Feedback on HandBrake

[ppayne]

Hello, I am trying out HandBrake (0.9.5) after using other tools for converting DVDs. I'd like to share my thoughts and request that some improvements be made in future versions.

First, there appears to be no way to add a group of files to be converted at once, and files must be manually added one at a time, then added to the queue. Could this perhaps be improved in the future? The ability to select multiple files would be a big boon.

Related to the above, when adding the file with the Source button you need to wait 1-2 seconds for the "Destination" field to update to the new one destination you've just selected. Pressing "add to queue" too soon will result in the program trying to overwrite the last file you added to the queue. Perhaps this could be addressed? (If nothing else, make the "add to queue" button un-clickable until the destination field has been updated)

A "set and forget" DVD mode would be great. Currently I put the disk in and the program works with the DVD for quite a long time before being ready for me. During that time I usually forget what I was doing. A way to tell it to start working on the disc automatically without asking me for input would be great, since I'm usually converting many discs at once.

It's my impression that all the presets for iPad and Apple TV are downsampling my material, and since I'm taking rather a long time to convert the movies, I'd much rather have them in full SD size (480 pixels high), rather than 368 pixels high or whatever. I'm not sure why this is -- since the iPad can show 720p with no problem, why would you convert a 480p video source down to 368 pixels high? It's frustrating really, and I'd love to see it addressed. If there's a good reason for this please tell me (likely it's related to needing to preserve the width), but I am watching the movies on my Apple TV or iPad, and don't see why I need to have them be even lower quality than the DVD source with 1024x768 is the lowest resolution in question. Could this be improved?

Thanks for reading my comments.

[rogue23]

First, there appears to be no way to add a group of files to be converted at once, and files must be manually added one at a time, then added to the queue. Could this perhaps be improved in the future? The ability to select multiple files would be a big boon.

Search the forums. This has been discussed numerous times.

Pressing "add to queue" too soon will result in the program trying to overwrite the last file you added to the queue.

Yes, this can sometimes be an issue, but it's not major.

A "set and forget" DVD mode would be great...A way to tell it to start working on the disc automatically without asking me for input

And how exactly would this work, if you don't tell Handbrake what you want it to do?

It's my impression that all the presets for iPad and Apple TV are downsampling my material

Again, search the forums, or read the documentation. There are compatibility reasons for the settings that are distributed with Handbrake. You can customize the profile however you would like, so this isn't really an issue.