Video Transcoding v0.25.0 Release Notes

Release Date: 2019-03-10 // about 5 years ago
  • Saturday, March 9, 2019

    • 🔄 Change the default mixdown for stereo audio output tracks in transcode-video from Dolby Pro Logic II format to regular stereo. This matches the behavior of the presets in HandBrake since version 1.2.0. The old behavior is still available in transcode-video via the --mixdown dpl2 option and argument. Via #262.
    • ✂ Remove previous addition to the "README" document explaining that stereo tracks can also include surround audio information in matrix-encoded Dolby Pro Logic II format since that's no longer the default behavior, nor is it recommended (which makes me sad).
    • In order to avoid a crash on the Windows Subsystem for Linux platform, buffer characters that seem to be part of a multibyte UTF-8 sequence when copying output from HandBrakeCLI to the console or the .log file in transcode-video and from ffmpeg to the console in convert-video. Thanks to @joshstaiger for the persistent detective work and the patch! Via #189 and #264.
    • As a convenience to those not using batch scripts, echo the output file name at the completion of transcoding. Thanks to @JayJay1974 for the idea! Via #260.
    • Explain the --fallback-crop option and its new minimal argument in the "Cropping" section of the "README" document. Thanks to @JMoVS for the reminder! Via #266.
    • Modify the --help output of transcode-video to clarify that the --ac3-bitrate and --pass-ac3-bitrate options only affect surround audio and surround pass-through bitrates.
    • 0️⃣ Lower the bitrate of stereo and mono Dolby Digital Plus output to sensible levels in transcode-video when applying the --ac3-encoder eac3 option and argument. Previously this was always 768 Kbps for stereo and 384 Kbps for mono, with stereo being higher than the default bitrate for surround audio output in the same format.
    • ➕ Add a "CHANGELOG.md" document to the project and replace the content of the "History" section of the "README" document with pointers to the GitHub releases page and that new "CHANGELOG.md" document.