Handbrake Information

Hey! So here's some basic information on handbrake. First, it can be downloaded on either mac or windows computers. Click This < to see the page of download links. Please remember that I use a mac computer, not windows, so I might not be able to answer all of your windows computer questions about the downloading process, but I should be able to answer most about the actual application.

First thing you want to do after downloading the program is to open up the application. Click on "open source" (if the file select window didn't automatically open on its own) and select which file you want to reduce the file size of. Now, you won't have to change much in settings. There's so many options, but you don't have to mess with really any of them, besides two. The first is if you want to keep the 6 channel quality of the audio. This doesn't matter unless you edit 6 channel audios and all. You know who you are. Anyways, if you want to keep that, click the audio tab, and under "mixdown," change the selected option to "5.1 channels." The second setting you might ever have to change is under the video tab, there's a slider that is titled "preset" that allows you to change the speed of the file compression. If you change it to the fastest option, then your file won't become as small as it would if you did the slowest option, but it will work faster. Meanwhile, if you select the slowest option, it takes a good while, but your file will be a lot smaller compared to the faster options. After you've changed the settings you want to change, click the start button and you're good to go. 

Comment any questions you have and I'll get back to you!

- baylee