In case people don't know what "HandBrake" is, it's an Open Source video transcoder than can be downloaded for free from their website:
It's pretty awesome. I use it for virtually all of my video conversion needs. I like to watch videos on the go with my iPhone 4S, and this program does the trick quite nicely. I've learned how to tweak the built-in settings to fit my preferences, but I agree that the bundled settings work as described.