{"id":51055,"date":"2009-11-27T14:00:31","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T19:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theappleblog.com\/?p=36455"},"modified":"2014-04-11T12:53:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T16:53:50","slug":"handbrake-gets-64-bit-snow-leopard-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/51055","title":{"rendered":"Handbrake is a very handy DVD-ripping utility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mac OS X is a wonder. When it comes to personal information management, entertainment and the Internet, it\u2019s got all the basics covered. Beyond that, there are a handful of \u201cessential\u201d apps most Mac owners install on a new machine within minutes of booting it up for the first time. Handbrake is undoubtedly one of those essentials. And it just got a serious new upgrade.<\/p>\n

Handbrake is a very handy (pun intended) DVD-ripping utility that converts DVDs to self-contained video files that can be played back on a computer or mobile device. (Contrary to the outright lies of major motion picture studios, there\u2019s nothing wrong with having digital backups of movies you already own). In addition, DVDs can be converted into a number of formats, resolutions and aspect ratios. For many years, it has served as the single easiest way to get my movies off-of DVD discs and onto my iPods, iPhones and even my PSP. <\/span><\/p>\n

The latest release, Handbrake 0.9.4, includes support for Snow Leopard, and is also available in 64-bit editions for both Leopard and Snow Leopard. It also adds the ability to include multiple subtitle tracks to exported video and a new \u201clive preview\u201d for viewing the likely outcome of an export before committing to a lengthy rip.<\/p>\n

According to the release notes on the Handbrake website, the latest version includes new features like \u201cmacroblock tree rate control\u201d and \u201cweighted P-Frame prediction.\u201d I\u2019ve absolutely no idea what any of that means, and although they do provide links to explanatory articles, it made my head swim. I\u2019ll just assume it\u2019s all very swish and futuristic and good for my rips.<\/p>\n

The introduction of a 64-bit version is good news for those of us using true 64-bit multi-core processors, though the performance increase is a fairly modest 10 percent. The software also supports non-DVD encoding, which is great news for those of us who do a lot of video editing. (I prefer to use Final Cut but often have to import raw data into iMovie only to export it out to a format Final Cut will accept. Handbrake won\u2019t cut out this extra conversion step, but it performs far faster than the monolith that is iMovie and provides more flexibility in export formats.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all about video, either. Handbrake offers great audio encoding options, including the newly-added ability to encode AAC using OS X\u2019s Core Audio (which means far higher quality than was possible previously).<\/p>\n

Handbrake is free. Although this means it has no official support, it does enjoy an active and enthusiastic user community so if you get stuck you won\u2019t have far to go to find answers and help.<\/p>\n

If you are using a 64 bit machine and want to get the full 64-bit goodness from Handbrake, you\u2019ll need the 64-bit version of VLC Player, the latest nightly builds of which can be found here<\/a>. (Please note that VLC Player 64-bit is beta software and as such offers no end-user support.)\u00a0Handbrake 0.9.4 is available from the Handbrake handbrake.fr now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mac OS X is a wonder. When it comes to personal information management, entertainment and the Internet, it\u2019s got all the basics covered. Beyond that, there are a handful of \u201cessential\u201d apps most Mac owners install on a new machine within minutes of booting it up for the first time. Handbrake is undoubtedly one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}