HandBrake 1.6.0 Debuts AV1 Transcoding Support for the Masses

HandBrake, the popular free and open source video transcoder, has been updated to version 1.6.0. This major point upgrade is notable for facilitating AV1 video encoding for the first time in a general release. Moreover, those with Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) enabled processors, and those with Intel Arc GPUs will be able to encode AV1 video with hardware acceleration. From a report: HandBrake 1.6.0 can encode AV1 videos on any of its supported systems. In the current release its SVT-AV1 encoder offers the widest support, encoding on your processor through software. However, those with Intel QSV supporting CPUs or discrete Arc graphics can use the QSV-AV1 encoder for hardware accelerated processing. QSV isn't supported if your CPU is an 'F' suffixed model (i.e. it doesn't have an iGPU), or it is older than the Skylake generation. If you are lucky enough to have multiple QSV accelerators in your system, support for Intel Deep Link Hyper Encode should accelerate processing further. While AMD and Nvidia have AV1 encoders available for their latest GPUs, they currently aren't integrated with HandBrake. AV1 video is set to become the dominant codec across app-based streaming services and the wider internet, offering attractions such as; an open and royalty-free architecture, improved compression enabling efficient 8K video streaming, and support for the newest HDR standards.

AV1 vs HEVC/H.265

[NFN_NLN]

Verdict
AV1 vs HEVC, which is the better codec for the future? When the 50%-more-efficient H.265 comes out, H.264 didn't become obsolete. Even though AV1 has 30% better performance, it's in early stage now. That means, most devices now support HEVC only. That said, we believe AV1 is more promising, especially for online streaming of large-resolution content.

https://www.winxdvd.com/conver... [winxdvd.com]

It depends

[WoodstockJeff]

If your equipment supports the higher standard and you have the time to encode to it, AV1 could be what you "need".

My systems barely support h.265 (not everything), so I encode to h.264. I also do not use anything bigger than 1024 bit high for the most part, so h.264 is "the thing" for me.

If I replaced all my equipment with top-of-the-grade stuff, I'd definitely want AV1 capability.

But... that's not likely for a few years. Then they'll have yet another new standard I "need" to upgrade to.

Re:

[Revek]

Same here. The good news here is you can now convert that AV1 video to H264. H265 is still hit or miss on hardware. There is an inherent lag with these codecs that force you to pick the most compatible. AV1 is so far out there that it will take some time for it to be adopted widely.

Re:

[slaker]

I have a camera that produces 8k content. My standard at the moment is to encode to 4k60 h.265 because I obviously can't keep everything. For now, I'm encoding using NVenc, which is faster than my Threadripper at the work. My workstation even has dual GPUs so I can run multiple encode jobs at the same time.

Right now, I'm weighing the option of getting Intel Arc hardware just to get AV1 hardware support. The space saving and enhanced overall visual quality are a huge deal and I've been waiting a couple years

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

Really it's gonna be AV1 partly because it's better, partly because it's free and also because YouTube

Re:AV1 vs HEVC/H.265

[MachineShedFred]

More than that, AV1 is the tech industry's middle finger to the MPEG-LA for botching the licensing for HEVC so badly. MPEG decided they wanted to maximize their royalty revenue, so the entire tech industry told them to eat a full bag and made their own codec, which is better and unencumbered by a legacy rent-seeking organization.

A list of companies listed as "governing members" in the Alliance for Open Media who "owns" AV1:
Amazon
Apple
ARM
Cisco
Facebook / Meta
Google
Huawei
Intel
Microsoft
Mozilla
Netflix
Nvidia
Samsung
Tencent

Right there you have basically every CPU and GPU manufacturer in modern computing. You also have literally every company that makes a commercial software OS that plays back video. And, a few companies that regularly open source stuff which will bring Linux along too. Oh, and all three major cloud providers, and a few of the biggest names in streaming media.

Other "general" members of note:
Adobe
AMD
Amlogic
BBC Research
Broadcom
Cable Labs
Hulu
LG
Oppo
Polycom
Realtek
VideoLAN
Vimeo
Vivo
Western Digital
Xilinx

That just adds even more strength - more hardware manufacturers and content creators.

MPEG-LA is fucked - they chased away the entire tech industry with their bullshit, and they are not coming back.

Re: AV1 vs HEVC/H.265

[Malc]

YouTube only uses AV1 for streams that will get millions of downloads, and only for the top resolutions (above HD). Maybe this is because of the compute costs, which means it was too costly to scale. Note however that VVC (H.266) is on the way and is already kicking AV1â(TM)s arse in terms of quality and bitrate. Some broadcast television formats have selected VVC as their next generation replacement for MPEG2 and AVC, which guarantees that it will be around and used for a long time.

