“Handbrake failed to encode. I don't know why but handbrake has worked on videos with these same export settings before but know is failing to encode because it doesn't recognize the file? It's rendered from PrePro in PRORES (adobe stock UHD). Quicktime won't open it either. Works fine in VLC.”

If you are a HandBrake user, you might have encountered this issue. As one of the most popular media encoder programs, HandBrake could help you easily decode and encode media files to MP4/MKV files. You could even use HandBrake to handle homemade Blu-ray/DVD movie files. However, there are also some drawbacks of HandBrake. Many people have met the HandBrake encoding failure issue. If your HandBrake encode failed and you are looking for solutions, you have come to the right place. Here we would like to share some solutions for fixing HandBrake won’t encode issue.

Part 1: What does encoding mean in Handbrake

HandBrake is a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files, originally developed in 2003 by Eric Petit to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier. HandBrake's backend contains comparatively little original code; the program is an integration of many third-party audio and video libraries, both codecs (such as FFmpeg, x264, and x265) and other components such as video deinterlacers (referred to as "filters"). These are collected in such a manner to make their use more effective and accessible.

Fix Handbrake Encode Failed

What does HandBrake encoding mean? To encode is to take out of code and put into understandable language. In HandBrake encoding, you use HandBrake to encode media files including Blu-ray, DVD and video files to digital MP4/MKV video files to make your source media files accepted by other players and devices like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, iTunes, iOS devices, Android devices, etc.

Part 2: Possible solutions to Handbrake encode failed

Why does HandBrake decoding failed issue happen? How can we solve HandBrake encode failed issue? Here are the possible solutions for HandBrake encode failed issue listed below:

  • 1. Quit the encoding process and close Handbrake. After that, try to restart Handbrake and start the encode process again to see if the problem has been fixed or not.
  • 2. Try to restart your computer and do the Handbrake encoding again. Many issues have been fixed in this way.
  • 3. The encoding process failure might be due to the firewall. Try temporarily disabling computer firewall and turning off antivirus software, and then try to encode media files in HandBrake again.
  • 4. You can try completely deleting Handbrake, and reinstalling the latest version.
  • 5. Install the latest version of Microsoft .NET Framework available for your Windows version.
  • 6. If Handbrake always stops encoding at the same point, you may check whether the DVD disc or video file is corrupt or damaged.
  • 7. Check if your DVD discs are commercial. HandBrake could only handle homemade DVD discs. If your DVD discs are commercial and protected, you have to install disc decryption plugins like libdvdcss for HandBrake to handle the commercial DVD discs.
  • 8. If your computer equips very old hardware, Handbrake encoding process may also stop in the middle due to the heavy load and overheating on the CPU, up to 100%.
  • 9. If the HandBrake encode failed issue only occurs when encoding x265 codec, it's your computer that is too old to let Handbrake encode x265 smoothly. H265 is an advanced codec and it requires more modern SIMD ones to decode/encode. Handbrake video encoding is performed by hardware encoder, but on lower-end hardware, you need to disable any other adjustment.

If you have tried all the solutions and still HandBrake encode failed again, you could try to use HandBrake alternatives. There are quite a few HandBrake alternatives that could help you decode and encode media files. You could get a satisfactory alternative to HandBrake. This could be the final solution you could ever get.

Part 3: How to make Handbrake encode faster

Well, with the HandBrake encode failed issue fixed, what should you do if your HandBrake encode is really slow? There are several different things that could affect the HandBrake encoding speed: hardware configuration, software encoding settings, and source media file size.

Hardware

HandBrake can scale well up to 6 to 8 CPU cores with diminishing returns thereafter. So a 4 core CPU can be nearly twice as fast as a dual Core equivalent, however a 16 core may not be twice as fast as an 8 core but may still offer significant increases in performance. The CPU scaling curve does vary greatly by source and settings used. HandBrake also supports encoding in ASIC hardware with Intel QuickSync, Nvidia NVEnc, and AMD VCE.

