Handbrake Gets Updated to 0.9.1
Most of the time when developers release announcements about a new version of their software, they are full of pride about the wealth of new features that have just been included; however, the developers of HandBrake are “chagrined” to announce a new version of their DVD ripping software for a different reason. Why? Simply because it fixes so many bugs and stability problems. They have said on their website that v0.9.0 was no where near as stable as it should have been.
I use HandBrake as my primary (only) DVD ripper and I am extremely pleased with it. I haven’t come across any of the bugs or stability issues listed with v0.9, but it is still great to see them fixed!
Here is what else is new in the release (from the site):
- Impressive performance enhancements
- Significant interface prettification
- Color subtitles now show up in color
- Changing dimensions in Picture Settings no longer causes a crash
- Forced subtitle support
- Closing the main window no longer causes HandBrake to crash
- Using “Slow” deinterlacing no longer doubles the chapter count.
- MPEG Stream support is now case-insensitive (.VOB as well as .vob, etc) and more compatible
- No more error messages sent to standard out instead of standard error
- Bigger buffer for the activity log
- Proper display of fading subtitles
- “Same as source FPS” now works correctly when the end-credits of a progressive film are interlaced.
- Target size fixed for the umpteenth time
…and assorted other changes.
HandBrake is free and open source and available on the HandBrake development site.
Can someone explain to me the relationship between the 16 color icon and the name of the application? Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see it…
Although no one knows the original story as to why this icon was built by the original dev ‘titer’, here are some of the comments by the Project Administrators about it.
“he current logo is really in homage to HB’s original dev and creator, titer. The logo has always sparked curiosity and interest, so we have a particular “fondness” for it.”
“I believe the idea is that while you’re giving your hand a break by using HB instead of a bunch of CLI tools, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a refreshing tropical libation.”
Whatever the reason, they said it is here to stay.
Handbrake is a mixed drink (I don’t know what’s in it).
[...] A lovely bit of software that nearly everyone will probably need to use at one point or another. Our Review | [...]
Hmmmm…… maybe I’m a little dense, but it doesn’t work on my Leopard Mac - The application loads up fine and conversion starts ok, but after about 3% completion it starts to skip loads and then comes up with some cryptic message about the conversion being complete. The resultant output file skips frames, has garbled audio complete with nasty bleeps and noises that attempt to blast the sound system to smitherines - basically totally unusable. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be will be welcome….. but I can’t agree with all the hype about it being great!
Frankly, DVD Ripper v1.0 works fine, although the trial version will only convert a three minute DVD. Maybe like all things in life, you don’t get something for nothing!