HandBrake 1.8.0 includes VP9 & FLAC mixing, moves to FFmpeg 7.0, and support GTK4 on Linux

HandBrake, the cross-platform video transcoder, has unveiled its 1.8.0 version. It introduces the ability to mix VP9 and FLAC in the MP4 container, eliminates timestamp jitters for constant NTSC frame rate in MP4, and updates the iso639 language codes list. It has also removed support for importing legacy plist-based presets from older HandBrake versions.

The 1.8.0 version brings support for the FFV1 encoder, including a “Preservation FFV1” preset, multi-pass CQ with VP9, VP9 tunes, and Dolby Vision dynamic metadata pass through for SVT-AV1. It enhances Decomb speed by eliminating redundant frame copies and improves Framerate Shaper metrics for high depth frames.

In terms of audio, the latest version introduces the TrueHD encoder, and supports 88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz sample rates for both TrueHD and FLAC encoders. It also improves audio track selection by tracking “linked” audio tracks and fixes incorrect channel layout when encoding a 6.1 track to Opus.

For Linux users, the UI has been migrated to GTK 4 and includes support for recursive file scanning and multi-file scanning via drag and drop. Mac users will benefit from Dolby Vision and HDR10+ dynamic metadata pass through for VideoToolbox H.265 10-bit, Metal-accelerated Comb Detect and Framerate Shaper filters, and the ability to drag and drop SRT and ASS subtitles files onto the main window.

Windows-specific improvements, updated libraries (including FFmpeg 7.0), and bug fixes to subtitles, the command-line interface, and more, are also part of this release.