[FFmpeg-user] ffmpeg v7.1 h264 (libx264) stretching video on X-axis (take2 w/ smaller pix)

[Dat Head]

first time posting here, take it easy on me ;-)
seems i slightly exceeded the size limit and posting was truncated

ffmpeg version 7.1-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c)
2000-2024 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 14.2.0 (Rev1, Built by MSYS2 project)

here's my syntax:
  ffmpeg -i $1 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a copy h264-$1

you can clearly see the guitarist's face is much wider after h264 processing

am i missing something obvious!?

p.s. note the default help syntax doesn't work in v6.0 nor 7.1 (this
is the command listed in https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264) :

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i nullsrc -c:v libx264 -preset help -f mp4 -
   x264 [error]: invalid preset 'help'
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