Handbrake questions & answers

Convert video from nearly any format to a selection of modern codecs
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Question by keybounce
685 views
April 25, 2017

I would like to copy a DVD to my computer, so I can convert it later.


Right now, as I understand it, a DVD contains a file system, encrypted data, and a read-only, special track of decryption keys. There are libraries (such as libdvdcss) that can read those keys, and decrypt the data, and programs like Handbrake that will use that to access the encrypted data.


What I can do is make a file by file copy of the encrypted data from the DVD onto the computer, but this does not copy the decryption info, and neither Handbrake nor VLC can play this copy back.


Both of these are able to read the decrypted data with the library, and display/rip the contents to a normal file, but that is at the speed of reading a DVD, rather than the speed of reading files off the hard drive; additionally, it requires me to set the conversion information once, and that's it. It cannot work with any non-movie stuff, such as an interactive DVD game that a DVD playback program can work with.


I want to copy the decrypted data file to my computer.

  1. This would let me run multiple conversion passes at the speed of disk I/O, rather than the speed of DVD I/O. This would let me try different settings to see which to keep.
  2. This would let me use non-movie features of a DVD later in a DVD playback program.

If it makes a difference: I am on a Mac 10.9.5.

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Answer by Alex Urbach

As far as I know, you can't copy a DVD to PC and then convert it, in a normal way, but there is a solution. Try making an ISO file from the DVD and then attempt to convert and extract the data from the ISO file. Technically, the ISO should contain a perfect image of the DVD (security descriptors included).


The simplest way is to use Terminal and DD command: Open terminal using /Application/Utilities/Terminal.app/ and then type sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk1 followed by dd if=/dev/disk1 of=~/myCD.iso bs=2048 conv=sync,notrunc. Mount the ISO and then use Handbrake to extract the file.


Else, use Handbrake and extract/rip the DVD at its normal speed.

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Question by Guest
424 views
September 5, 2016

Disc has two episodes. How do I record both episodes?

Stephen Prastman
Answer by Stephen Prastman

If the files on the DVD are properly tagged and marked, then Handbrake will automatically export two files. There will be a selection menu when you will have to choose what files need to be saved.


If Handbrake won't automatically give the option to save the files, then use VidCoder and everything should be much simpler. However, I've tested both applications and they both provide ways to convert and RIP your DVDs.

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Question by jpope
317 views
April 19, 2015

Sometimes, but not all the time, my video is "Digitized" and thus I have to redo the entire process. How do I avoid this?

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Answer by Sean Hill

To avoid this issue, try changing the interlace mode of the conversion. You can find it in the Settings menu for the Video options in Handbrake. You will see that every mode used in the Deinterlace menu offers different image quality. The video doesn't matter, only the file format. The deinterlace settings work different for certain video file formats.


If these settings do not fix the issues, then I recommend checking the tutorials available through the Google Search. It's possible that you're missing settings, when the conversion takes place.

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Question by Guest
2K views
July 6, 2014

I've been trying to work out how to fix this problem for nearly a month now. As the title tells, whenever I drag a video file to Handbrake, it comes up with Scan failed: unrecognized file type. I realize this is because Handbrake doesn't support certain file types. However I tried MP4, AVI, ASF which are one the most common file types. I'd really be glad if I could get help on this problem and maybe get some file types that Handbrake supports?

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Answer by Sean Hill

Handbrake supports most common audio and video files, however, open source applications usually contains bugs. My advice is to try to close the application and then open it again with Administrator access then drag the file or use the File > Open. This could also be a small bug while using drag and drop, because as I've said earlier, the application supports most common file types including the ones you've already tried.


Additionally, re-install the product and obtain the Combined Community Codec Pack Free through the application's page on Software Informer and the program will use the 3rd party codecs instead of the ones deployed with the main application.

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Question by Guest
430 views
June 22, 2013

Does anyone know why a ripped video (which plays fine in Quicktime) ends up having horizontal jerky pans when converted? I've tried both 24, 29.97, and 30 fps settings.

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Answer by Robert Polubinski

The problem is not with the FPS adjustment. Try switching the code and make sure there are no auto conversion options enabled in the Videos tab. This ensures that the software will always use your settings instead of adjusting them by default.

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