Interest in off-topic guides/in-depth discussions?

[TheDreadPirate]

I can 100% help with that. Handbrake is pretty rudimentary in what it does with presets and you can get the preset files in JSON to see exactly what is done -- you can actually recreate them. I run a Handbrake Docker container where I made a few presets that way which is pretty neat. If you do anything with Docker, there's a Handbrake container out there that will watch a folder and auto-process anything that drops there with whatever preset you specify.

I prefer the granularity of ffmpeg through the command line as I've learned more about it. There are so many options it's mind-boggling, but it's so flexible that every time I ask, "I wonder if I can..." there's always a way to accomplish it. Maybe I'll create an ffmpeg discussion/megathread where I can share what I've done thus far and we can open the floor for requests, questions, revisions, suggestions, all of that. I know there are Jellyfin devs who are ffmpeg experts that I would love to weigh in if they have a spare moment as well.

Make the thread.  When I get home I will share my Handbrake preset json and we can try to construct an equivalent ffmpeg command.