to the application for greater color depth. These include corresponding encoders for VP9, HEVC when using NVENC (Nvidia Encoder) and AMD VCN (Video Core Next), i.e. the two hardware encoders from Nvidia and AMD running on the media engines of the GPU.
In addition, the H.264 levels 6, 6.1 and 6.2 are now generally used for the x264 encoder, the profiles 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 for H.264 and H.265, and specifically on Apple Silicon for the VideoToolbox Encoder that supports 4:2:2 profile at H.265. Also new at Intel is support for Deep Link Hyper Encode, which allows multiple QSV media engines to be used in parallel for increased performance. At Nvidia, an old bug when using the slowest NVENC preset has also been fixed.
VP8 and old Intel CPUs will be retired
However, presets for VP8, which is now considered obsolete, are no longer available in the app. The VP8 and Theora encoders are scheduled to be removed from the application in a future release. Already with HandBrake 1.6.0, QSV encoding on Intel processors older than Skylake (6th Gen) is no longer supported.
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HandBrake is free video file and DVD transcoding software.
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