Hey, thank you for the feedback. I'll do some testing. Much appreciated.

In Advanced Encoder, I kept only "preset=slow" and "rc=vbr_hq" -- am I to understand that now the bitrate will be variable (lossless or near-lossless), with no restrictions or caps, as "maxrate" was removed?

Is this the best way to go to keep/maintain a variable Mbs rate without losing any actual bitrate itself?

That is, after all, my goal -- to preserve as much as possible the same Mbs bitrate in the final product.

Is there a better way to do that, or have I found it?

Any feedback on this would be much appreciated.