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HandBrake
The open source video transcoder

HandBrake: Application and Project Information

This page answers common questions about HandBrake, including its licensing, distribution, privacy, security, support, and use in business environments.

What is HandBrake?

HandBrake is a free, open-source desktop application for transcoding video files.

For more information about its features and how to use it, see the HandBrake documentation.

HandBrake is free to download and use. No purchase or subscription is required.

Where can I find the official HandBrake website?

The official HandBrake website is handbrake.fr.

The project's source code and development activity are hosted on GitHub.

For Linux users, HandBrake is also available through Flathub.

Beware of unofficial downloads. HandBrake is free software. Third-party websites may distribute modified, outdated, or potentially unsafe versions. The HandBrake team cannot verify or support software distributed independently by third parties.

For recommended download methods, see the official installation documentation.

Who runs the HandBrake project? Is there a legal entity or sponsor?

HandBrake is a volunteer-maintained open-source project. It does not have a dedicated corporation or legal entity managing the project, and it is not funded or sponsored by a central organisation.

Development and maintenance are carried out by community contributors in their own time.

Where is the HandBrake project based (Country of Origin)?

HandBrake is an international open-source project with contributors from multiple countries.

The locations of individual contributors do not establish a single country of origin for the project; however, the primary contributors to HandBrake are based in the EU, US and UK.

HandBrake also uses third-party libraries and other components. Information about these dependencies and their respective projects can be found in the HandBrake acknowledgements.

Does HandBrake have an office address or telephone number?

The project does not operate a central office or telephone support line.

HandBrake is maintained by volunteers rather than a dedicated commercial organisation.

For assistance, please see the community support options.

Can HandBrake be used in a business?

Yes. HandBrake can be used in commercial and business environments under the terms of its applicable open-source licence.

HandBrake is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2). The project's licence information is available in the LICENSE file.

HandBrake also incorporates third-party libraries and components. Their respective licences and notices should be reviewed where relevant, particularly when redistributing HandBrake or incorporating it into another product.

The dependencies included with an official distribution generally mean that users do not need to install separate copies of HandBrake's bundled libraries manually. Operating-system components and other platform requirements may still apply.

Organisations are responsible for determining how the software and its licence terms apply to their own use and distribution arrangements.

Does HandBrake provide commercial support or a warranty?

No. HandBrake is a volunteer-maintained project and does not provide commercial support contracts or a dedicated enterprise support service.

For help using the application, please consult:

Please refer to the applicable licence for information about warranty and liability terms.

Is an account or subscription required?

No. HandBrake does not require an account, registration, or subscription to use the application.

Video processing takes place locally on the user's computer rather than through a HandBrake-hosted cloud service.

Does HandBrake require an internet connection or cloud services?

No. An internet connection is not required for normal video transcoding.

HandBrake is a native desktop application and processes media locally on the computer where it is running.

The application includes an optional update-checking feature. When enabled, this feature makes network requests to check for available updates. It can be disabled in the application's preferences.

Where can I find HandBrake's privacy policy?

The HandBrake Privacy Policy is available on the official website.

Does the HandBrake application collect telemetry or information about my media?

The HandBrake application does not collect telemetry, usage statistics, or logs from the user's computer for transmission to the project. It also does not collect information about the source or encoded video content for transmission to the project.

Update checking: When update checking is enabled, HandBrake periodically makes an HTTPS request to the project's update service, currently documented as:

https://handbrake.fr/appcast.x86_64.xml

This request may be recorded in the web server's logs, including the connecting IP address and potentially the HandBrake version supplied in HTTP headers.

Update checking can be disabled in the application's preferences.

For further information about website and server-log handling, please refer to the Privacy Policy.

Does HandBrake integrate with social media platforms?

HandBrake does not provide built-in social media integration as part of its core video-transcoding functionality.

Where can I find HandBrake's security policy?

The HandBrake Security Policy explains how to report security vulnerabilities and describes the project's security-reporting practices.

The project also publishes information to help users verify the integrity and authenticity of official releases:

Users should obtain downloads from the recommended official distribution channels and follow the published verification instructions where applicable.

The HandBrake project does not complete third-party security questionnaires or provide third-party security scan reports.

How long is each version of HandBrake supported?

HandBrake does not publish a fixed support lifecycle or advance end-of-life schedule for individual releases.

Under the project's published policy, previous releases become end-of-life when a new version is released. Older versions do not receive ongoing updates.

Users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest official release.

For current release information, see the GitHub releases page.

Does HandBrake provide accessibility documentation?

The project does not currently provide a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or equivalent formal accessibility assessment.

If you encounter an accessibility barrier or an issue that prevents you from using part of the application, please report it through the GitHub issue tracker.

Providing clear steps to reproduce the issue, along with relevant application and operating-system details, can help the project investigate it.

What about third-party versions of HandBrake?

HandBrake is open-source software. Subject to the applicable licence terms, third parties may redistribute or modify the source code and publish their own builds.

The HandBrake team does not control independently produced versions and cannot guarantee their integrity, behaviour, feature set, or security.

Third-party versions may differ from official releases and may not be supported by the HandBrake team.

For recommended download sources and guidance on avoiding unofficial builds, consult the official installation documentation.

Is HandBrake available through app stores or package repositories?

HandBrake's recommended distribution channels include:

Other app stores, package repositories, and download sites may offer their own builds. Their availability does not necessarily mean that the HandBrake team publishes, maintains, or supports those builds.

For the latest supported download and installation options, always refer to the official HandBrake documentation.