Why handbrake?

[groovyd]

I have been searching the FAQ for why it is called handbrake and not something like DVDConverter or whatnot. Insight anyone? I am curious about the story surrounding it's odd name.

[Da Man]

If the devs would like some name suggestions, I could come up with a few...

[LinBrake]

1) It is unique. There is no confusion when someone tells you "Use Handbrake".

2) It is fun. Open source projects don't need the same type of marketing that commercial projects do so they can come up with fun names.

DragonflyBSD, Handbrake, and dozens of others all do this.

[groovyd]

agreed... i just thought something specific must have happened to come up with that name, something interesting.

[TedJ]

The origin of the name goes way back into the mists of time... well back to 2005/2006 at any rate. It certainly predates me by several years.

The only reference I can find to it is here.

[baggss]

As I recall the name stemmed from titer wanting to give his "hand a break" from the tediousness of using CLI and other manual tasks associated with ripping a DVD "back in the day".

[dynaflash]

and I think the icon was what you could do while HandBrake did the encoding.