Settings

Settings play a large part in encoding performance. Most of the encoders expose many configuration options which allow you to tune the encoders. In HandBrake you could choose from “Video Preset” slider. This offers a range of presets from Ultrafast to Placebo (which is very slow). This slider trades off speed vs. quality and file size. Using faster presets and reduces quality OR increase file size to fasten the encoding. Using slower presets uses more complex algorithms to compress the video which takes more time offering an overall better result.

For x264 and x265, the Medium preset is a good trade off between quality, file size and speed but you can adjust this slider to suit your needs.

Fix Handbrake Encode Failed

Filters are another thing that has a big effect. Particularly if you use Denoise NLMeans. This is a very memory intensive operation so can drastically slow your encodes down. Again, there are settings for the filters that tune them for speed vs quality so you can see widely different results depending on what preset / tune you use.

Source media file

Quite clear, the larger the source media file is, the longer time the encoding process would be in HandBrake. To shorten the HandBrake encoding process, make sure your source media files are small.

Best alternative to Handbrake to encode video files - Leawo Video Converter Ultimate

As mentioned above, you could choose a HandBrake alternative to encode video files if your HandBrake encode failed issues still can’t be fixed. Leawo Video Converter Ultimate is the best HandBrake alternative to help you encode video files just like what HandBrake could do for you.

As a comprehensive media converter suite, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate could help you handle video and DVD conversions without installing 3rd-party disc decryption plugins. It could help you convert DVD/video files, copy and back up DVD movies, burn videos to DVD, download online videos and live streams, convert pictures to slideshow video, burn photos to DVD slideshow, etc.

You could download and install Leawo Video Converter Ultimate on your computer, and then follow the below guide to learn how to encode video files with HandBrake alternative - Leawo Video Converter Ultimate. Make sure you have source video files well prepared.

Note: Leawo Video Converter Ultimate is a module built in Leawo Prof. Media.

Step 1: Add source video files

Launch Leawo Prof. Media and then open the “Convert” option on the menu bar to enter the “Convert” module. Then click on the “Add Video” button to browse and load source video files for decoding and encoding.

Note:

1. You could also add DVD movie files for converting by clicking the “Add UHD/Blu-ray/DVD” button to browse and load DVD movie files from disc drive or computer. Once DVD content is selected, you will be provided three options for you to import DVD file(s): Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. Full Movie allows you to import all titles, and Main Movie only imports the longest title by default while you can freely choose titles for importing under Custom Mode. Choose a mode and click "OK" button to start importing source DVD files.

2. After loading source video file, you could choose titles to load, select subtitles and audio tracks, play back loaded movie title, edit loaded movie title, etc.

Step 2: Set output format

Click the drop-down box next to "Add Photo" button, and then click "Change" to enter the "Profile" panel. You can choose either video/audio format or mobile device as output profile under "Format" or "Device" group.

Step 3: Adjust output parameters

Leawo Video Converter allows you to change the video and audio parameters of selected profile like Video Codec, Bit Rate, Resolution, Frame Rate, Aspect Ratio, Audio Codec, Channel, Sample Rate, etc. You could enter the Profile Settings panel by clicking the same drop-down box and then clicking "Edit" option instead of "Change" option. You could adjust these parameters to decide the output video quality and encoding speed.

Step 4: Set output directory

After profile settings, you will be returned to the "Convert" interface, on which you need to click the green "Convert" button to set output directory for saving the output files.

Step 5: Start converting video files

Finally, click the bottom “Convert” button to start converting video files. You could view all converting tasks on the converting interface.

Click the "Convert" button at the bottom of sidebar to start conversion process. During the conversion process, you could click "Cancel" button to call off the process.

When the conversion completes, you could then get a digital video files from source video or even DVD files. The whole encoding process happens in the background. It could even help you decode and encode DVD movie files.