Handbrake Settings?

[Atra1n2]

I'm looking for the best settings for handbrake. I'm looking to transcode x264 MKV files from MakeMKV. In doing so, I want to preserve all of the original audio tracks and subtitle feeds the MKV file has baked in. The audio tracks include Dolby, DTS-HD 7.1 ch, 5.1 ch, and several others. I also want to maintain fairly true to the original picture, but I want it in an easy to play mp4 container with x264 encoding, but in a significantly reduced file size, and I'm not too worried about encode times. Currently, I have a source 1080p file at 24fps and approx. 40GB in file size, and I'm looking to shrink down to approx 6-12 GB. I've tried selecting all of the audio tracks and using the passthrough option, but some players, notably Windows 10's native player will not play the main audio track, and I seem to be completely lost on subtitles, because they are either permanently burned into the picture with no option to switch them off or they're not there at all. I would appreciate any help or advice!!

[SupaKomputa]

Depends on the MKV compression, if the MKV already use HEVC / h265 you will only get a bigger file.

[Atra1n2]

54 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Depends on the MKV compression, if the MKV already use HEVC / h265 you will only get a bigger file.

The source MKVs use h264. I've been leaving the few h265 MKVs I have as-is, because they're mostly UHD HDR files that I want to preserve at full quality.

[SupaKomputa]

Load up the file and select Super HQ preset.

Don't expect smaller files if you wanna preserve the quality.

As for the subtitle, you cannot change it if it's hardcoded.