handbrake_logoA new release of HandBrake, the video transcoder/ripper. The version 1.1.0 (released last month) comes with a load of enhancements, bug fixes and new features. Read the announcement to get all the details.

And its GTK+-3 based GUI still compiles on Slackware 14.2. The devs must have done something right. Thank you! Still, it is sad that I can not compile the HandBrake GUI on Slackware 14.1 – or older – due to the GTK+-3 requirement (how I wish that the Qt based GUI was still an option). You could still build the CLI-only variant I suppose. But it might also be a good idea to upgrade to Slackware 14.2 if you thought of running the graphical HandBrake program…

I did not test the program’s functionality yet, mainly because I don’t have a need for a video ripper/transcoder myself, but I appreciate your feedback about the Slackware package. Note that my ‘handbrake‘ package does not have any external dependencies – unlike the slackbuilds.org version.
Install and run, it’s that simple. Everything you need is compiled statically into the package. The ‘HandBrakeCLI‘ program is the command-line variant, whereas ‘ghb‘ is the GUI variant of HandBrake, also found in the “Multimedia” menu of your desktop environment.

One important change compared to previous releases is that you’ll find a ‘handbrake’ package in my regular repository as of now. Similar to my ‘ffmpeg‘ and ‘vlc‘ packages, I have introduced a variable “USE_PATENTS” and set it to “NO” to disable the patent-encumbered AAC encoder. That produces a package which can be re-distributed without restrictions – including on the Slackware server in the US.

Packages for Slackware 14.2 and -current with AAC audio encoding support can be obtained from my “restricted” repository:

The variant which does not support AAC audio encoding can be downloaded from the regular repository:

Eric