Please keep supporting avi file format

[YEApineapple]

Hi

I'm loving handbrake ( easy to use, brilliant image quality, you've heard it all before I know). However I was dissapointed to read in the development road map that handbrake 9.4 was going to loose support for avi files. I understand that the avi file format isn't cutting edge but I have found that avi files are the most compatible file format around. Please, Please keep the avi file format. It may be old but it works flawlessly with every media player software I have.

Ps I know vlc player is good but other media players have their plus sides as well. please keep avi file format - it's the only format all my software can agree on.

thanks

jon

[s55]

It was removed a few months back. It's gone for good now. You can stick with 0.9.3 if you need AVI support however you'd probably be better of just finding an application that works better with AVI.

* AVI: AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake's AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn't even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read/maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.

[YEApineapple]

Thanks for letting me know about avi.

Seeing as I should find a new file format that's more future proof I was wondering which file format will become the most compatible or most popular for mpeg4 files? Mp4 Mkv or M4v. I'm asking you as you will know more about this than most people. I would have thought Mp4 would be most popular, but I don't know enought about mpeg-4 to say for certain.

Thanks for your help

Jonny

[TedJ]

First off, m4v is mp4... it's just a different file suffix to allow softsubs, AC3 passthrough and embedded chapters to work with Apple devices. Structurally they're identical.

I would say in the short term that mp4 has the edge, especially in hardware support, but mkv is now part of the DivX Plus HD profile so I'd expect hardware support for it to take off in a similar fashion to current DivX certified devices.

[Dzomlija]

I'm almost classified a fanatic by some because I'm constantly looking for new versions of the utilities I use, with Handbrake being on top of my list. I emmediately downloaded and installed 0.9.4, and will say that I like the interface. What I don't like is that support for AVI/XVID has been removed. I do appreciate that Handbrake wants to remain at the top of the game by supporting high-end formats such as H.264, but I do not agree with your explanation for dropping AVI.

H.264 does give better quality in addition to a host of other features, but it is still not as widespread or as mainstream as you believe. AVI/XVID is still the most widely used, because HArddisk based Media Players are also only now becoming popular. Sure, some of them do support the HD formats such as H.264, but those are usually limited to the higher-end models and are consequently higher priced.

Your decision to remove AVI/XVID support from Handbrake is like auto manufacturers deciding to remove safety belts from cars because airbags are better (which thankfully has not happened yet). Microsoft Office continues to support reading and writing legacy formats such as RTF or 97/2003 DOC, even though the newer DOCX is infintely better. Corel Paintshop Pro supports 73 different image formats, inclduing old and archaic types such as BMP, GIF and their own PSP, despite the existence of far superior formats such as JPG, PNG or PSPIMAGE.

I am genuinely disappointed in this decline in quality of a good product, and honestly apologise that my first post on this forum is a rant, but it cannot be helped. If Handbrake is to remain the mainstream product I consider it to be, then it should support all major formats, including older legacy formats such as AVI/XVID. The decision whether or not use legacy formats should be left to the user of the product, not the developer.

Until such time as the legacy formats can be returned to Handbrake, I have uninstalled 0.9.4 and will continue to use 0.9.3, and while I am doing so, I shall be on the lookout for an alternative utility that supports legacy formats.

Peter Alexander Dzomlija
Senior Technician
Dynax

[Rodeo]

The decision whether or not use legacy formats should be left to the user of the product, not the developer.

HandBrake is not a commercial product. End users have no right to decide what HandBrake does or does not do. If the developers do not want to support AVI anymore, it's their decision. How widespread the format is doesn't matter.

The source code is available, feel free to re-implement AVI and XviD support. If you can't, too bad.

Locking.

[TedJ]

Looking for an alternative?

virtualdub
avidemux
automkv

[jbrjake]

I'm almost classified a fanatic by some because I'm constantly looking for new versions of the utilities I use, with Handbrake being on top of my list.

If this was the case you would have been posting this six months ago when we removed AVI.

I do appreciate that Handbrake wants to remain at the top of the game by supporting high-end formats such as H.264, but I do not agree with your explanation for dropping AVI.

Um the explanation I gave was technical and factual. It was not a subjective argument. You cannot just disagree, you would have to prove the points I made about the difficulties of supporting the format and the failings of our current code to mux the format were in error.

H.264 does give better quality in addition to a host of other features, but it is still not as widespread or as mainstream as you believe.

No one said anything about AVI not being widespread. What I said was it is obsolete.

Your decision to remove AVI/XVID support from Handbrake is like auto manufacturers deciding to remove safety belts from cars because airbags are better (which thankfully has not happened yet).

Um, no. That is an entirely bogus analogy. It is like Apple deciding to remove floppy disk drives from computers because optical drives are better, which thankfully happened a decade ago.

Microsoft Office continues to support reading and writing legacy formats such as RTF or 97/2003 DOC, even though the newer DOCX is infintely better. Corel Paintshop Pro supports 73 different image formats, inclduing old and archaic types such as BMP, GIF and their own PSP, despite the existence of far superior formats such as JPG, PNG or PSPIMAGE.

Yes, this is a perfectly apt comparison, as HandBrake accrues billions of dollars in revenue and has one of the largest development teams on the planet...oh. Wait. That's right. We don't.

The decision whether or not use legacy formats should be left to the user of the product, not the developer.

We do not work for you. You have absolutely no right to dictate how we spent our free time.