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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.

3 comments:

  1. 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. 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. 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