How Do You Specify a Custom Preset for Automatic Conversion?

[imcnulty82]

I'm in the process of setting up an automatic ripper/encoder on my home server using both the HandBrake and MakeMKV Docker containers. The automatic ripping is a breeze, but where I'm getting hung up is with trying to specify a custom preset for the automatic conversion.

I've got an Intel Arc B570 that does a great job with hardware encoding, but the standard QSV presets leave much to be desired. I tweaked some quality settings from the standard preset and saved it as a new preset, "Custom/H265QSV4K" in the GUI.

In my Docker Compose, I first tried setting the ENV variables as follows:

AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_PRESET=Custom/H265QSV4K
AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_FORMAT=mkv
AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_HANDBRAKE_CUSTOM_ARGS= --preset-import-gui -Z "Custom/H265QSV4K"

However, I get the following error in conversion.log:

[14:44:24] Failed to load GUI presets file
[14:44:24] Attempted: ghb/presets.json
HandBrake 1.9.2 (2025022400) - Linux x86_64 - https://handbrake.fr
16 CPUs detected
Invalid preset "Custom/H265QSV4K"
Valid presets are:
    General/
        Very Fast 2160p60 4K AV1
            AV1 video (up to 2160p60) and AAC stereo audio, in an MP4
            container.
    ...
    <all the other standard presets>
    ...
    CLI Defaults/
        CLI Default
    General/
        Very Fast 2160p60 4K AV1
            AV1 video (up to 2160p60) and AAC stereo audio, in an MP4
            container.
    ...
    <all the other standard presets>
    ...
    Custom/
        AV1 QSV 1080p HD
            Intel Quick Sync Video hardware accelerated AV1 video (up to
            1080p) and auto passthru audio, in an MKV container
        AV1QSV4K
            Intel Quick Sync Video hardware accelerated AV1 video (up to
            2160p) and auto passthru stereo audio, in an MKV container.
        H265QSV4K
            Intel Quick Sync Video hardware accelerated AV1 video (up to
            2160p) and auto passthru stereo audio, in an MKV container.
HandBrake has exited.

It looks as though the program tries to first load the GUI presets but can't. However, after displaying all the standard presets, it displays CLI Defaults/ with what looks like a CLI Default preset, and then apparently loads the GUI presets successfully, displaying all the presets again, only this time including the custom presets that I created in the GUI.

How would I go about pulling in the GUI presets file BEFORE the program attempts to find the custom preset I defined as an ENV variable? It appears that, yes, the ENV variables I set successfully directed the program to load the GUI-presets file, but only AFTER it had determined that my custom preset was not valid.

[jlesage]

Did you try without AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_HANDBRAKE_CUSTOM_ARGS ? It is not needed, since AUTOMATED_CONVERSION_PRESET takes care of providing correct arguments to HandBrake.

[imcnulty82]

I am such an idiot. That worked perfectly. I was totally overthinking things. Thank you!