Wow. Handbrake (free) does a better job than VP 23 at downscaling

KDJack wrote on 3/15/2026, 1:47 AM

I'm really shocked that, Handbrake (free) does a better job at downscaling a UWQHD (3440x1440p) to HD (1920x1080p) than Vegas Pro 23, which I paid for. It also includes H.264 and H.265(NVENC) encoders so you get the performance (if you have an NVIDIA card);

Handbrake handles the scaling by default and ensures it fills as much as the screen as possible without the user having to modify any of the default settings. VP 23's "Event Pan/Crop" appears to do none this - either I had to decrease the size of the entire frame, or have it fill as much as possible and the frame cropped on both sides.

It's really, really telling regarding the quality of VP. I mean, I think we need to drop the "Pro" from it and just call it "Vegas Video Editor". Maybe cut the price again because when a free app outperforms the paid one, we've lost the battle and maybe even the war.

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john_dennis wrote on 3/17/2026, 2:14 AM

Thanks to Mister Easterling, my eighth-grade math teacher.

Steve_Rhoden wrote on 3/17/2026, 7:32 AM

@KDJack Can you edit videos, add music and audio tracks and do compositing in Handbrake?.... No, because Handbrake is a dedicated encoder and Vegas Pro is a professional video & audio editing plus compositing software..... You cant compare the two, so the narrative you keep repeating and trying to make here is pointless.