Upgraders, please read the release notes.

handbrake-js

Handbrake-js is Handbrake (v1.6.1) for node.js. It aspires to provide a lean and stable foundation for building video transcoding software in node.js.

HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. It can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any copy protection.

Outputs:

• File Containers: .MP4(.M4V) and .MKV
• Video Encoders: H.264(x264), H.265(x265) MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 (libav), VP8 (libvpx) and Theora(libtheora)
• Audio Encoders: AAC, CoreAudio AAC/HE-AAC (OS X Only), MP3, Flac, AC3, or Vorbis
• Audio Pass-thru: AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC and MP3 tracks

Read more about the features.

Compatible Platforms

Tested on Mac OSX, Ubuntu 14, Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Ubuntu 14.04 notice: Transcoding to MP4 fails on Ubuntu since 14.04 for this reason.

Installation

System Requirements

Just node.js. On Mac and Windows, every else is installed automatically. However on Linux, you must install HandbrakeCLI manually with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update -qq
sudo apt-get install -qq handbrake-cli

As a library

Move into your project directory then run:

$ npm install handbrake-js --save

Mac / Linux users may need to run with sudo.

Now you can begin encoding from your app.

const hbjs = require('handbrake-js')

hbjs.spawn({ input: 'something.avi', output: 'something.m4v' })
  .on('error', err => {
    // invalid user input, no video found etc
  })
  .on('progress', progress => {
    console.log(
      'Percent complete: %s, ETA: %s',
      progress.percentComplete,
      progress.eta
    )
  })

As a command-line app

From any directory run the following:

$ npm install -g handbrake-js

Mac / Linux users may need to run with sudo.

Now, you can call handbrake as you would HandbrakeCLI, using all the usual options. By default, just statistics are output, passing --verbose prints the raw HandbrakeCLI output. This command will transcode an AVI to the more universal H.264 (mp4):

$ handbrake --input 'some episode.avi' --output 'some episode.mp4' --preset Normal
Task      % done     FPS       Avg FPS   ETA
Encoding  1.07       131.76    158.12    00h21m11s

API Reference

Handbrake for node.js.

Example

const hbjs = require('handbrake-js')

• handbrake-js
  • static
    • .spawn([options]) ⇒ Handbrake
    • .exec(options, [onComplete])
    • .run(options) ⇒ Promise
  • inner
    • ~Handbrake ⇐ EventEmitter
      • .output : string
      • .options : object
      • .eError
      • .cancel()
      • "start"
      • "begin"
      • "progress" (progress)
      • "output" (output)
      • "error" (error)
      • "end"
      • "complete"
      • "cancelled"

hbjs.spawn([options]) ⇒ Handbrake

Spawns a HandbrakeCLI process with the supplied options, returning an instance of Handbrake on which you can listen for events.

Kind: static method of handbrake-js

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | [options] | object | Options to pass directly to HandbrakeCLI | | [options.HandbrakeCLIPath] | string | Override the built-in HandbrakeCLI binary path. |

Example

const hbjs = require('handbrake-js')

const options = {
  input: 'something.avi',
  output: 'something.mp4',
  preset: 'Normal',
  rotate: 1
}
hbjs.spawn(options)
  .on('error', console.error)
  .on('output', console.log)

hbjs.exec(options, [onComplete])

Runs HandbrakeCLI with the supplied options calling the supplied callback on completion. The exec method is best suited for short duration tasks where you can wait until completion for the output.

Kind: static method of handbrake-js

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | options | Object | Options to pass directly to HandbrakeCLI | | [options.HandbrakeCLIPath] | string | Override the built-in HandbrakeCLI binary path. | | [onComplete] | function | If passed, onComplete(err, stdout, stderr) will be called on completion, stdout and stderr being strings containing the HandbrakeCLI output. |

Example

const hbjs = require('handbrake-js')

hbjs.exec({ preset-list: true }, function(err, stdout, stderr){
  if (err) throw err
  console.log(stdout)
})

hbjs.run(options) ⇒ Promise

Identical to hbjs.exec except it returns a promise, rather than invoke a callback. Use this when you don't need the progress events reported by hbjs.spawn. Fulfils with an object containing the output in two properties: stdout and stderr.

Kind: static method of handbrake-js

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | options | Object | Options to pass directly to HandbrakeCLI | | [options.HandbrakeCLIPath] | string | Override the built-in HandbrakeCLI binary path. |

Example

const hbjs = require('handbrake-js')

async function start () {
  const result = await hbjs.run({ version: true })
  console.log(result.stdout)
  // prints 'HandBrake 1.3.0'
}

start().catch(console.error)

handbrake-js~Handbrake ⇐ EventEmitter

A handle on the HandbrakeCLI process. Emits events you can monitor to track progress. An instance of this class is returned by spawn.

Kind: inner class of handbrake-js
Extends: EventEmitter
Emits: start, begin, progress, output, error, end, complete, cancelled

• ~Handbrake ⇐ EventEmitter
  • .output : string
  • .options : object
  • .eError
  • .cancel()
  • "start"
  • "begin"
  • "progress" (progress)
  • "output" (output)
  • "error" (error)
  • "end"
  • "complete"
  • "cancelled"

handbrake.output : string

A string containing all handbrakeCLI output

Kind: instance property of Handbrake

handbrake.options : object

a copy of the options passed to spawn

Kind: instance property of Handbrake

handbrake.eError

All operational errors are emitted via the error event.

Kind: instance enum of Handbrake
Properties

| Name | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | VALIDATION | ValidationError | Thrown if you accidentally set identical input and output paths (which would clobber the input file), forget to specifiy an output path and other validation errors. | | INVALID_INPUT | InvalidInput | Thrown when the input file specified does not appear to be a video file. | | INVALID_PRESET | InvalidPreset | Thrown when an invalid preset is specified. | | OTHER | Other | Thrown if Handbrake crashes. | | NOT_FOUND | HandbrakeCLINotFound | Thrown if the installed HandbrakeCLI binary has gone missing. |

handbrake.cancel()

Cancel the encode, kill the underlying HandbrakeCLI process then emit a cancelled event.

Kind: instance method of Handbrake

"start"

Fired as HandbrakeCLI is launched. Nothing has happened yet.

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

"begin"

Fired when encoding begins. If you're expecting an encode and this never fired, something went wrong.

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

"progress" (progress)

Fired at regular intervals passing a progress object.

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | progress | object | details of encode progress | | progress.taskNumber | number | current task index | | progress.taskCount | number | total tasks in the queue | | progress.percentComplete | number | percent complete | | progress.fps | number | Frames per second | | progress.avgFps | number | Average frames per second | | progress.eta | string | Estimated time until completion | | progress.task | string | Task description, either "Encoding" or "Muxing" |

"output" (output)

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | output | string | An aggregate of stdout and stderr output from the underlying HandbrakeCLI process. |

"error" (error)

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

| Param | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | error | Error | All operational exceptions are delivered via this event. | | error.name | eError | The unique error identifier | | error.message | string | Error description | | error.errno | string | The HandbrakeCLI return code |

"end"

Fired on successful completion of an encoding task. Always follows a begin event, with some progress in between.

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

"complete"

Fired when HandbrakeCLI exited cleanly. This does not necessarily mean your encode completed as planned..

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

"cancelled"

If .cancel() was called, this event is emitted once the underlying HandbrakeCLI process has closed.

Kind: event emitted by Handbrake

© 2013-23 Lloyd Brookes <[email protected]>.

Tested by test-runner. Documented by jsdoc-to-markdown.

Handbrake (Authors) is licensed by GNU General Public License Version 2.