HandBrake VS staxrip

https://handbrake.fr/ its very easy to use.

nothing actually, i just mentioned it as an encoding frontend.

At this point, use https://handbrake.fr/ to transcode into a higher res MP4 and use as proxy footage,

Maybe you could try HandBrake.

The release itself[0] would have been a better link.

0. https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/releases/tag/1.7.0

Its literally a feature of all the underlying encoders. And you can do it even with exotic ffmpeg/vapoursynth filter chains. So I can't imagine why.

TBH I would just recommend Staxrip if you are on Windows: https://github.com/staxrip/staxrip

There is a linux equivalent, I can't remember what its called.

Or maybe some av1an GUI for Mac/Linux. All of these things support a target file size with many more features.

Since ffmpeg CLI still makes me pull ny hair out, I am going to plug vapoursynth:

https://www.vapoursynth.com/

Its Pythonic video filters... But also so much more: https://vsdb.top/

And Staxrip, which makes such good use of ffmpeg, vapoursynth, and dozens of other encoders and tools that I reboot from linux to Windows just to use it: https://github.com/staxrip/staxrip

https://github.com/staxrip/staxrip GUI But av1 outdated a bit which could be replaced/rebuild https://github.com/m-ab-s/media-autobuild_suite

2-4: I use StaxRip to encode the video because it includes the QTGMC deinterlacer, which is from my research a very good deinterlacer that produces less artifacts in the video than other deinterlacers like the one included in HandBrake.

But I actually got through it and found a great solution for myself using StaxRip and an updated QSVEnc by Rigaya. Replace StaxRip's outdated QSVEnc with the updated Rigaya QSVEnc.