While I would use HEVC, it was only a suggestion to look into it, dunno why so many jumped down my throat, just ridiculous.

Either way, can you respond to my comments regarding the cropping and stabilization?

Especially if this is a just a "base version" as you say, I don't know why you're cropping. Seems like you're saying and then doing things that don't quite make sense to me.

I would crop only for a consistent width/height and also stabilize while I was at it, but again, that's just me.