Search This Blog

Handbrake for Mac: How to limit the CPU usage

When converting videos using Handbrake on Mac, the fans go crazy. Because audio/video encoding is cpu intensive and by default Handbrake uses all the cpus/cores. To limit the cpu usage in Handbrake:

  1. Activate Advanced tab
  2. Append 
    :threads=1
    to the text area at the bottom of the tab






















Note

You can increase the number of threads to suit your needs: e.g. 
:threads=2
if you have a quad-core mac.
Labels: ,

3 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 5, 2016 at 11:05 PM

    I have a quad core i5, late 2015 iMac. This works if I set threads to 1... However, it's super slow. Two threads just jumps it back to max cpu usage.. There doesn't seem to be an in-between?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 22, 2017 at 2:38 AM

    Not sure what I am doing wrong. The Advanced option string box is empty and doesn't allow me to type into it. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  3. TrevorFebruary 8, 2018 at 7:28 PM

    You have to click the "Use Advanced Options Panel" box in the Video panel (ie the first one). Bit of a UI fail there ...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)