HandBrake
HandBrake Is the Open-Source Transcoder That Shrinks Your Video Library
Got a pile of DVDs, screen recordings, or 4K files eating your drive? HandBrake is the free, open-source video transcoder that turns the video you already own into smaller, universally playable files.
What it is
HandBrake is a GPL-2.0 transcoder for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It takes nearly any source — phone clips, camera footage, game captures, DVDs, Blu-rays — and outputs clean MP4, MKV, or WebM that plays on phones, TVs, consoles, and browsers.
Why it's the default
- Battle-tested engine — built on FFmpeg, x264, x265, and SVT-AV1, so you get industry-standard codecs without piecing them together yourself.
- Broad input — consumer/pro cameras, mobile, screen recordings, and disc sources all work.
- Truly free — no watermark, no trial, no premium tier. Just GPL-2.0.
- Cross-platform — same tool on every OS.
- Community-driven — active docs, code of conduct, and open translation effort via Transifex.
Get started
Download from handbrake.fr or build from source, then follow the official documentation. Pick a preset, drop in your file, and encode.
If you self-host media (Jellyfin/Plex) or just want to reclaim disk, HandBrake is the zero-cost, no-catch way to do it.