Re: AV1 vs HEVC/H.265

[Malc]

I donâ(TM)t think youâ(TM)ve been paying attention: HEVC is everywhere now and usage has been growing quickly, especially in the last year or two. Be it on the professional side (e.g. most of the major professional cameras use it now) or on the consumer side (the majority of phones use it, and not just Apple). Itâ(TM)s also the default choice for UHD and above contribution and distribution outside of YouTube.

Re:

[AgentUSA]

I wouldn’t call the AV1 codec itself “early stage” anymore. It’s reached a level of maturity that’s production ready and SVT-AV1 is a good software encoder.

But, adoption has been disappointingly lagging so far. If more of the Alliance for Open Media’s members actually embraced their own codec, we would be much farther ahead at this point. Only Google really seems to be pushing hard for hardware decoding support.

There’s been recent progress on the desktop side with n

Re:AV1 vs HEVC/H.265

[thegarbz]

When the 50%-more-efficient H.265 comes out, H.264 didn't become obsolete.

H.264 didn't become obsolete due to the insane licensing requirements of H.265. There's a reason Windows 10 natively plays H.264 files but asks you to buy a 99c plugin from the Microsoft store for H.265. There's a reason AV1 was developed: Everyone *wants* to switch to H.265 but no one wants to pay extra for it. There's a reason that AOMedia is a consortium of every damn man and their dog except for the MPEG-LA

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

50% more efficient for H.265 might be under selling it. I re-encoded Star Trek TNG Blu-ray discs from H.264 at about 1/8th the bitrate, and to me it looks visually indistinguishable.

Re:

[iampiti]

Yeah but bluray discs tend to use a non-optimal bitrate. I don't download much pirated content but even h264 encodes tend to have a much smaller size than the original bluray.
The ~50% improvement comes from people who do comparable encodes (same measured visual quality)

Re:

[bn-7bc]

Well, for the future I would say go for AV1, kacking device suppoer will be less of an issu ( and eventually disappear) as time goes by, ofc of you need to playback your media on your mobile device NOW av1 might not be your best pick, if it's for archival purposes AV1 is probably the way to go, as patents/lucenses vill not be an use for people needing to re implement it on hw OSes decades down the line

Of course I JUST finished re-encoding my discs.

[Guyle]

Figures every time I finish "upgrading" my collection, this time to 10 bit H.265 (and enjoy the space savings on my storage array,) I'll just have to haul my damn disc binders out AGAIN to sit here re-encoding discs from source.. AGAIN. Dammit.

Seriously I know there's no point in doing so until streaming devices start supporting AV1 and Handbrake supports a hardware encoder besides Intel with performance that equals software encoding, but damn, I was seriously hoping to be set for awhile.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

I'd rather buy an extra disk every once in a blue moon than spend all that time just to replace the already perfectly serviceable h.264 rips I've made over the past several years.

Re: Of course I JUST finished re-encoding my discs

[Guyle]

I redid them at 10 bit H.265 because it handles motion at 1080p better, in addition to the smaller footprint. Since there was something to gain I went ahead and did it. I didn't bother with any of my DVDs though, there's no reason to encode those. The space savings is negligible.

Re:

[ByTor-2112]

After going through that the first time, I said F this and just download what I own.

Jellyfin

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

Seems it's already widely supported [jellyfin.org] on Jellyfin - except on iOS.

And goddamn, I recently re-ripped my DVDs to H.264. Was getting about 250fps on a 13th gen i7. Gonna have to rip at least a few again to compare.

Re: Jellyfin

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

Holy shit, 900fps using NVenc! Oh btw it's a 12th gen

Does that mean that AV1 is not buggy anymore?

[Kazymyr]

When I last tried to use the AV1 codec, about a year and a half ago, I found quickly a showstopper bug that would result in unusable output, and contacted the developers. I ran the tests they required and sent the results back, it was acknowledged as a bug and then... nothing happened. I followed any updates on that for many months and nothing. Does this mean that the finally got around to make it actually working?

Re:

[ByTor-2112]

Are you actually expecting the developers to read your comment and answer it?

Re:

[duane_robertson]

The developers still leave assertions in the code, which is a good sign that they don't consider it to be ready for production. However, after I patched a few of the worst offenses out, it's worked fine for me for almost a year now.

Masses?

[drinkypoo]

According to the Steam hardware survey, the masses have a 1060 GTX.

I'm in the middle of a DVD transcoding project with Handbrake... at that resolution I'm getting about 1300 fps to H.265, or 600ish with a deinterlace.

Yet...

[Thantik]

And still yet, when you drop a whole folder worth of content into Handbrake, it _still_ tries to video-encode any included text files. How stupid.

Re:

[WoodstockJeff]

... because users continue to ask handbrake to encode random files, not just "video" files in a directory. Dropping a whole directory doesn't mean it "only" tries to encode .MOV, .MKV, .MP4, .TS, or whatever files, because people DO use other extensions for their video files.

Yes, it does happen. And yes, they do file complaints.