What is the max mp4 file size?

I'm pretty sure it has to be h.264 but i thought the appletv preset on handbrake defaulted to that. in my opinion h.264 is the best of the codecs anyway as far as quality/compression goes. i really have no desire to use any others.

be sure to let us know because i'd be very curious if it didn't work after encoding using h.264

There is a good set of articles on iLounge, although the Handbrake section is a little dated:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-ipod-vi deo-conversion-win/

I always do... takes some extra leg work... and if the encode fails or the app crashes you have to reenter... but i haven't had problems and it's worth it... and pretty cool when you skip chapters to see the title displayed.