There are a lot of variables available in Adobe Media Encoder. But I cannot find any good tutorial on what they do. I have a general idea of what they are but no great knowledge of how they all work together and when & where to make the proper adjustments.

My main issue is that if I get the quality up to a high level, the video stutters. If I get rid of the stuttering, the video looks bad. Playout is on a 1 year old 17" MacBookPro. Using various H.264 settings.

Great Post Ed,
I know I have had varying results with the presets and look forward to any input here.
I do believe that the presets are not optimal for best quality, hopefully someone will help clarify and perhaps enlighten!

But I cannot find any good tutorial on what they do...

The manual explains the knobs satisfactorily. The "right look" is a highly subjective thing.