What is HandBrake?

HandBrake is an open source desktop application for transcoding video and audio files.

For more information on what the application does and how to use it, please see our documentation

HandBrake is free software and NO purchase is required.

Where can I find the official HandBrake website?

The official website is https://handbrake.fr The project development is on Github under https://github.com/HandBrake/

All other websites that mention / offer HandBrake are 3rd party and not associated with this project. Please use caution when using 3rd party sites and watch out for possible scams!

Who runs the HandBrake Project? Is there a Legal Entity or Sponsor?

HandBrake does not have a legal entity, sponsors or corporation managing the project.

This is a volunteer project run by a few developers in our free time.

Where is HandBrake's "Country of Origin"?

Being an open source project, HandBrake has contributors from all over the world.

Our core team is currently split between the EU, US and UK. The vast majority of contributions come from these regions.

HandBrake makes use of many 3rd party libraries. These are listed on our Thanks page. Please refer to each individual project for information about its origin.

Do you have an Address or Telephone Number?

No. We do not have an office or telephone line. There is no legal entity behind the project.

Can I use HandBrake in our business?

Yes. HandBrake is free and open-source software and can be used in a business setting.

Please see https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/blob/master/LICENSE for our License information. A full copy of the GPLv2 open source license is provided and can be referred to here: https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/blob/master/COPYING

HandBrake includes a number of 3rd party libraries. More information about these projects can be found on our https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/blob/master/THANKS.markdown page. You do not need to install any 3rd party software. HandBrake is completely self-contained.

Do you provide commercial grade support or warranty?

No. Being a volunteer project, we are not able to offer this. For help, community support is available via our forums or IRC chat.

We also provide extensive documentation

Do I need an account or subscription to use HandBrake?

No, HandBrake runs entirely locally on your system. No account or subscription is required to use it.

Where is the Privacy Policy for HandBrake?

Our Privacy Policy can be found on the on our main website.

Where is the Security Policy for HandBrake?

Our Security Policy can be found on GitHub

We digitally sign our software releases with OpenPGP

We also provide checksums for verification of the integrity of the download.

Any security issues will be noted in our Release Notes and where relevant, an advisory may also be published on our GitHub Security Page.

We do not fill out any form of questionaries or provide any security scan results.

How long will a version of HandBrake be supported?

We do not provide end-of-life dates for HandBrake Versions. When new major versions are released, old versions will no longer receive updates.

Does HandBrake require an internet connection, account or cloud services to operate?

• HandBrake is a native desktop application.
• It does not require an internet connection, any cloud services or an account to operate.
• It runs entirely local to the machine it's been run.

HandBrake does have a built-in update checker that can be optionally used for software updates. This can be disabled in preferences and is opt-in.

Does HandBrake Integrate with any social media platforms?

No, HandBrake does not use or integrate to any social media platform.

Can you provide accessibility documentation?

No, we do not provide any documentation on accessibility of HandBrake. (VPAT or otherwise)

Should you find an issue with our application that is impacting a users ability to perform actions, please feel free to raise a GitHub Issue

Does the HandBrake app collect any information or telemetry from the system?

• The HandBrake app does NOT collect any telemetry, usage statistics or log data from the machine.
• The HandBrake app does NOT collect any information related to your source or encoded video content.

If Update Checking is enabled:

• HandBrake periodically makes a standard https call out to https://handbrake.fr/appcast.x86_64.xml.
  • This will appear in our web server log files (including your IP address and may include the HandBrake version in the HTTP headers).
  • The update check can be disabled in preferences.

What about 3rd party versions of HandBrake?

Since HandBrake is open source and distributed under the GPL v2 license, anyone is free to publish their own, or modified versions of HandBrake. The HandBrake team has no control over 3rd party versions of the software so you should use caution when using 3rd party versions.

The official HandBrake application is only available via https://handbrake.fr https://github.com/HandBrake/ and https://flathub.org/apps/fr.handbrake.ghb

Is HandBrake available on any App Stores?

HandaBrake is only available through https://handbrake.fr, https://github.com/HandBrake

For Linux users, HandBrake is additionally available on FlatHub