Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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AndreiP
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Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:54 pm

Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

Post by AndreiP »

Hi,

on the main page (https://handbrake.fr/news.php) the latest version announced there is HandBrake 1.0.0 from December 2016. However we still have a 1.0.7 and I soon would expect the 1.1.0. But nothing is written here, also no small "We are happy to announce version 1.0.7 released, for change details check GitHub here" or similar. I mean the news page is the page which the user is seeing if he search for a video transcoder software using some special keywords in google and for the first look it would look like Handbrake is outdated. However HandBrake is highly active and maintained, but that could be only seen by skilled users inside GitHub.

So is there a reason why there are no news beeing posted? It would be nice to see what was changed and improved over the time. If that is an resources / manpower issue I would offer my help to write some version news we could post here to fill the gap. It musn´t be that much in my eyes, only showing some news which could be picked up by various different news pages / IT mags.

For example there are some paid competitors who are saying that HandBrake is relaying on a very old x265 LIB. But that's not the case, however the information isn´t part from any news its hidden deeply inside GitHub.
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BradleyS
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Re: Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

Post by BradleyS »

We typically only announce major releases, but I suppose that could change. Where do you see criticism regarding outdated libraries?
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s55
HandBrake Team
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Re: Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

Post by s55 »

Go pick ffmpeg violater of choice. Quite a few of them libel us but that's not surprising. Most of them are from parts of the world with lax copyright/trademark laws.

Frankly, given how little traffic the news page gets, it's hardly worth having. The forum announcement section get's more traffic and that's less than 1% of traffic.

So I don't particularly feel a need to publish minor patch releases. Users get notified via in-app update (which is safer than downloading from the site since it's got automatic code signing checks). Added benefit, tech press are slower to pick up (usually only by a few days) but it helps stagger the initial download load too)
AndreiP
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:54 pm

Re: Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

Post by AndreiP »

@BradleyS
the new board guideline said I´m not allewed to link or speak about 3rd party (as far as I can remember that). I saw some of them which links to the news page in there article beginning something like "handbake is very outdated according to the new side here and look there are no update since years ... blablabla try our new brilliant software for cheap xx Euro which will do the job for you". Some other still points to some limitations (e.g. only x CPU treads are possible and thats not fixed or did you see that written on the news page) which is solved quite a very long time ago. And at least one said handbrake is using an outdated x265 lib which isn´t really true, however the version from the x265 lib is deeply hidden in github and not that easy to find for the user. I also heard that from some other users in my DIJ Drone video club which said they read that handbrake is outdated, there "vendor" has that written on there website & newsletter and they saw that on the news page as well. They didn´t performed a deeper check here if that is true or not. Might be there fault, however I think a more recent up to date news page might help to kill that approach.

@s55
Yes some of them are ffmpeg violators, but not all.

To improve the news page couldn´t the handbrake team simply create postings on the news page and then link to the forum? Something like "The handbrake team is happy to announce 1.0.7 (for more info's click here)". I mean the website which try to sell there software focus on persons which do not really double check what the fake artilce. A person might click on the link to check if the statement is true and regarding the outdated news page that's the case. So why should they go a step further and click on the forum link (and then another link) and then a click on the announcement section or the download section? I mean they directly saw the "is outdated" statement is true as there are no new posted. I think a more recent up to date news page might also help with SEO as google focus on new and up to date content rather then static old text.

Or maybe the news section (https://handbrake.fr/news.php) can be removed fully and linked directly to the announcement forum section? Then there would be no need to duplicate content.
Last edited by AndreiP on Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BradleyS
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Re: Version infos / news on the mainpage outdated?

Post by BradleyS »

People shouldn't believe everything they read. Sounds like a marketing scam.
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