A Comprehensive Guide to HandBrake AV1 Transcoding

AV1 is a next-generation video codec that has gained popularity in recent years for its high-quality video and efficient compression. It is used by a variety of streaming services, and is becoming increasingly popular. However, AV1 is still in its early stages and is not yet widely supported by most media players, video editors, and other applications. If you're lucky to have some AV1 video files downloaded in .mp4, .mkv, or .webm extension and want to convert them to a more widely-supported format like H.264 or HEVC, you may be wondering if HandBrake, the most popular open-source video transcoder, supports the AV1 codec.

The answer to "Can HandBrake support AV1" is both YES and NO. HandBrake has added support for reading AV1 via the third-party library libdav1d starting from version 1.3.0, which means you can use HandBrake to convert AV1 video to another format. While HandBrake is constantly being updated and improved, as of the knowledge cutoff for this blog post, it still doesn't work for outputting AV1 video file.

Simply put, HandBrake supports decoding and reading AV1-encoded video files, and is able to convert AV1 to H.264, HEVC, VP9, and other popular video formats. But it doesn't support transcoding any video files to AV1 format, so that there is no HandBrake AV1 preset at all.

UPDATE: The release of HandBrake 1.6.0 and later adds AV1 video encoding via SVT-AV1encoder and decoder, which means you're able to transcode any video to AV1 format.

Step 1. Download and install HandBrake v1.6.0 and later through Official Website, and make sure you have Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime 6 installed on your Windows PC.

Step 2. Launch HandBrake, add an AV1-encoded file or a folder of AV1 files from local drive.

Step 3. After the scanning, open "Preset" menu on the top bar and choose any preset from the six categories based on your needs.

Step 4. Select "MP4", "MKV", or "WebM" format under "Summary" tab.

Optional. You're allowed to switch over to other tabs for detailed preferences. For example, go to "Dimensions" tab to change video resolution, navigate to "Video" tab to change video codec and quality, and modify audio and subtitle tracks, etc.

Step 5. If you've added multiple AV1 files, you can configure each video and press "Add to Queue" button for later HandBrake batch conversion.

Step 6. Press "Browse" button on the bottom to choose a destination folder for saving the export video files.

Step 7. Finally, hit "Start Encode" button to start HandBrake AV1 video transcoding process. It will accelerate the conversion speed if your computer supports AMD VCN, Intel QSV, or NVIDIA NVENC hardware encoding.

Step 1. Launch HandBrake and add your video file(s).

Step 2. Select a desired preset on the right side.

Step 3. Select "MP4", "MKV", or "WebM" format under "Summary" tab.

Step 4. Navigate to "Video" tab, choose "AV1 (SVT)" or "AV1 10-bit (SVT)" in the Video Encoder drop-down list. Then configure other settings as you wish.

Step 5. Choose a destination folder. Finally, start HandBrake AV1 encoding process.

If you're not that tech-savvy to handle HandBrake, WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro, a novice-oriented video and audio processor, is more helpful to simplify the process in only four steps. It's equipped with a wide range of codecs and 500+ optimized presets, and offers a one-click process to convert AV1 to H.264, HEVC, MP4, AVI, MKV, or any device-specific format without installing the additional plugin, component, or framework. The well-designed interface makes it quite easy-to-use.

Free downloadFree download the amazing app, and let's see how it works more efficiently than HandBrake AV1 conversion.

Step 1. Launch HD Video Converter Factory Pro and open "Converter" module.

Step 2. Drag and drop your AV1-encoded video files into the main interface.

Step 3. Open the output format library of 500+ presets on the right side, and choose any profile as you wish.

Optional. Open "Parameter settings" window to change video bitrate, frame rate, resolution, encoder, aspect ratio, and audio settings.

Step 4. Specify a destination folder on the bottom. Finally, hit "Run" button to convert AV1 to MP4 and other formats with GPU acceleration.

That's all I want to share with you the topic of HandBrake AV1 support. In a nutshell, you can only use HandBrake to convert AV1 to H.264 and other formats at the present stage. But we have reason to believe that the official will add support for HandBrake AV1 encoding in the near future, after all, AV1 has gradually become popular and promises to provide better compression than the existing codecs like H.264, HEVC, and VP9.