Does handbrake transcode or encode?

[gminnick]

All the descriptions about Handbrake say it's a transcoder. The few transcoders I have worked with never had many options to choose from, but Handbrake seems to have additional h.264 options. It also has a 2 pass option. This seems more like an encoder. Even the prompt says encoding when it starts (probably as a generic term). So I was wondering if it had x264 under the covers and was really encoding? I compared a clip I did with Handbrake and one with badaboomit (which is a transcoder and has very few settings) and Handbrake was far better at the same bit rate and resolution. This is another reason I was wondering about the transcoder/encoder thing. I was just so impressed with how good it is, I have to ask this question even though the docs say its a transcoder.

Like anyone I want the best bang for the buck, so if a transcoder can do just as good a job as an encoder, I don't really care. Handbrake was very easy to use. I did notice there are no selections for profiles and levels (not that I am smart enough to know which is best anyway).

Thanks

[Baldrick]

Encoding using x264.


I haven't seen any "transcoder" like dvd shrink for h264 material. Isn't badaboomit a video card hardware based h264 encoder?

[gminnick]

Yes, it uses the G92 chip on NVidia cards. I used it and it transcoded a 2hr movie in 20mins.

I am assuming this is a transcoder because here is their statement:

"Elemental Technologies’ Badaboom™ Media Converter takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of performing transcoding on the CPU, it harnesses the massively parallel NVIDIA GPUs in today’s computers to perform the core transcoding operations"


However, I thought Handbrake was a transcoder too because of this statement on their website:

"HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows."

Out of curiosity, why does the author of Handbrake state it is a transcoder? Are these terms becoming interchangeable when they are really different?

[Baldrick]

I would say that transcoding and encoding means the same for the above. The different is just that the badaboom uses the gpu.

But in my world is transcoding like dvd shrink, just designed to shrink the mpeg2 stream. .

[gminnick]

Thanks for the information. I am wondering if transcoding is being used as a term for multicodec encoders. Meaning any to any.

Thanks again.

[jagabo]

Transcode originally meant just converting from one codec to another. Many places continue to use the term that way. The term transcode often used here, eg with DVDShrink, refers to the reduction of bitrate/filesize by requantizing, not fully reencoding. Handbrake and Badaboom are using the term in its original sense.

[gminnick]

Thanks jagabo. That helps clarify the terminology.